Before Rent, composer/lyricist/librettist Jonathan
Larson had composed another musical called Superbia, a
rock monologue tick, tick ... BOOM!, and a variety of
songs for children including songs for "Sesame Street."
Nothing, however, would compare to the success of his final musical
composition.
Based on Puccini's La Bohème, Rent is
the story of love and loyalty among starving artists in New York's
East Village. In Puccini's version, his Parisian bohemians
are afflicted with tuberculosis--the entire opera takes place
under the spectre of this ghastly illness. For Larson, the modern
equivalent was clearly AIDS, a disease which had struck down
several of his closest friends. But Larson refused to let his
story be overcome by the hopelessness and despair often associated
with the disease. There is a wonderful moment in which Roger,
a struggling rock musician, and Mimi, a heroin addict and S&M
dancer, are having a lover's quarrel when their beepers
go off and each takes out a bottle of pills. It's the signal
for an "AZT break," and suddenly they realize that
they're both HIV-positive. What's next? You guessed it--a love
duet!
Rent opened at the Nederlander Theatre on the 100th
anniversary of the original La Bohème. Unfortunately,
Jonathan Larson died unexpectedly of an aortic aneurysm the night
of the show's final preview. But his creation would go on to
become one of the biggest Broadway success stories of the decade.
It would sweep all the major theatre awards of 1996 including
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Obie Award, the New York Drama
Critics Circle Award, four Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards,
and in the process, it would single-handedly reinvigorate Broadway
with a much needed shot in the arm.
- Search eBay! for RENT collectibles
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