When the Broadway production of Jonathan Larsen’s Rent was about to close in September 2008, after an extraordinary run of 12-plus years and 5,123 performances, the show’s director, Michael Greif, wrote a note in the program for the final performance. It read, in part: “Everyone who gets to work on Rent grows personally and artistically. Our hearts get bigger, more open. Our minds get sharper. We’re better equipped to take care of our children and our parents and our friends and the world. We’ve learned to measure our lives in love, and take no joy or sorrow for granted.”

Lest anyone think Greif was exaggerating, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, two of the rock musical’s most popular stars, are quick to endorse his sentiments. Rapp, the original Mark, and Pascal, the original Roger, have been so enriched by Rent that they were eager for the opportunity to return to the roles they created on stage and screen. They headline the new national tour that comes to San Diego Civic Theatre on March 10 – 15, 2009.

Their affection for the show runs deep: Rent, they say, was not only a life-changing experience for them, but for so many fans who came back to see it again and again and again. “I’ve been working in this crazy business since I was a kid,” says Rapp, “and I’ve never been a part of something that means so much to so many people, including myself. Rent is certainly entertaining, but it’s also transformative. Over the years, people have told me that the show caused them to rethink their lives. I’ve heard things like, ‘I never knew someone with AIDS, but after seeing Rent, I’m volunteering at my local AIDS hospice.’ Rent speaks about people and issues and concerns and relationships in ways that are profoundly true and honest and powerful.”

Pascal adds, “I’ve seen at least a half dozen kids who have Rent tattoos on their bodies. Many of the kids who came to see the show over and over were people who felt somewhat disenfranchised. I think Jonathan’s message resonated so much because it spoke to those people – to the kid who will never be the prom queen or the captain of the football team. And they took away from the show all of those things that he wanted them to. What an amazing thing! He set out to convey this message of love and hope and acceptance and understanding, and he did it. That’s what people are still taking away from Rent. I speak to fans all the time, and they all say the same thing. They love the show because of Jonathan’s music and his message.”

Rent, which is inspired and informed by Puccini’s La Bohème, follows a group of impoverished, counterculture artists in New York’s East Village as they struggle to find their voices, to connect to each other and to survive. Despite the bleak setting and the looming specter of H.I.V. and AIDS, Rent is exhilarating, as Larson’s humanity infuses the story and the score. The show won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Awards for best musical, best score and best book.

In 1996, when Rent began life at the 150-seat New York Theatre Workshop, no one would have dared predict that it would go on to become a multi-award-winning, cultural phenomenon and change the face of musical theater. “We knew from the audience reaction that we had something special,” says Pascal. “A lot of us thought we’d have a commercial run in an off-Broadway house. We were very naïve. We didn’t think about Broadway, but we should have known better when Al Pacino came and had to sit on the floor because he couldn’t get a seat.”

Larson, whose own artistic struggles are very much a part of the fabric of Rent, did not live to see the show’s extraordinary success. As many people are aware, he died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35, just hours after the show’s final dress rehearsal off-Broadway. “That final dress rehearsal was glorious,” says Rapp. “Jonathan was thrilled. And people were thrilled for him and for the show.”

Larson left an immeasurable legacy. “He changed musical theater,” says Rapp. “Rent proves that you can take commercial risks and be successful. So it encourages producers to think outside the box. I don’t think Spring Awakening would have happened without Rent. I don’t think Avenue Q would have happened without Rent. The show also transformed young people’s relationship to theater. It introduced many, many young people to the idea that theater could mean something to them, and they have returned for the other shows that have followed.”

In addition, says Pascal, Larson “showed how you can meld pop music into traditional musical theater composition.” In doing that, he says, Rent introduced a new generation of theater performers. “I never dreamed of having a career in musical theater. I thought, ‘I’m a singer, so I’ve got to do pop music.’ What else was I going to do? Rent opened up a whole new genre to people like me.”

As someone who could not afford the price of a Broadway ticket, Larson also wanted to make sure that Rent was affordable to the widest number of people. As a result, when the show moved to Broadway, the producers began offering day-of-purchase $20 tickets in the first two rows of the orchestra. Those specially priced seats are part of the contractual agreement wherever Rent is performed.

For Pascal, Larson’s greatest legacy is the show itself and how it speaks to audiences. “The music is timeless,” he says, “and the show conveys such a powerful, personal message that has been accepted and absorbed by so many fans. That’s why there’s such a massive rate of return. It makes people feel. I believe I owe it to the fans and to Jonathan and to the show to take the spirit of what we had when Rent first opened, and bring that to the rest of the country.”