SOURCE: "The World of Rent," in Newsweek, Vol. CXXVII, No. 20, May 13, 1996, pp. 58-9.

[In the essay below, Beals, a former roommate of Larson's, reminisces about the playwright with cast members and friends.]

In December of 1995, Jonathan Larson wrote his good friend Victoria Leacock a touching Christmas card. This was typical of Larson; even when he was entirely consumed with his work, he still made the effort for his friends. He'd been working on Rent, obsessing over it, since 1989. Now it was finally going to open. But for both Leacock and Larson, the season was a difficult one. They'd lost two close friends to AIDS since September. Their lives and deaths had been on his mind; he spoke at their memorial services, and wrote both into the fabric of Rent. So when it came time to compose a Christmas greeting for Leacock, he wrote, "Vic, darling Vicks, '96 will...