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"I am the future of musical theater." -Jonathan Larson
About Jonathan
On February 4, 1960 Jonathan Larson was born to Nan and Al Larson. All throughout his life he was exposed to music. He sang, acted, and played in the band in High School and brought much joy to his family and community. It was no surprise when he received a four-year scholarship to Adelphi University as an acting major. However, during college he began to compose music for small school productions and even wrote the score for a musical entitled Libro de Buen Amor. After college he moved to New York City where he lived in a fifth-floor loft with no heat in lower Manhattan. Just like Mark and Roger had to do in RENT, he had to have people call him from a pay phone outside the building so he could throw down the keys in order to let them in. His friends, who also didn't live in the most desirable conditions, say his place was worse than all of theirs. Jonathan was very close to his friends and every year for the holidays he would hold a peasant feast at his house. Most of them didn't have enough money to get home so they all brought food and went to Jonathan's so they could all be together there. In order to make enough money to keep focusing on his music he worked at the Moondance Diner for several years. When everything started to come together with RENT, he was able to quit his job at the diner. Jonathan put everything he had into making RENT what it is. As the first perfromance was nearing he was feeling run-down and collapsed at rehearsal one day. The hospital he went to said it was probably the flu and stress from all the work he'd been doing. On January 25, 1996, the night before RENT's first preview, Jonathan went home after dress rehearsal and died of an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm, probably caused by Marfan's Syndrome.
The Inspiration behind RENT
If you heard someone tell you they were the future of musical theater you would probably would think they were weird, but that's just what Jonathan wanted to be. He wanted to bring a new generation of people to broadway, people who wouldn't be interested in it normally.
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"I've always loved La Boheme and Puccini's other work, and I've also always loved Billy Joel and Elton John and The Who, and I've also always loved Stephen Sondheim and the medium of musical theater. And I wanted to write something that could incorporate all of those influences." *
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Also, Over the years Jonathan had several close friends contract and/or die from AIDS. Through RENT, he wanted to honor the memory of them. Jonathan wanted to tell the stories of the people who didn't usually have their stories told.
His other works
RENT may be what Joanthan is most known for, but he had done a lot of other work, too. His futuristic rock show Superbia was meant to be a retelling of George Orwell's 1984, but it was never fully produced. People just didn't get it. His disappointment led him to write Tick, Tick... BOOM!, a rock monologue written for Jonathan, a piano, and a small rock band. Jonathan used this work to express his frustration he had for not only his work, but also -- turning 30. The lyrics to one song "Boho Days," are like an autobiography of his life. Jonathan also did some work writing songs for chidren's shows/movies, like Sesame Street, An American Tail, and Land Before Time. He even produced his own children's show called Away We Go.
*This quote was take from Anthony Rapp's book Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical RENT. page 100.
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