Editing Jonathan Larson (section)

===''Rent''===
{{main|Rent (musical)}}
[[File:Jonathan Larson .jpg|200px|right|thumb|Larson, year unknown]]
In 1988, playwright [[Billy Aronson]] wanted to create "a musical inspired by [[Giacomo Puccini]]'s ''[[La bohème]]'', in which the luscious splendor of Puccini's world would be replaced with the coarseness and noise of modern New York".<ref name=Led>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/theater/theather-the-seven-year-odyssey-that-led-to-rent.html | last=Tommasini | first=Anthony | author-link=Anthony Tommasini | title=Theater; The Seven-Year Odyssey that Led to 'Rent' | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=March 17, 1996 | url-access=limited | access-date=April 1, 2022 | archive-date=March 28, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328020600/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/theater/theather-the-seven-year-odyssey-that-led-to-rent.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1989, Aronson called [[Ira Weitzman]], asking for ideas for collaborators, and Weitzman introduced Larson to Aronson to collaborate on the new project. Larson came up with the title and suggested moving the setting from the [[Upper West Side]] to [[Lower Manhattan]], where Larson and his roommates lived in a rundown apartment.

''Rent'' started as a staged reading in 1993 at the [[New York Theatre Workshop]], followed by a studio production that played a three-week run a year later. However, the version that is now known worldwide, the result of three years of collaboration and editing between Larson and the producers and director, was not publicly performed before Larson's death as Larson died the day before the first preview performance. The show premiered Off-Broadway on schedule. According to lead performer [[Anthony Rapp]], Larson's parents, who were flying in for the show anyway, gave their blessing to perform the show despite Larson's death a day earlier, and the cast agreed that they would premiere the show by simply singing it through, all the while sitting at three prop tables lined up on stage. But by the time the show got to its high energy "[[La Vie Boheme]]", the cast could no longer contain themselves and did the rest of the show as it was meant to be, minus costumes, to the crowd and the Larson family's approval. Once the show was over, there was a long applause followed by silence which was eventually broken when an audience member shouted out "Thank you, Jonathan Larson."<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2CctOLvdaoC | title=Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent | last=Rapp | first=Anthony | authorlink=Anthony Rapp | publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] | date=October 31, 2006 | page=136| isbn=9780743269773 }}</ref>

''Rent'' played through its planned engagement to sold-out crowds and was continually extended. The decision was finally made to move the show to a Broadway theatre, and it opened at the [[Nederlander Theatre]] on April 29, 1996.<ref>{{cite news | last=Winer | first=Laurie | title='Rent' Goes Up -- to Broadway | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-30-ca-64130-story.html | work=[[The Los Angeles Times]] | date=April 30, 1996 | url-access=limited | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803234358/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-04-30-ca-64130-story.html | archive-date=August 3, 2020 | url-status=live}}</ref> In addition to the [[New York Theatre Workshop]], ''Rent'' was produced by [[Jeffrey Seller]], who was introduced to Larson's work when attending an off-Broadway performance of ''Boho Days'', and two of his producer friends who also wished to support the work, [[Kevin McCollum]] and Allan S. Gordon.

For his work on ''Rent'', Larson was posthumously awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]],<ref name=Life/> the [[Tony Award for Best Musical]], [[Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical]], and [[Tony Award for Best Original Score]];<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.playbill.com/article/rent-master-class-win-top-tonys-com-67959 | title=Rent, Master Class Win Top Tonys | work=[[Playbill]] | date=June 3, 1996 | access-date=April 1, 2022 | archive-date=April 1, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401005122/https://www.playbill.com/article/rent-master-class-win-top-tonys-com-67959 | url-status=live }}</ref> the [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical]], [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music]], and the [[Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics]]; the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical; the [[Outer Critics Circle Award]] for Best Musical in the Off-Broadway category; and [[Obie Award]]s for Outstanding Book, Outstanding Lyrics, and Outstanding Music.

Larson's estate was scheduled to earn one-third of the amount earned by ''Rent''.<ref name=price>{{Cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/14/just-what-is-the-price-of-fame-rent-authors-family-seeks-answer-in-suit/b4ea6837-ba1d-41fd-9821-88eda5968d6a/ | title=JUST WHAT IS THE PRICE OF FAME? 'RENT' AUTHOR'S FAMILY SEEKS ANSWER IN SUIT | first=Paula | last=Span | newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] | date=December 14, 1996 | access-date=April 1, 2022 | archive-date=August 28, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828224004/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/12/14/just-what-is-the-price-of-fame-rent-authors-family-seeks-answer-in-suit/b4ea6837-ba1d-41fd-9821-88eda5968d6a/ | url-status=live }}</ref>