ET exclusively debuts a first look from Wednesday's musical episode.
Rent is all the rage!
The beloved musical is front and center in The Goldbergs spinoff, Schooled, which sets its next episode -- aptly titled "Money for Rent" -- around a school production of, you guessed it, Rent.
In ET's exclusive sneak peek from next week's return, Lainey (A.J. Michalka) gets fed up when the gym she's using for Rent rehearsals is also being utilized by the jocks, causing a less-than-ideal venue for musical prep work. See, she's trying to prove that the arts are just as important as sports at William Penn High, even if athletes get all the glory.
But just when Lainey is about to flip a lid over the grunts and sweaty iron work in the background, she gets a surprise of a lifetime: football player Roxborough Ronnie (Christian Gehring) can actually... sing?
And the musical just may have found its saving grace. Words fail Lainey, who's stunned by what she's witnessing, as Ronnie shows off his pipes just in time for the chorus of "What You Own."
Even his coach can't believe how spectacular he is. "Dear god, he's good," Coach Mellor (Bryan Callen) says in pure shock, before giving Ronnie an ultimatum, thinking there's no way his player will drop the team for a school musical. "You can't sing in a play, Ronnie!"
Oh, how wrong he is. Watch ET's exclusive sneak peek to see what happens next!
Schooled co-creator Adam F. Goldberg, who has long incorporated his personal experiences and memories into storylines on the show and its mothership, The Goldbergs, shared the personal impact Rent has had on him.
"I’m beyond proud that I get to show my love for Jonathan Larson’s Rent with an episode of Schooled. This musical brought so many people together, and I loved writing an episode that truly shows the impact of this musical," Goldberg wrote. "When I attended NYU in 1996, Rent premiered on Broadway. It was the first time I had seen something written so brilliantly for my generation. Thanks to the $20 lottery seats you could try to get, Rent was the only Broadway show accessible to broke college students like me in the '90s. My college roommate, Kevin Leffler, who is now a producer on Schooled, was a full-fledged Rent-head and would drag me along to camp out for tickets. I ended up seeing the musical at least 10 times with him."
Schooled returns Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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