Jonathan Larson

Jonathan Larson was born on Febuary 4,1960 in Mt. Vernon,New York to Al and Nan Larson of White Plains, New York, in Weschester County,about 30 minutes outside New York.From an early age,he,his sister and their parents frequented New York City to watch theater shows. During his early years, he was exposed to classical and folk music, espcially that of the Broadway giants: Rogers and Hammerstien,Bernstein and Sondeim; who he particularly identified with as his hero and was mentored by,even edited his early work. That being said, he was also influenced by the music of Billy Joel, Elton John and The Who. Throught his music, he sought to reconcile the two. He had started performing in kindergarten and by the time he was in highschool, he had already started writing and was the best actor of his school . And this inate gift of acting and writing, he won a four year scholarship to Adelphi University.

He majored in Acting, performing in school productions and even wrote lyrics for the drama dean's production.

After graduating a Bachelor of Fine Arts, he partcipated in a two year stock theater program in Augusta,Michigan which resulted in an actors equity card.

He moved to Manhattan,New York shortly there after, waiting tables in the Moon Dance dinner on week ends and working on his scripts on the week days.

He lived a very bohemian exsistence while in New York, residing in an industrial loft with various room mates and no frequent heat, water or electricy in Manhattan's famed Greenwich Village.

While being out lay, he wrote other musical/plays such as Tick...Tick...Tick...BOOM! and Superbia, an update of Geoge Orwell's 1984. He also wrote music for J.P. Morgan Saves The Nation,numerious individual efforts,Seasame Street,the musical Billy Bishop Goes To War and he concieved and directed the children's video Away We Go!, for which he wrote 4 songs.

During this time,around 1988,he met another playwright; Billy Aronson,who had the idea of the re-invention of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohme.

But instead of bohemian artists living consumption in Paris at the turn of the 19th century, they become young bohemian artist living with HIV in the noisy,gritty streets of New York at the end of the millenium.

They colaborated on such songs as Santa Fe and La Vie Boheme. Problems such as the name(Bill Aronson didn't like the name RENT) and the fact that Aronson wanted the characters to be about his friends but Larson, who also had a hand full of friends diagnosed with HIV at the time , wanted it to be about his.

In the end, Larson won. He had also called Aronson in 1991 to recieve his blessing to write RENT alone. Aronson agreed.

After several more years of revisions,workshoping,auditions and productions; RENT was finally ready for the stage and was set to debut off Broadway on Febuary 4,1996.

During one of the last TDRs, while Anthony Rapp(who originated Mark Cohen) and Adam Pascal(who originated Roger Davis) rehershed "What You Own"; Jonathan's own song about dying at the end of the millenium, he collasped backstage.

An ambulance was sent for and the doctors only diagnosed him for the flu and mild food poisoning.

He was sent home.

In the early hours of January 25,1996, Jonathan Larson was found passed out on the floor of his flat,next to his stove.

He was 35,10 days shy of his 36th birthday.

Never the less,RENT opened to thunderous acclaim off broadway and subsequently moved to Broadway a few months after.

It now has become the hit that it is today, with a fan base that streches out of the realm of the regular theater goer.

In the 11 years after Jonathan's death,so much has happend. RENT had catapulted its young,little known stars' careers into super stardom. It has also garnered numeroius awards including 4 out of the 10 tony awards it was nominated for and many others.

The one of the definitions of RENT is "a tear, split or divide; a rift". Jonathan chose this name because not only was the theme suitable to the story line, that this is what we pay the landlord; but he saw many rifts in our society.

Jonathan was a man who sought to improve our world throught his music. He tried to make a diffrence in his small part the world : The Stage. There are communities we belong to; the community of family,of friends, of school,of country and eventually, of Humanity. Jon told the story of eight young people who were part of these communities,as we are. They sought to live life, to "forget regret" and "to measure their lives in love",all in the wake of staring HIV,Poverty and Death in the face.

When his friends came to clean out his apartment, his longest and most loved girlfriend found his jounal that he kept in the last years of college.

One entry read; "When I die,whenever or where ever that maybe, I want them to cast my ashes into the sunset. And at my funeral, I'd want singing and dancing and crying."

He is missed...but most of all, he lives on in our minds and in our hearts .

"NO DAY BUT TODAY!"