May 6th, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time. “From here on in, I shoot without a script”.
I think there is something truly so beautiful about art and living life creatively. Personally, I can’t imagine a life where I am not led by creativity. I consider myself an artist even though I cannot draw anything more complex than a stick figure. I am a musician; letting melodies swirl through the air through my acoustic guitar. I feel as though I am constantly singing; often joking with my friends that my brain is the ultimate Spotify shuffle. I am a photographer; stopping anything to capture the perfect sunrise. I am an actress; seeing the stage as my second home. Finally, I am a writer. Writing is my most personal outlet. I feel so comfortable when the pen meets paper (or when my fingers meet my keyboard). I feel as though I am able to express my truest thoughts through my writing. These creative mediums have given me a lifetime of happiness and passion; I cannot imagine my life without having these outlets to turn to each day. I am not the only person who feels this way, in fact I think the characters in Jonathan Larson’s musical RENT would deeply relate to my love for the arts.
I first heard about RENT when I was much too young to understand it and much too young to appreciate its beauty. Like most of my childhood, my earliest memories of RENT come from my older sister. I remember being no more than 7 years old and staring at my sister’s iPhone as she showed my mother and I a video of her castmates performing “Seasons of Love”. I distinctly remember being entranced by the video, being transfixed by the harmonies of these high schoolers. While my sister only performed in one musical during her time at Winthrop High School, her love for RENT grew. As a child all I understood about the show was that it was about the AIDS crisis of the 90’s and that it was “too grown up for me”. My parents understood the show’s mature content would be way too intense for a small child so I added RENT to the list of cool things I would only be able to understand when I was a teenager. Flash-cut to 2024 and I have made it my personal crusade to make sure that each member of the Winthrop High School Drama Society knows all of the words to “Seasons of Love”. Prior to each performance of the yearly musical and Dinner Theater, the entire cast gathers together to hold hands and perform the musical theater classic as a warmup. Until December of this school year, I had embarrassingly not listened to RENT. I finally decided to listen to the musical when “Finale B” was chosen as a song for Dinner Theater.
(Closing Night of RENT on Broadway performance of Seasons Of Love, featuring members of the Original Broadway Cast+ Closing Night casts)
With that first listen, I was immersed in the magical world of RENT. The soundtrack to the 2005 movie adaptation was so vivid and vibrant that I was able to pick up much of the story from that first listen alone. RENT follows a group of artists over the span of a year in their lives. Rent is so much more than the surface-level synopsis of artists living through the AIDS crisis. In a show where death could be the main character, audiences are encouraged to live life fully because as the show puts it “No Day But Today”. The music is one of the most unique musical theater scores I have heard. Simply, it feels so much edgier and for lack of a better word “cooler” than so many of my favorite cast albums. The music alone tells the full story of the year following this group of friends. Like audiences everywhere I fell in love with the characters, simply from the score. In that first listen, I knew that Angel and Collins were one of the best couples I’d ever seen, that Mark was a trustworthy narrator and that Benny’s greed should not have been forgiven. I went through all of the emotions I possibly could have during that first listen and that’s the true beauty of this score. Numbers like “Rent”, “What You Own” and “La Vie Boheme” had me dancing around my room while “I’ll Cover You Reprise”, “Goodbye Love” and “Finale B” made me sob. This show would not be the success it is today without Jonathan Larson’s score and that is immensely obvious from even the first listen.
Jonathan Larson dreamed of creating a new age of musical theater. Like many composers, he longed for the day he would see his name on a Broadway marquee. During his life, it felt as though the art he had worked tirelessly to create was unappreciated. His first musical Superbia, ended at the workshop stage. This was his taste of the career he longed for as this idea painfully never materialized. Following the rejection of Superbia, he began writing Tick Tick… Boom, the solo “rock monologue”. This show has gone through a variation of adaptations, ranging from a three person production to a full scale movie musical in 2021. Jonathan’s spark and love for musical theater was obvious through each note he wrote. Following Tick Tick… Boom, Larson began writing what would go on to become his magnum opus, RENT. His lyricism and storytelling were raw and real, making people feel seen and validated in the human experience.
Jonathan Larson’s rock melodies re-defined the sound of musical theater. By bringing rock music to the stage, he created the next generation of young people flocking to the theater. In today’s culture, it does not seem like a big deal to have a modern rock score, but in the 90’s this was a truly revolutionary feat. Larson showed that the genre of musical theater is allowed to expand and evolve alongside audiences. His work was designed with such care and relatability that people felt as though they could see themselves in each of his characters. At its core, his work was about people. His characters did not shy away from their imperfections and flaws, walking through life in one of the most grounded and self-aware ways. The authenticity of his characters is significantly deeper than all of their self-awareness. He wanted his work to reflect real people you could come in contact with in your world. Out of the 3 main relationships in RENT, two of them are between LGBTQIA+ characters. The audience is routing for these relationships just as much as the relationship between Mimi and Roger. One of the best characters in the entire show is Angel Dumott Schunard, a drag queen with one of the kindest souls I have ever seen. That’s the beauty of RENT; these roles are designed to be played by people of all religions, ethnicities, races and sexual orientations. RENT was never trying to meet a quota of what diversity should look like, it was just trying to tell the most realistic story it could. These actors were simply cast due to their sheer talent and in doing so, they were able to provide representation on stage in an entirely new way. Mark begins the story of RENT by directly breaking the third wall by saying, “December 24th, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time, from here on in I shoot without a script.” This perfectly establishes his role as a filmmaker and his abilities as a storyteller. You instantly feel compelled to trust Mark as you instantly see the humanity within his character. Larson’s writing perfectly establishes his cast of characters, making the audiences feel a sense of familiarity from the minute they appear on the stage.
The best pieces of art make you reflect on a central theme, leaving you still thinking about the show’s essential questions. Both of Larson’s major works include the theme of time and living life . They both implore the audience to live with intention, or as RENT so beautifully puts it, “No Day But Today”. As characters deal with the AID’s crisis, death swirls around them constantly. But instead of feeling as though time is running out, they live out each moment to the fullest. They appreciate the life they have because they understand that any day it could all be gone. Jonathan’s writing is so beautiful that by the end of both of these shows, the audience is left with a new appreciation for their life. Seeing characters in both stories wrestle with their mortality as well as the mortality of their loved ones really makes the audience re-examine how they are approaching their life. Now, like I previously mentioned, I’ve been familiar with the story of Jonathan Larson since I was a child. It is heartbreakingly ironic to think about the fact that Jonathan Larson never got to see how he re-invented musical theater and the impact his words have had on the world. At the age of 35 years old, Larson tragically passed away of Marfan Syndrome. He passed away the morning RENT was set to premiere Off- Broadway. I approached both RENT and the film adaptation of Tick Tick… Boom, knowing about the tragedy of Jonathan Larson’s life. These pieces almost feel as though they served as a self-fulfilling prophecy as they both toyed with the idea of mortality. His work has this almost eerie allure to it as the audience is well aware that he never got to see the success he received. However his death actually adds a whole other reason for audiences to live like there’s “No Day But Today”. His story is an extremely devastating one, but serves as a reminder to us all not to take anything for granted.
If RENT was never written, the landscape of what a Broadway musical could look and sound like would have never changed. Similarly, if a newley 17 year old boy from Washington Heights never was invited to go see RENT for his birthday, he never would have been inspired to create a more diverse life on stage. Lin Manuel Miranda realized that musical theater was an ever-evolving genre when he saw RENT. This prompted him to put rap on stage with In The Heights and Hamilton. Miranda has constantly been applauded for his work at making Broadway resemble a multitude of people, genders and ethnicities. He has given millions of people the belief that there is a place for them on a Broadway stage, (even if they have to write that role for themselves). In a way, he is this generation’s Jonathan Larson; inspiring us all to dream big and to live with a purpose. There is this famous story of someone proclaiming “Thank you Jonathan Larson” after “Rent ” was performed for the first time. Jonathan Larson had reinvented the culture of musical theater forever and for that I am personally forever thankful to him for forging a new path for the stories we see on stage. “Thank you Jonathan Larson”!
(Actions Speak Louder Than Words from the 2021 movie version of Tick, Tick… Boom)
