Jonathan Larson had a unique upbringing. He was constantly exposed to musical theater, According to his parents, Al and Nan Larson, they took their children to the theater whenever possible (McDonnell and Silberger 8-9). At the same time he was listening to the popular music of his youth, such as Elton John, Billy Joel, The Who and other popular artists of the mid-seventies (McDonnell and Silberger 10). Jonathan wanted to revitalize the stagnant world of musical theater (Lipsky 2). "He didn't like that show music hadn't changed since the 1940's. That Oklahoma sounded like Oklahoma in 1943 was fine; that a lot of musicals still sounded like Oklahoma in 1996 was depressing" (Lipsky 2). For years Broadway had been "...dominated [by] revivals and reworkings of old movies" (Zoglin 71) and "clogged with big-budget productions that offered sensational pyrotechnics but uninspired content and music" (McDonnell and Silberger 14). Larson wanted to marry rock and roll with musical theater, much as shows like Hair did (Lipsky 3). Shows such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar only come along once in a while. What Larson wanted to do was take "his" music uptown (McDonnell and Silberger 14) He wanted to combine the previously polar fields of MTV and Broadway.

One ingredient in any sort of writing, whether musical, script or novel, is making it real. Jonathan Larson tackled this tough problem faced by all writers by integrating not only his own life into the plot, but also the lives of all his friends Jonathan savored and appreciated every moment and stored them all for future reference. One friend of Larson, Jonathan Burkhart, said of him, "he'd always have a pen and paper with him. He had a much greater sensitivity and appreciation of things than anyone I will ever meet" (McDonnell and Silberger 12). Jonathan took his sensitivity and combined it with the harshness and struggles in life to recreate a young person's search for his or her own identity.

A crumbling dilapidated apartment, a dead-end, but flexible, table waiting job, no money; each of these characterizes the lifestyle of a starving artist. They also describe not only the lifestyle of Jonathan Larson but also that of the bohemians of La Boheme and Scenes de la Vie Boheme. Not surprisingly Mark and Roger live much in the same way, "We live in an industrial loft on the corner of 11th Street and Avenue B, the top floor of what was once a music publishing factory...Inside we are freezing because we have no heat." (Larson). While Jonathan never appeared to have the problems with paying the rent as his fictional counterparts, Mark and Roger did. As one of Jonathan's girlfriends did, Marks ex, Maureen, left him for another women (McDonnell and Silberger 24). This is just another example of the reality of RENT. According to several close friends, Jonathan put himself on the line by literally putting his life on the stage.

Jonathan was the center of a wide network of artistic friends from all backgrounds. He borrowed nuances and personality traits from everyone he knew. In doing this he created incredibly believable characters. Matthew O'Grady, one of Larson's lifelong friends, revealed to Larson that he was gay, and later that he had the AIDS virus (McDonnell and Silberger 11). This not only had a profound impact on Jonathan's life, but its ramifications can be found throughout RENT. O'Grady began attending meetings of an AIDS support group called Friends Indeed (McDonnell and Silberger 21) Larson also attended several of these meetings (McDonnell and Silberger 21). He later patterned the scenes of Life Support after these meetings. Gordon, Pam, and Ali were all real people who died of AIDS (McDonnell and Silberger 21). Jonathan knew these people and made them characters in the Life Support scenes so they could, in a way, live forever. When Jonathan was playing a rough sketch of the songs for a group of friends, his friend Gordon strongly objected to the theme of the Life Support meetings, "No day but today" (Larson) (McDonnell and Silberger 22). As a direct result of this conversation, Larson gave the character Gordon a cynical, questioning attitude (McDonnell and Silberger 22). This attitude provides more depth of realism because not everyone can embrace an oncoming death with such optimism. Gordon (the character) says: "Excuse me Paul -- I'm having a problem with this this credo -- My T-cells are low...…Fear's my life Look -- I find some of what you teach suspect Because I'm used to relying on intellect But I try to open up to what I don't know Because reason says I should have died three years ago (Larson) This acts as a counter-balance to the "no regrets" attitude that is so abundant in the first act. This is a show about Jonathan Larson and his friends; he holds a mirror to his life, the pain, the joy, the heartbreak and the wonder that every person goes through. When final casting was done for the 1996 NYTW run, Jonathan invited the cast out to his traditional holiday celebration he had every year with his fellow Village artists, called the Peasants' Feast (McDonnell and Silberger 14). At this particular Feast, Jonathan toasted his cast member with these words, "This is a show about my friends, so you are all playing my friends, so you are my friends" (McDonnell and Silberger 37). Jonathan Larson values each of his friends, cast members and other people who touched his life in such a way that RENT was not only a part of Larson but it also represented them as well.

Jonathan Larson reached not only to contemporary figures for inspiration for RENT, but also to historical characters. He took character traits from both Scenes de la Vie Boheme by Murger and La Boheme by Puccini and applied the nuances and mannerisms of the first and second-generation bohemians and meshed them with his own ideas. The process of character formation was not complete here. Once Larson had the shells of characters, that were a product of numerous re-writes, Larson presented them to the actors and actresses who would be portraying them on the stage. Some characters remained remarkably true to the original sources, Scenes de la Vie Boheme and La Boheme, while others evolved into to completely different characters. Mark and Roger, despite the name and occupation changes, stayed very close to Murger's portrayal of Marcello and Rudolfo. Maureen on the other hand is very much a joint creation of Idina Menzel, the original Maureen, and Jonathan Larson, with only a passing glance at the original Musetta (McDonnell and Silberger 44). Much as Murger and Puccini did before him, Larson attempted to create believable charters that could withstand the test of time.

It has been said that there are only 14 truly original plot lines, Jonathan Larson adhered to this idea greatly. When Billy Aronson came to him with the original idea of updating Puccini's La Boheme, Jonathan was thrilled (McDonnell and Silberger 18) . As Larson slowly took over the project and later got all rights from Aronson he began to take his material from not only from La Boheme, but the book it was based on. This book was a collection of stories by Henri Murger called Scenes de la Vie Boheme. All three of these stories are about a group of young struggling artists who choose their art over everything in some cases even life.

Larson updates Puccini and Murger's characters. Marcello the painter is transformed to the striped sweatered video artist Mark (Gant-Hill D1). Rudolfo, Marcello's poet of a roommate, has naturally evolved into Roger, the emotionally cut-off songwriter and former junkie(Gant-Hill D1). The saucy Musetta is recaptured in the diva performance artist, Maureen that leaves Mark for Joanne, a public service lawyer and the 1996 answer to Alicindro (McDonnell and Silberger 24). Colline and Schunard become gay men who are respectively Collins the "computer age philosopher" (Larson) and Angel the drag queen street performer (McDonnell and Silberger 24). The tubercular frail Mimi becomes "a tough stray kitten of a woman who dances in a club" (Brantley section 2). The disease that afflicts everyone has even grown with the times, instead of TB it's now AIDS. There are other similarities in the original texts that delight any literary buff to find the connections: the mention of Collins' coat; Mimi looking for a lighted candle; large loud parties; and a passion for having things occur on Christmas Eve. Larson reached back into time and found a classic story, mixed it with his own life and incredible show stopping music, resulting in the biggest musical to hit Broadway in years.

The story of RENT is not merely that of some random starving artists. It's more than that. Its about Mark, Roger, Mimi, Maureen, Joanne, Angel, Collins and Benny. Its about people we all know. The story of RENT also extends beyond the stage; it has a rich history that spans over one hundred years. Jonathan Larson managed to struggle through years with one goal in mind: to reinvent the American musical. He accomplished this, but he never lived to see the fruits of his labors succeed; Mr. Larson died the night before his masterpiece would open Off-Broadway in the New York Theater Workshop (NYTW). Just a few short months after this, RENT managed to move uptown to Broadway and fully reached all of Jonathan's dreams; he brought a new generation into the wonderment and magic of the theater.

Go home already!