That Live Rent Musical Isn’t Happening For A While

If you want to experience la vie bohème, you're going to have to practice a little patience. Fox's live broadcast of the popular and powerful musical Rent has been pushed to Jan. 27, 2019, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Producer Marc Platt, who also executive-produced Grease: Live, initially intended to broadcast the production during the latter half of 2018. Fox Chairman and CEO Dana Walden indicated at the summer Television Critics Association press tour that one of the reasons Platt can't devote all of his energy into Rent is that he's working hard on a three-hour live production of A Christmas Story, which will star Maya Rudolph and air on Dec. 17.

Walden also stated that the estate of Jonathan Larson, the man who wrote the lyrics and book for the Tony Award-winning show, would be assisting with the upcoming small screen rendition.

"Honestly, Marc has really been focusing on A Christmas Story; it's a big production to mount," EW reports Fox Chairman and CEO Dana Walden said at this summer's Television Critics Association press tour. "He's been working with Julie [Larson], and they've had some preliminary conversations, but haven’t gone out to any talent yet. Actually, we'll probably think first about a director."

Despite the delay, the musical's story will remain just as poignant in just over a year from now as it was when it made its Broadway debut in 1996.

Based loosely off of the Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème, the musical focuses on a group of artists who struggle to afford to live in New York City in the midst of an HIV/AIDS epidemic. Meanwhile, corporate greed and a sour political climate prevent those afflicted by the disease to receive the treatment and attention they need.

It's hard not to see a parallel during a time when the current administration is threatening to strip healthcare from millions of Americans.