Rent

Entr'acte brings Rent to the stage on Sunday, November 8, as part of their 2026 season. It's the rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, and if you've never seen it, it's a loose reimagining of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème for a new generation.

The story follows a group of impoverished young artists in New York City's East Village, in Bohemian Alphabet City, struggling to survive and create a life under the shadow of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It's a show about friendship, art, and holding on when things get bleak, and it's a rock musical through and through, so the songs drive the story as much as the dialogue does.

Entr'acte is an Austin theatre company, and Rent is one of three musicals in their 2026 season. The other two are The Fantasticks and Brigadoon, and the company has framed the whole season as an invitation to "Try to Remember three musicals that defined fifty years of theatre." That title is a nod to The Fantasticks, and the season pulls from composers across those five decades: Larson for Rent, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt for The Fantasticks, and Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe for Brigadoon.

So Rent isn't a one-off here—it's part of a larger run of shows Entr'acte is putting on throughout the year. If you're into musical theatre, it's a good time to keep an eye on what they're doing. Rent runs on Sunday, November 8, in Austin.