AIDS: History of a Plague

On January 25, 1996, a rock musical titled RENT opens at the New York Theatre Workshop -- and a legend is born. Based on Puccini's La Bohème, the play was written by composer and playwright Jonathan Larson, and focuses on young artists and musicians, many of them with HIV and/or AIDS, living on New York's Lower East Side in the late 1980s. Larson died suddenly, at age 35, the night before the off-Broadway premiere, and never got to see his creation become not only one of the biggest hits in Broadway history (the show moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre in April, 1996), but a genuine cultural touchstone. Pictured: Cast members and former cast members attend the curtain call for RENT during its closing night on Broadway, after 5,124 performances, on September 7, 2008 in New York City.