Available January 13, 2026

〰️

Pre-Order "Making Rent" Now!

〰️

Available January 13, 2026 〰️ Pre-Order "Making Rent" Now! 〰️

PRE-ORDER:

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Jonathan Larson’s Rent revolutionized the kind of music heard on the Broadway stage. Much of that impact comes from the show’s musical style: a singular blend of grunge rock, power pop, gospel, and R & B that was brought to life by the show’s onstage band, headed by the legendary musical director, Tim Weil.

From his first day as audition accompanist through his elevation to musical director, Weil was a critical collaborator with Larson in developing Rent’s unique sound. And when, on the eve of the company’s first public performance, Larson died unexpectedly, Weil was there to finesse a still-unfinished show into the musical Larson had long dreamed of.

“Making Rent” reveals how the music that has shaped generations of new American musicals grew out of Weil and Larson’s intimate partnership - and how, for the six years he worked on Rent’s Broadway run, Weil endeavored to preserve Larson’s musical vision.

Previously untold stories about some of the show’s most iconic moments, accompanied by behind-the-scenes photos, capture the energy, ingenuity, and passion of Rent‘s company and creators while providing a unique level of insight into just how collaborative and innovative a process making Rent was - and why it has had such a lasting impact on musical theater the world over.

Whether you're a musical theater performer, musician, theatergoer, Renthead, or just a fan of the show, my book, "Making Rent: The Story Behind the Music that Changed Broadway" will be right up your alley.

From when I began as the show's musical director in 1994, almost two years before it turned Broadway on its head, the book recounts my work on the show and what I saw and heard firsthand, working alongside Jonathan Larson and the show's director, Michael Greif.

Whether it was meetings, auditions, rehearsals or performances, I was there.

Through a surprising but life-changing summer gig while in college, I fell in love with the theater, and my early NYC artistic life was both as a freelance musician and as an up-and-coming musical director.

After a little more than a decade working in NYC, I entered the world of Rent, Jonathan Larson, Michael Greif, and Jim Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theater Workshop. "The Workshop," as it was known, was where the earliest productions of the show happened.

Everything around the show was unique: the East Village neighborhood (pre-gentrified) where we rehearsed and performed, the funky Middle Eastern joint around the corner from the Workshop, all drenched in the musical history that was made in that neighborhood, from Max's Kansas City to the Fillmore East, and to the iconic CBGB. 

The book continues through the following years as Rent, through tragedy and triumph, became the Broadway and global sensation we all know today. No matter how many times you've seen Rent, I guarantee that you'll learn things you never knew about the show.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the story of what became the centerpiece of my life in the theater.

A note from Tim Weil

More About Tim

photo by Michael Kushner

Praise for “Making Rent”

  • “Tim has truly given any fan of Rent, and any fan or student of contemporary musical theater generally, an invaluable record of a new musical’s developmental process. And he’s given us a detailed and beautifully frank account of the musical director’s role in preparing and maintaining a Broadway show. Like Tim’s invaluable contribution to Rent’s success, this book is an extraordinary achievement.”

    —Michael Greif, Tony Award–nominated director of Rent and Hell’s Kitchen

  • “I loved this book. Tim takes us down a path that is reserved for the very few, not only to the front row, backstage, rehearsal room, or behind the piano. This is an unflinching look at all of it, the joys and the loss of creating a history-making show.”

    —Jeanine Tesori, Tony Award–winning composer of Fun Home and Kimberly Akimbo

  • “Tim writes with a laser-sharp memory—the specific details, but also the more ineffable experience, the moods, the feelings, the conflicts, the fears of those who were a part of Rent. He mines that enchanted time, as a witness to the struggle. But even more importantly, he renders his own experience in a most human way—he makes the reader understand that the making of a musical is not all that different from ANY other collective process that any human beings undertake. It becomes a metaphor for our species’ need to always reach for the highest point, and in that attempt, with its defeats and victories, we forge our very lives and identities.”

    —Jim Nicola, former artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop

  • “Making Rent is essential to anybody who cares about new musicals.”

    —Jeffrey Seller, Tony Award–winning producer of Rent and Hamilton,author of Theater Kid

  • "Rent could never have become what it was without the tireless efforts and creativity of our musical director, Tim Weil.”

    —Adam Pascal, Tony Award-nominated actor, Rent, Aida, and Something Rotten!

  • “Tim Weil was THE PULSE of each performance! We always had a powerful pulse, and that was definitely because of Tim.”

    —Daphne Rubin-Vega, Tony Award-nominated actor, Rent and Anna in the Tropics