SOURCE: "A New Rock Opera Celebrates Life after the Death of Its Creator," in Rolling Stone, May 16, 1996, pp. 54-8.

[In the following essay, Wiederhorn examines Rent in terms of Larson's life and death.]

The day before his rock opera, Rent, was scheduled to begin previews at a small off-Broadway theater in New York's East Village, the composer and playwright Jonathan Larson felt like he was coming down with the flu. Tired, pale and feverish, he had also experienced chest pains and had visited two emergency rooms earlier in the week. His symptoms had been diagnosed as food poisoning, but some of his colleagues thought he might be suffering pre-show jitters. After all, Larson had poured seven years of soul-searching work into Rent, an emotionally stirring story about young East Village artists struggling to celebrate life in the shadow of drugs, poverty and AIDS. Within days, the show and...