Sadly, the Broadway production of RENT is closing Sunday, September 7, 2008.

You’re invited everyday of the week to Life Café to make your RENT Pilgrimage as thousands of other RENT fans have already done. Come and celebrate the work and life of Jonathan Larson as well as the unique bond between RENT and Life Café and the special connection Jonathan has created among all of us. We have many opportunities for you at Life Café to experience what it’s all about.

And Life Café is proud to have been invited by RENT to participate in the closing week-end’s celebrations. On Friday, September 5th, 2008, Life Cafe will be closed to the public for a party by invitation only to include the producers and cast members of RENT to raise a toast to its devotees including approximately 50 of the biggest fans who have won an invitation through the “Finale B” Video Contest, a nationwide contest hosted by Site for RENT this summer.

Winners of the Video Contest will be posted as soon as they are announced, no later than Monday, August 25, 2008. You can go to www.lifecafe.com to find the link to the official RENT site location of the winners.

THE LIFE CAFÉ AND JONATHAN LARSON LEGACY

Jonathan Larson spent time at Life Café when he was writing RENT. To what degree the Café and its community of regulars provided him with inspiration we can only speculate. There is no doubt that he was part of the Life Café scene and at the very center of the community about which he wrote.

The timeless themes of universal love, life, art and the belief in one’s dreams are the foundation of RENT and have always been at the heart of Life Café. Certainly that was one of the reasons why he immortalized Life Café in his musical.

THE FINAL WEEKEND OF RENT

For Everyone:

(1) The final show on Broadway is Sunday, September 7, 2008. To celebrate the ongoing legacy and connection with RENT, Life Café and the East Village, Life Café currently has on display a special exhibition illustrating what café life and the East Village neighborhood was like at the time Jonathan drew his inspiration. This display will remain in place after the show closes.

(2) Come sit on our beautiful mahogany bench in the dining room which we are dedicating to Jonathan Larson as the place to be immortalized where he often sat meeting with friends and while researching and writing RENT. We’ll be pleased to take your photograph sitting on it. A commemorative plaque, “The Jonathan Larson Bench”, will be permanently installed on the bench and will be unveiled during the evening of Friday, September 5th, 2008.

(3) Be immortalized. Make an entry in The RENThead Registers. Life Café is building an ongoing library of journals for messages by RENTheads and everyone else from all over the world. You, too, may leave your mark. Say good-bye to RENT on Broadway and communicate with your fellow fans and the world through The RENThead Registers which will always be available and will always be here. There will be a “Special Edition” Register just for that weekend.

(4) We have also designed several take-aways for you to always remember your visit to Life Café. These include “Forever Jonathan”, “Thank You Jonathan Larson” and Life Café logo T-shirts, posters, postcards, buttons, tote bags and more. These are also available on our website, www.lifecafe.com. All posters on the final weekend will be autographed and dated by the co-founder and co-owners of Life Café, John and Kathy Life.

(5) Stroll throughout the café viewing the walls of history. Listen to the stories our staff has to share about Life Café’s history and the RENT connection. And enjoy our really great food and beverages while drinking in the café’s ambience to fully experience the authentic East Village atmosphere unique to Life Café.

Drop in anytime we’re open – seven days a week from 10 am ‘till after midnight. Call ahead at 212-477-8791 or email us at info@lifecafe.com if you’re ten or more people and we’ll arrange the perfect party for you.

For the 50 “Finale B” Video Contest Winners:

RENT and Life Café will be celebrating the closing weekend of the hit musical’s 12-year run with a salute to the legions of fans that have driven the success of this show at the very location in the East Village of New York City’s Lower East Side where much of RENT was inspired and written by creator Jonathan Larson. After a record-setting 12-year run on Broadway and 27 years of operation in the East Village, we can’t imagine a better grouping of partners to team up to salute the RENT fans in a more fitting way. Life Café will be closed to the public at 6:30 pm on Friday, September 5, 2008, to host a special event from 8:30 pm to 12:30 am in honor of all RENT fans and in particular the 50 winners of the RENT “Finale B” Video Contest held July 14 through August 11, 2008. During the party, we will toast the fans, watch the winning videos, have an open-mic session, listen to RENT music, meet producers, crew and cast members from the Broadway production and finally, have a formal dedication of “The Jonathan Larson Bench” with a beautiful brass plaque. One very lucky winner present at Life Café will win a pair of tickets to the closing night performance via lottery at the party. All 50 winners will be treated to the Saturday matinee performance of RENT.


Remember, “No Day But Today” and Life is Worth Loving.