The Rent Epidemic
Jonathon Larson once said, “In these dangerous times, where it seems that the world is ripping apart at the seams, we all can learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and [we] should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium.” These words were found on the computer of Jonathon Larson shortly after his tragic death the night before his musical was set to open. This paper will discuss Jonathon Larson and the effect that his successful musical Rent has had on society. To do this first we will discuss who Jonathon Larson was and where he came from. Second we will discuss where his inspiration for Rent came from. Next we will discuss the process it took for Rent to come to life. We will also discuss the impact that his death had on the musical as well as those involved. Next we will discuss the success that Rent had following the first opening, including the movie. Finally we will discuss Sarah Schulman and her view that Larson stole plotlines from her book as well as her criticism on Rent itself.
When Jonathon Larson was born on February 4, 1960 it was probably not even a thought of the impact that he would one day have. He grew up in a middle class family that were able to provide him with drama club and many music lessons. In an article on PBS it states that “he played tuba in high school and attended Adelphi University” where he was encouraged by Sondheim to focus on composing music. He would later move into the same poor neighborhood where he would spend a decade working on his masterpiece. It was there that he lived in poverty, waiting on tables to support himself. He submersed himself in the very environment that Rent is set in.
According to, Rebels with Applause, the original idea for Rent came from a young playwright by the name of Billy Aronson who had been looking to update Giacomo Puccini’s Italian opera La Boheme. Billy Aronson had been looking for a composer and others had introduced him to Jonathon Larson. Miller states, “Though they stuck to the basic plot of La Boheme, they exchanged tuberculosis for AIDS, and Paris for New York’s East Village” (Miller). Past that there is barely any resemblance between that of Puccini’s La Boheme and Jonathan Larson’s Rent. On the off-Broadway site for Rent, it states that in 1991 Jonathon Larson placed a phone call to Billy Aronson asking for his permission to continue on his own and Aronson agreed. It was after this that Larson would further stray from the idea of only creating an up to date version of Rent. Miller states, “Rent is not an updated La Boheme or an adaptation; it’s a response to it. The characters are similar but that’s where the comparisons end.” Past the similarities that exist between La Boheme and Rent, the ideas that Larson uses come from his own life experiences as well as from a book that was written by Henri Murger entitled Scenes de la vie de Boheme.
Miller gives a few examples of how the musical reflects Larson’s own life. The first example being how in the apartment that Jonathon Larson had been living in he had been forced to throw his keys down to the street to let people into his apartment. This parallels the musical Rent, when Collins is first introduced he calls up to Roger and Mark from the payphone on the corner. To let Collins in, Mark throws the keys to the apartment out of the window for Collins to be able to let himself in. Another parallel between the musical and Larson’s life that Miller points out is that “He once lost a girlfriend to another women” (miller 188). This parallels the musical in which Mark loses his girlfriend Maureen to Joanne. The deepest example of how Larson included his own life in his musical, is that he lost many friends to AIDS. Miller points out his usage of three friends he lost to the disease in the support group scene.
Jonathon Larson did not only draw inspiration from his personal life to create the musical Rent. He also drew inspiration from Henri Murger’s Scenes de la vie de Boheme. This book, according to Miller, is completely unlike that of Puccini’s La Boheme as it has a “raunchy sense of humor” (Miller 188) much like the sense of humor that appears in Rent. One of the songs in Rent entitled La Vie Boheme deals with extremely raunchy topics such as sexuality, drugs, and pornography. Miller points out that many minor details as well come from Murger’s book. In his book he states, “Lots of details in Rent come from the book: the importance of Collin’s coat, their regular restaurant where they often order nothing and don’t always pay the bill, the constant burning of manuscripts and letters for heat, Marcel/Mark’s decision to sell out his art, and the structural significance of Christmas Eve” (Miller 189).
The very first reading was performed at the New York Theatre Workshop in the spring of 1993. According to the off-Broadway website for Rent it was after this that Jeffrey Seller had decided that it was the right time to produce a musical. He kept in close contact with Jonathon, because even though he believed that the show needed more of a narrative he believed that Jonathon Larson was going to create a brilliant musical.[1] In his search for a more compelling narrative, Jonathon Larson contacted his mentor Stephen Sondheim who suggested that he apply for the Richard Rodgers foundation grant where he would win nearly fifty thousand dollars to support a workshop for the production of Rent.
The artistic director of the time at New York Theatre Workshop suggested that a young New York Director Michael Greif be brought onto the team. Michael Greif would later become the artistic director of the San Diego theatre La Jolla Playhouse. Greif recalls, “What impressed me was its youth and enthusiasm, and that it was a musical about contemporary life. Jon was writing about some people I felt I knew, that I sort of loved, or had loved in my life.” The pair was able to work off of one another and was able to successfully bring the script up to the same level as the music that Jonathon Larson had created. They were able to work off of each other’s personalities that kept the optimism and reality level with each other. Anthony Rapp, the original cast member who played Mark Cohen, recalled of the two, “what Jon gave Michael was some of his hope and heart and generosity of spirit. And what I think Michael gave Jon was some edge and realism and complexity, and making sure things didn’t all resolve and prettily. It was a good marriage.”
It was because of how well these two worked that the workshop for Rent had become such a successful hit. It would be because of this workshop that New York Theatre Works would stage a full production of the musical the following year giving it the biggest budget they had ever provided a show. The process for getting Rent to be the musical that we know and love today was a long hard road. Jonathon Larson would spend nearly a decade of his life molding the plot as well as those lovable characters into what we all know it to be. Jonathon Larson could not have created the successful show he had if it had not been for many of the amazing people he had worked with.
The Original production of Rent consisted of Anthony Rapp as Mark Cohen, Adam Pascal as Roger Davis, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi Marquez, Jesse L. Martin as Tom Collins, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel Dumott Schunard, Fredi Walker as Joanne Jefferson, Idina Menzel as Maureen Johnson, and Taye Diggs as Benjamin Coffin III. Jonathan Larson’s Rent was able to give many amazingly talented actresses/actors the jumpstart they would need to have amazing careers. It would be the reason that these actors/actresses would return to the project so often no matter where they were in their careers. The opening night of the rock musical had been set, but unbeknownst to anyone involved they had unexpectedly set it for the same day as the one hundredth anniversary of Puccini’s La Boheme. But even more unexpected would be the death of the creator.
The day had been like any other for the cast and crew of Rent. It was the night of their final dress rehearsal and they were all getting prepared for the following day. Not one of them would expect the call that they would receive the following morning with the horrific news. The morning of the opening for Rent, the call went out that Jonathon Larson had died during the night of an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm. His life coming to a tragic and sudden end was a shock to all. No one knew how to handle the opening night after hearing the news. In an interview that Forward Forum had with “Rent” star Anthony Rapp he recalled the death of Jonathon Larson. He stated in the interview, “We didn’t go ahead with the normal performance. We decided under the circumstances it was a little too difficult to do that kind of a performance. We canceled the preview and wound up doing a performance for his invited friends and family.” Instead of giving Jonathon Larson a moment of silence, they decided that it was more memorable to perform his work of art for his loved ones. He went on to say, “What we have to do is the performance. Sing it and not worry about the technical things. Just get it out. Get the music and lyrics out that he had worked so hard on.” They made that night a tribute to him and it was something that they did for every performance. They performed each show in memory of him.[2] According to the Off-Broadway website for Rent, “Throughout the first act, the cast was able to hold their seats. But very slowly, they began to rise. They acted, they danced.” Anthony Rapp recalled, “It was like we had to do it. We were all sobbing and crying.” They may not have been sure how to handle the first performance of Rent without Jonathon Larson, but they knew that they had to do it for him. It was what he would have wanted. He would have wanted his creation to come to life and the cast made sure that was exactly what happened. With a room full of Jonathon Larson’s loved ones, friends and colleagues the cast performed Rent from their heart and it would be only the beginning of a phenomenon that would spark.
Since the opening of the phenomenon known as Rent, there has been much debate regarding whether it would have had the same success if it had not been for the unexpected death of its creator Jonathon Larson. In an article that Judith Sebesta wrote she states, “Some critics dismissed the phenomenal popularity of the musical as mere sentimental reaction to the poignancy of Larson’s premature death at thirty-five. For them, the birth of Rent as a musical hit would never have happened had it not been for the death of its creator” (Sebesta 419). This is something that we will never know. Because of Jonathan Larson’s untimely we can only measure the success that the show has had. We will never know what potential he could have had with the rest of his career if he had not died. For all we know Rent could have been the biggest success that he had in him.
It was not long after Rent had first premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop that it was translated to Broadway. In Jack Kroll’s “Love Among The Ruins” he points out that many major Broadway players lost out to the Nederlanders in a frenzied attempt to pick up the hot new musical. Kroll writes in his article, “Rocco Landesman, Jujamcyn’s president, says he’s “crushed” at not getting “Rent.” Jack Kroll writes about how Rocco Landesman predicted that the musical would be a success as it crossed over to the Broadway stage as it would attract a very diverse audience, especially those individuals who would not normally be considered theatregoers. The actors however were not the only ones new to the ways of Broadway. The producers were as well.
Miller states, “Because the producers were as new to Broadway as the cast was, they did things very diffeRently. They set aside the first two rows at each performance as twenty-dollar seats so that the people the show was about could afford to see it” (Miller 186). According to Miller, fans came out as early as the previous day to line up to get tickets to see the hot musical. Some of these fans would end up seeing the show numerous times in this way. These were the fans that the cast performed for. These fans would later become known as “Rent Heads”. These Rent Heads, according to Miller, “would bring tents, food, and CD players to pass the time” (Miller 186) waiting for cheaper tickets. Rent opened on April 29th, 1996 at the Nederlander Theatre and closed on September 7, 2008 after had the ninth longest run with five thousand one hundred and twenty four performances.
Nine years after Rents original opening in 1996, Rent Heads anxiously awaited the film adaptation. Six of the eight original cast members would retake their roles in the film. These cast members would include Anthony Rapp as Mark Cohen, Adam Pascal as Roger Davis, Jesse L. Martin as Tom Collins, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel Dumott Schunard, Idina Menzel as Maureen, and Taye Diggs as Benjamin Coffin III. To join the original six cast members would be Rosario Dawson as Mimi Marquez replacing Daphne Rubin-Vega and Tracie Thoms as Joanne Jefferson replacing Fredi Walker. However, the film would not happen without the director Chris Columbus taking many creative liberties with the show. In an article written Jessica Sternfeld states,
“Almost all of the linking material, underscoring, and recitative-like sung dialogue either became spoken dialogue (over silence) or was removed. A show that was mostly sung through became a movie with a stop-and-sing format, leading to some old-fashioned and awkward song cues and the loss of some of composer/lyricist Jonathon Larson’s most unpredictable material” (Sternfeld 334).
Chris Columbus took a huge chance taking these creative liberties when he made drastic changes to the musical Rent. However, it paid off for him. In the opening weekend alone, he was able to pull in over ten million dollars and altogether bringing in just under thirty-two million dollars for its short run in the movie theatres.[3]
Jonathon Larson’s success, however, does not come without bumps in the road. One of those bumps in the road was Sarah Schulman who believed that Jonathon Larson lifted many of the ideas he inserted in his musical from her own book entitled People In Trouble. In Stage Struck: Theatre, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America Schulman describes People In Trouble as a book “about a triangle composed of a married artist couple and the woman’s younger lesbian lover” (Schulman 7). Schulman further goes into detail about the book being about “an East Village performance artist who is at the end of a relationship with a male artist and who, despite her own homophobia, falls in love with a lesbian. She creates a performance piece that targets a greedy landlord who is evicting people with AIDS. There is a subplot about an interracial gay male couple – one a queen, one an activist – in which one dies of Aids” (Schulman 7). It was when she was sent to review the opening of Rent at the Nederland theatre that she realized the existing similarities between her own work and the musical. In her book she writes a point by point comparison of her own work compared to Larson’s Rent.
The first similarity that she points out is that both works are set in the East Village during an epidemic of “AIDS, homelessness, homosexuality, and artists” (Schulman 15). However, this point is shaky best as it can be argued that during the time that Larson wrote Rent he was living in the very neighborhood he set Rent in. Many of his friends were in fact infected with AIDS, were homeless, or were homosexuals. Larson lost many loved ones to the AIDS decease.
The second similarity that Schulman points out is that “both are about a love triangle between a straight artist couple and the women’s lesbian lover” (Schulman 15). Again, this point is shaky at best as well, because it can be said the love triangle between Mark, Maureen, and Joanne resembles Larson’s own life as well as the similar plotline Schulman wrote. It cannot be definitely pin pointed as coming from Schulman’s work. Miller stated about Larson, “He once lost a girlfriend to another woman” (Miller 188). Judith Sebesta’s “Of Fire, Death, and Desire: Transgression and Carnival in Jonathon Larson’s Rent points out that “in early versions of the show, Maureen returns to Mark, paralleling the plot of La Boheme, but ‘that comes across as wishful thinking on a straight man’s part” (Sebesta 431). It can also be argued that while it may have been changed to take away Maureen going back to Mark in the end, it was because realistically this was not something that would have happened. The similarities could continue furthering her argument that Jonathon Larson stole from her book. However, this would not be her only criticism of the play.
In the review that she included in her book Stage Struck: Theatre, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America she attacked the fact that she felt Jonathon Larson put the straight characters above the gay ones. However, this is not true. In her review she states that the central relationship is between two roommates, Roger and Mark, who share their lives together. Then she states, “The main subplot is Roger falling in love with Mimi, an active junkie, but their love conquers all. The gay people get the sub-subplots: a black man and a Puerto Rican drag queen fall in love, and the queen dies.” While it might seem that this is a sub-subplot, for most this is the center of the movie. Angel and Collins had the relationship that most of the couples in the show wished they could have. They had an everlasting love that could not have even ended with death. This can be proven in the song “Goodbye Love” Mimi Marquez and Joanne when they sang the lyrics “I’d be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had. Someone to live for-unafraid to say I love you.”
In Schulman’s review of Rent she also states, “AIDS is so sad, but straight love is real love, what a relief.” Her criticism creates confusion over whether she actually viewed the musical that Jonathon Larson wrote. If she had, as previously stated she would realize that the greatest love of the musical was between Angel and Collins, not a straight couple. As Schulman would say the “straight couple” which is comprised of Roger and Mimi Marquez is clearly the most dysfunctional relationship aside from Maureen and Joanne. To understand what Schulman means when she says that the “straight couple” is real love, it would be easier if the two relationships were examined side by side.
When Angel first meets Collins it is in the alleyway after Collins was beat and robbed. Their relationship begins with Angel caring for the injured Collins. Roger and Mimi’s first meeting occurs when Mimi goes to the apartment looking for matches to light her candle after having lost power and finds Roger who tries to help her. However, she keeps blowing out her candle to get back into the apartment to continue her interactions with him. However, because she has too close of a resemblance to April that Roger pushes her away. It is not until the next night when they are celebrating the success of Maureen’s protest that they finally bond on the fact that they both have aids and they enter into a shaky relationship. It does not last long as it gets torn apart again when Roger learns of Mimi’s past relationship with Benjamin Coffin III. Without even examining the rest of Roger and Mimi’s relationship it can be said that Angel and Collin’s relationship far surpasses this. They are the only couple that lasts through the entirety of the movie without having any breaks or fights. The only thing that tears apart this couple is the inevitable but impactful death of Angel as he succumbs to the AIDS disease.
Bibliography
Kroll, Jack. “Love Among The Ruins. (Cover Story).” Newsweek 127.20 (1996): 54. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.
Sebesta, Judith. “Of Fire, Death, And Desire: Transgression And Carnival In Jonathon Larson’s Rent.” Contemporary Theatre Review 16.4(2006): 419-438. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.
Miller, Scott. Rebels with Applause: Broadway’s Groundbreaking Musicals. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001. Print.
Schulman, Sarah. Stagestruck: Theater, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. Print.
Sternfeld, Jessica. “Revisiting Classic Musicals: Revivals, Films, Television and Recordings.” The Cambridge Companion to the Musical (2008): 325-39. Print.
Forum, Forward. “Anthony Rapp Interview: Love, Loss and the Musical Rent 1.” YouTube. YouTube, 22 May 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .
“Jonathon Larson.” PBS. PBS. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .
“RENT Now Playing at New World Stages in New York City – Buy Tickets NOW!” RENT Now Playing at New World Stages in New York City. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. .
In her article, Judith Sebesta makes a very simple point about the reason that Schulman was so critical on Rent and its characters. She states in her article that, “a large part of her difficulties with the show lie in its creation by a heterosexual man and the straight prospective from which he approaches the material, portraying heterosexual love as true love, and, conversely, homosexual love as ‘either doomed or shallow or both” (Sebesta 421). Schulman even admitted in her own book Stage Struck: Theatre, Aids, and the Marketing of Gay America that she assumed Jonathon Larson was himself gay and had died of aids. It was only after that she had learned he was a heterosexual male that had died not of aids but of a undiagnosed aortic aneurism did she start putting together the pieces between her own work and his. In an essence if Jonathon Larson had been the homosexual male that she thought him to be, it never would have even entered her mind that it was not his experiences that he was reflecting in Rent, but her own.
Jonathon Larson once said, “The opposite of war is not peace, it’s creation.” And create he did. While Jonathon Larson was not able to live to see the success that his musical would have, success it did indeed have. It cannot be denied that Larson created a powerfully moving rock musical with Rent.
[1] http://www.siteforrent.com/
[2] Forward Forum interview with Anthony Rapp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB72F16mpNg
[3] http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=rent.htm