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2's Got Your Ticket: The 25th Anniversary Tour Of 'Rent' Comes To Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- One of the biggest names in Chicago theater is set to raise the curtain on its first performance since the beginning of lockdown.

Well, 2's Got Your Ticket as entertainment reporter Vince Gerasole explores what this means for Broadway in Chicago as they present the musical "Rent."

The 25th Anniversary Tour of "Rent" will be the first major production presented by Broadway in Chicago to open in the city on October 5.

"It's one of the greatest songs to ever be written in a musical theater cannon," said actor Javon King, speaking about "Season of Love."

"From the very first chord of that song, you just kind of get chills down your body because you know what this song means to so many people," King said.

"People will be roaring as the intro is playing and everyone's coming onto the stage and we're about to sing, but we get to really like be ourselves and like connect to the audience," added actor Cody Jenkins.

"And you see people's faces as we're singing this song," noted King. "And it just the words and the lyrics of everything that we're saying, really, you can just see that it's touching people's lives."

"I'm excited to hear anything in the theater again."

Eileen LaCario is Vice President of Broadway in Chicago.

"October 5 could not come soon enough," LaCario said, who added it feels fantastic having the production happen.

"I want to say joyous, but it's not quite there yet. I think the stakes are high for all of us," LaCario said. "We change our ventilation systems in all our theaters. We have touchless bathrooms, touchless ticketing, even your playbill can be reached online."

There have been some reports out of New York and the ticket sales are just a little bit less than they hoped for. LaCario said they understand that it might be slow going at first.

"I don't think that we're going to just immediately turn over and be sold out (and) have sold out shows," LaCario said. "We are going to stay open and we are going to have an extraordinary experience together in the theater. Again."

"Rent" is loosely based on the Italian opera "La Boheme" by Giacomo Puccini. It runs through October 10 at the CIBC Theater.

#BroadwayInChicago #CIBCTheater #Rent25thAnniversaryTour

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