Scarlet Masque Theatre Journal New Beginnings and Fond Farewells Vol. 1 | Page 25

18
was a heterosexual man, the first heterosexual creator to appear in this essay (other than the
hypothetical Toni Morrison), which made criticisms of his work that much more divisive in the
LGBTQ+ community at the time of RENT’s production. The highly romantic composer
epitomized the “struggling artist” according to friends and family: He worked several jobs to
support his artistic endeavors and often found his work hard to sell to producers, but always had
the romantic idealism of a man who wanted to change the landscape of American musical
theatre. He worked his way up the ladder from the bottom with hard work and talent, winning the
Stephen Sondheim Award from the American Music Theater Festival in 1989 and wrote music
that was featured in Sesame Street. Larson also composed two other musicals that gained
some relative success (mostly posthumous): Superbia (1988) and tick, tick…BOOM! (1990) For
Jonathan Larson, RENT was likely a realization of his ideal, and the sensationalism of the work
probably would’ve pleased the composer had he lived to see it. The musical was set to go into
previews at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 25, 1996. After the final dress
rehearsal the night before opening previews, Larson went home to his apartment to make some
tea, collapsed on the floor, and died of an aortic aneurysm following weeks of severe chest
pains. 17
RENT, a rock-opera hybrid of Giacomo Puccini’s La Boheme set to the tone of the late
1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic in the East Village premiered on that day without its creator. Reviews
of the show, and the acclaim that went with it, were irrefutably (if not unfairly) marked by this
tragedy. The musical won multiple awards, including the Pulitzer, Obie, Drama Desk, and a
relative sweep of the 1996 Tony Awards among others. John Istel writes about the types of
reviews that accompanied the show, which were probably best served to be in the obituaries
rather than the arts section. Most reviews lamented over the loss of the composer and observed
Jonathan Larson, Evelyn McDonnell, Kathy Silberger, Larry Fink, Stewart Ferebee, and Kate
Giel. 1997. Rent. New York: Rob Weisbach Books. 6-17, 50-51.
17