Opening this past weekend at Old Academy Players, Annie Hnatko directs a haunting revival of “Rent” (1996). With music and story by Jonathan Larson, this hit musical ran for 12 years on Broadway. While it addresses head-on the social issues of sex, drugs and AIDS, the musical argues that love is our transcendent value.

“Rent” is loosely based on Puccini’s “La Bohème.” The embattled artists of the late 19th century Latin Quarter are transplanted to Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Instead of tuberculosis, the New York artists confront HIV/AIDS. While many major characters are drawn from “La Bohème,” the “Rent” personae are reimagined to fit an altered plot and, ultimately, an altered message.

The plot is well-populated and sprawling. Three different romances take turns in the limelight. At the same time, “Rent” touches on the issues of poverty, New York City’s rent quagmire, street protests, tabloid media sleaze and the vacuity of modern Christianity. Yet Larson’s narrative still achieves focus through the character Angel (the name means messenger).

Angel (Matthew Iacoviello) finds Tom Collins (Gregory Kooker) beaten up in an alleyway on Christmas Eve. Angel sings “You Okay Honey” and they become inseparable lovers who later sing “I’ll Cover You.” Angel is the cynosure character in “Rent,” a drag queen dying from AIDS who lives every day to the fullest.

The Maureen (Carson Long) and Joanne (Alyssia Sims) romance presents an inverse mirror image. Joanne is a Harvard-educated lawyer; Maureen leads a performance-art protest and is flirtatious. They sing their querulous duet, “Take Me or Leave Me.” Free of HIV/AIDS, their love affair is comically ego-driven, with nothing at stake and no commitment.

The relationship between Mimi (Jane Vitelli), a dancer at the Cat Scratch Club, and Roger (Kyle Mitchell), a struggling grunge guitar-composer, is the most dynamic of the three couples. From the start, Mimi pushes for involvement, but Roger is reluctant. Their relationship starts to change when both reveal they have HIV/AIDS.

“Rent” is full of subplots. Bob Gordon plays Benny, a former member of the artist group who married into wealth and is now a slum landlord. You feel suspicious, too, of Mark. Played by Josh Tull, Mark is an ambitious documentary film artist. But is he the group’s friend, or is his constant footage of their turmoil covert exploitation, as the homeless woman suggests?

On the one hand, Larson’s three-ring-circus approach to storytelling loosens narrative tension. At the same time, “Rent” creates a view of an entire community. Hnatko enhances the musical’s panoramic aspect by the way she uses the nine-member ensemble who support the major characters with bit parts, and who deliver stirring choral numbers.

Hnatko, with her long career in classical opera, knows true pitch when she hears it. While all eight major players can embrace a song and carry themselves well on stage, the performances of Vitelli, Mitchell and Iacoviello stand out, in part because of their nearness to the musical’s message.

Iacoviello’s Angel is the steady, loving presence who radiates sincerity even in drag garb. While Vitelli has the good looks and swag of an exotic dancer, her Mimi is also convincingly tremulous and wanting. As Roger, Mitchell triumphs by annoying you with his pouty reluctance to engage her; you feel like shouting at him, “If you don’t want her, put me up there!”

While “Rent” is full of memorable songs, only “Seasons of Love” became a standalone hit. It opens with the line “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,” the number of minutes in a year, then argues you can only truly measure a year by its love-filled minutes.

But the final numbers in “Rent” are even more compelling. Roger completes his character arc when he finds the pluck to sing “Your Eyes” to Mimi. It flows directly into the dénouement and a rousing company finale with the tagline “No Day But Today.” And if this chorale does not move you deeply, maybe you should just stay home.

Old Academy Playhouse is located at 3544 Indian Queen Lane in East Falls. “Rent” will run through Nov 22. Tickets are available at 215-843-1109 or oldacademyplayers.org.