Jonathan Larson's groundbreaking rock musical, "Rent," is ready to roll for a Friday premiere at Mamiya Theatre, Saint Louis School.

Its director, Kyle Kakuno, acquired a school edition of the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, and is incorporating elements of the Broadway original.

"Rent," which addresses the toll of drugs and AIDS on creative young people who are struggling to make it in New York City, strikes a particular chord with Kakuno: The late John Kauffman, who was artistic director at Honolulu Theatre for Youth, hired him for the HTY company, helping Kakuno establish himself in Island theater. Kauffman died of AIDS in 1990.

" 'Rent' has such depth, touches controversial issues and is so important to the awareness of the younger generation that it's the perfect labor of love to be working on in John's memory," Kakuno said.

Cast members come from an array of schools, including Punahou, Kamehameha, Sacred Hearts Academy, La Pietra Hawai'i School for Girls, Kaimuki, McKinley and Roosevelt, as part of a summer outreach program by Saint Louis.

"Rent" is based on the Puccini opera "La Boheme," and dwells on a group of eight struggling fringe artists in New York's Lower East Side. It won a Tony for best musical and had a heartbreaking backstage development when its creator, Larson, died of a heart attack just before the show's opening.

Kakuno has enlisted Roslyn Catracchia, known for her work with the late Lisa Matsumoto's 'Ohia Productions, as musical director. James Davenport, who has been teaching scenic design at the University of Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand, will be tech director. Both Catracchia and Davenport also were HTY hires, and so are dedicating "Rent" to Kauffman.

Ramon Del Barrio will choreograph; he is just off a national tour with Chita Rivera.

"I think what Kyle is doing — making it a fundraiser for the organizations that help some of these individuals in need of healing and care — is great and overdue in Hawai'i," Del Barrio said.

Some proceeds will be donated to the Life Foundation, Gregory House Programs, Save the Food Basket and the Jonathan Larson Foundation.

Saint Louis is among the first high schools nationally to stage "Rent." It is the third coup for Kakuno, whose little theater group staged the first Honolulu production of two Broadway hits: "Footloose" in 2002 and "Aida" in 2005.

The first two rows of seats will be made available to students in a "rush" sale on the day of each performance, at $15 per seat.