About this episode
The Tony and Pulitzer-Prize winning musical Rent celebrates the 25th anniversary of its Broadway premiere on June 15th. The musical's message still resonates today, as captured by the HBO documentary Revolution Rent about the first commercial American production staged in Havana, Cuba in over 50 years. Stage director and filmmaker Andy Señor, Jr played Angel in the Broadway play, directed the Havana production, and co-directed Revolution Rent with Victor Patrick Alvarez. Both join us to recall the experience of staging Rent in Cuba in 2014. They also discuss the intentions behind making Revolution Rent and the challenges they faced bringing the film to a worldwide audience. Revolution Rent is debuting on HBO and HBO Max on June 15th. "I've always told Andy that this is a sacred experience. As someone who's known a lot about the culture in Cuba, I could have went there and stirred the pot, but that's not why I was there. It was Broadway, it was Rent, it was Jonathan Larson's play, Andy was there, it was America and Cuba working together." - Victor Patrick Alvarez