Jonathan Larson
may be a name unfamiliar to you. However, he has impacted this world in a large
way. His greatest contribution to this world was the musical “Rent.” He was
born and raised in the state of New York and lived his early life with the
focus being on theatre music. He graduated Adelphi University in Garden City,
New York, with the intent of being an actor but he was so influenced by Stephen
Sondheim, his mentor, to pursue writing musicals. While he had some success
with the rock musical, “Suburbia”, the
musical “Rent” from the get go seemed that it would be a hit.
The musical
“Rent” is a story about a group of young poor artists in the East Village of
New York while a majority of them have HIV/AIDS. It was inspired by the opera
“La Boheme” by Puccini. The parallel’s between the musical and the opera are
numerous and make the experience of watching one with the knowledge of the
other ten times more enjoyable. The musical is full of heart and powerful songs
and themes, such as community, love, acceptance, death and free expression. One
of the most powerful songs “Seasons of Love” asks the question “How do you
measure a year in the life?” And to this, all it says is “Measure your life in
love.” This simple but impactful message has resonated with many lovers of
“Rent” and it is hard to imagine that many people would not resonate with this
idea. Tragedy hit the night before previews of the musical for the first
Off-Broadway production when Larson died of an aneurysm from Marfan Syndrom. His
death gave the original production an urgency which then set the standards for
the play form the get go.
Due to Larson’s
work, the awareness of AIDS in the artist’s community was raised along with
AIDS in general. This work had such a huge impact that it won the Pulitzer
Award the year after it was debuted. “Rent” was revolutionary for musical
because it was young and fresh for the younger crowd with a meaningful story.
Larson’s work had taught society so much about the issues of AIDS and about to
measure of our life’s important in the love we share.
This website is the run by the
same group that runs the Tony Awards. This website talks about how Larson was
able to do a good portion of his work because of grants. This inspired people
to create grants under his name.
This website gives detailed
information regarding everything “Rent” and Jonathan Larson. It talks a lot
about the linguistic of curtaining the musical “Rent” and putting it on the
stage.
This website talks about the
history of “Rent” and how it was inspired by the opera “La Boheme.” It also
talks about the parallel’s between Larson’s life and his characters.’