Book, Music, and Lyrics, Rent

Born in Mt. Vernon, New York, Jonathan Larson showed musical talent early in life and majored in acting at Adelphi University. After college he gave up acting for songwriting and playwriting. His rock musical Superbia won a Richard Rodgers Development Grant and was performed in a concert version in 1989, but never was performed in a full production. His 1991 rock monologue Tick, Tick... BOOM!, which chronicled his frustrating attempts to get Superbia produced, featured Larson playing piano, backed by a rock band. Larson also scored and wrote songs for children’s plays and films, including Steven Spielberg’s An American Tail and The Land Before Time. On January 25, 1996, at the age of 35, Larson died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm just before the first off-Broadway preview of Rent, which Larson had written based on La bohème and his own experiences living with various roommates in an unheated New York loft. For Rent, Larson was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score, and many other awards.