In 1993 the New York Theater Workshop put on a reading of RENT. Some people loved it, but others weren't so sure. Jonathan sent a letter to one of his idols, Stephen Sondheim, who suggested he apply for a Richard Rodgers foundation grant. Jonathan won $45,000 so that he could do a workshop production. Michael Greif was brought in to direct. The props were very minimal, the three long frankenstein tables being the main pieces, and it still needed a lot of work, but it was a pretty big success even this early on. After the holidays the Workshop decided to stage a full production.

After a couple more rewrites a new cast was hired, bringing Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Gilles Chaisson back from the workshop production. In 1996, the night before the first preview a writer from The New York Times came to the dress rehearsal for an interview because it (coincidently) happened to be the 100th anniversary of the original . As everyone knows now, that night after his interview Jonathan went home and died. He had been sick during the last week of rehearsals and had gone to two different hospitals that misdiagnosed an aortic anyuerism. No one knew what to do after his death. They couldn't cancel the show, but they couldn't really perform it full out either. They decided on a sing through, where the actors would sit on the tables and simply sing through each of the songs. However, when "La Vie Boheme" came along they couldn't contain it any longer. They started to get up and dance on the tables and once they came back from intermission they decided they had to do the rest of it full out. When the show was over there was a huge ovation, but after that no one knew what to do. The audience stayed in the theater in silence. The cast came back and sat down in the front row, until finally that legendary voice called out, "Thank You Jonathan Larson."

Of course it didn't take long after that for RENT to move to Broadway. The show was a huge success and Jonathan would have been proud. And then in 2005 the show came full circle when the movie was released -- with 6 of the original cast members. On the show's tenth anniversary the original broadway cast returned for a bennefit performance. After twelve memorable years, RENT will close on Broadway on September 7, 2008, as the 7th longest running show on Broadway, and will live on in the hearts of the people whose lives it has inspired. Thank you Jonathan Larson.