NEW YORK — The musical "Rent" blazed a new trail on Broadway when it opened in 1996 and now a film is documenting another historic chapter for the groundbreaking show.

"Revolution Rent" was conceived and created by Andy Señor, Jr., an alum of Jonathan Larson’s "Rent." Señor made history in 2015 when he brought the rock opera to Cuba, marking the first American Broadway musical to be performed in the country in more than 50 years.

"It was really frustrating," said Señor of the process. "You had to teach the art form because they had never done a musical before."
 
But putting up a musical in foreign territory isn’t the only hiccup Señor experiences in the documentary. His family is adamant about him not traveling to Cuba, a country his parents fled decades ago when Fidel Castro rose to power.

"I understood my mother and my family's fear. They're looking at me like I'm going to go to Cuba and work with the Cuban government. But where I was coming from was I'm going to work with the artists and it was, I'm not going to get involved in politics," Señor said.  
 
Señor made lifelong friends with his "Rent" cast including Claudia Mulet, a Cuban actress, who now resides in New York City. Pre-COVID, Mulet was most recently seen across the U.S. in the Broadway tour of “On Your Feet!”
 
"I used to sob with 'No Day But Today', it's still one of my favorite songs ever, because it's true," said Mulet. "You know, sometimes you sit back and you see your life walk, you know, it's just passing by and you're like, wait, what am I doing? And then one day you just get hit by something that is like, no, it's now you got to do it. You know? And I did it and now I'm like, you know, I look back at seven years after I'm living in the states and like, you know, my life is just totally different than back then."

And in the spirit of the musical, a show that celebrates many things including the LGBTQIA+ community, Señor says he feels great pride with being connected to this musical since the late 90s, and the path he's forged.

"So much of my focus has always been on my career and what it is that I'm doing. Relationships have always been very hard to come by. Right now I've been in a beautiful, amazing relationship for the past two and a half years, with my boyfriend Alec. My celebration of pride is in the pride I have for the relationship that I've been able to build with my boyfriend," said Señor.
 
You can catch "Revolution Rent" on HBO Max.