Is RENT 100% Larson?

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:07pm

A friend of mine and I have been arguing about when Jonathan Larson died.
He claims he died before the NYTW workshop of RENT, I say that he passed away before the previews of the Broadway run.
Before Broadway I think is impossible, because there were major changes in the piece.

But even if it was before Broadway previews, were there changes made to the text/music before Rent opened? If so, who exactly made them and where in the musical?
I would think that there weren't any changes in the material, but in the staging, but I'd like to make sure...

Updated On: 12/31/08 at 11:07 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:09pm

NYTW was in 1994, Jonathan Larson died in January 1996 before Rent previews started.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:11pm

Jonathan died the night of Rent's last dress rehearsal before it's off Broadway previews (which was also technically the 2nd NYTW worskshop)
Updated On: 10/8/05 at 11:11 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:12pm

Well, the show changed just a little bit after he died -- there were a couple of very minor cuts. But, there was also a law suit that came up after he died by the woman who was the dramaturg on the production while Larson was living. She apparently contributed a lot of ideas. The family settled out of court.

So its probably safe to say that RENT is not 100 percent Jonathan Larson. But then what show is 100 percent of the writers vision?

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:13pm

Jonathan died the night of Rent's last dress rehearsal before it's off Broadway previews

?????
That's confusing...OFF Broadway???

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:16pm

Yeah, Rent was never originally headed for Broadway

and technically, the original idea for Rent was Billy Aronson's

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:18pm

mmmmm, then was there a run of Rent between 1994 and 1996?
Because that 1994 version is very different from the Broadway show, he couldn't have died before that one.

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:21pm

Jonathan died on January 25, 1996, the night of the last dress rehearsal before opening off-Broadway at NYTW. It moved to the Neder in April of that year.

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:21pm

He didn't.

NYTW (New York Theatre Workshop) was in 1994.

Larson died in 1996 before the show opened Off-Broadway in 1996.

There weren't any official productions of the show between 1994-1996 except for Jonathan's concerts. It was that time that he shelved Rent for a while and began working on 30/90 which is essentially what we have now as Tick, Tick...Boom.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:21pm

There was an NYTW workshop in 94
Jonathan did mega revisions for an official run of Rent at NYTW from 95-96 and passed away on the night of the final dress rehearsal
The show became a hit and moved on Broadway

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:23pm

I get it, thanks.
So, I guess it's safe to assume that the Off Broadway and the Broadway versions are exactly the same.

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:24pm

Basically, but with some minor revisions

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 11:26pm

Yes, there was a weird song in the Off Broadway version that was cut really early on. It basically had musical to the opening tones of Glory and they were talking about a key and a door. That's all I remember about it.

Other than that, I don't believe anything else was changed and I am certain that nothing was added.

[EVIE]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 12:17am

I remember hearing a song called Female to Female, that thankfully was cut. Hated it!

[Patronus]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 12:19am

Yeah, Female to Female was the song originally in place of Take Me Or Leave Me and it was awful.

[Marlene]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 12:20am

Female to Female was replace by TMOL, wasn't it? The NYTW OTM was scary. I honestly didn't know what I make of it when I came across the text online.

[EVIE]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 12:23am

I can't remember if it was One Song Glory or Rent that originally had a verse about jumping out of a window and splattering their brains on the cement or something to that effect...that's pretty scary too.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 12:30am

EVIE, Rent was originally called "Splatter". One Song Glory was originally called "Right Brain". The Broadway version was definitely an improvement on both accounts.

God, I've had "Do A Little Business" stuck in my head all day. At first, I thought it was horrible, but in an odd way, it's grown on me. "I love Monopoly! I'll be the dog!"

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 2:15am

What's "Do a little business" ? So Larson did/didn't rewrite Take me or Leave me / RENT / and One Song Glory? Cause you all said that they changed. Was that between workshop & off-bway or off-bway & bway?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 2:24am

FYI -- I saw the show at NYTW a couple of nights after Larson died in 1996. There was at least one lawsuit from one of his dramturgs on the show regarding authorship of the material. Though the dramturg eventually lost her case for royalties from the Broadway production, it's a fact that sections of the book were written by her and others (which is not unusual for such a large musical production). Such things are generally covered by contract and protect the main book writer against these kinds of lawsuits.

Updated On: 10/9/05 at 02:24 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 2:26am

Do A Little Business is the NYTW equivilant of You'll See.

All of the songs in the Broadway production of Rent were written by Jonathan Larson. The ones I mentioned in my above post were all from NYTW, they were changed between then and off-Broadway by Jonathan Larson.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 2:33am

Gotcha - thanks. What do you mean when you say she wrote part of the book? Since most if it is sung-through - what could she have written?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 2:34am

actually, *I belive* "I Should Tell You" was not written by Jonathan... or at least not in full...

edit... yeah, Billy Aronson wrote some of the lyrics for "Sante Fe" and I'm pretty sure "I Should Tell You", not for "La Vie Boheme"... I dunno... someone get the book...

http://www.ibdb.com/ProductionSongs.aspx?ShowNo=7448&ProdNo=4791 Updated On: 10/9/05 at 02:34 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 2:46am

I've always wondered if the lawsuits would have come up if Jonathan Larson hadn't died. It's much easier to manufacture a "your word against theirs" case when the opposing side can't defend himself.

ETA: There have been other lawsuits, like that lesbian writer that claimed Jonathan Larson stole the plotline from her book.

Updated On: 10/9/05 at 02:46 AM

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 3:05am

CATS you're right
"Santa Fe" "I Should Tell You" and "Rent" were the original 3 songs and had some lyrics written by Billy Aronson

Apparently the dramaturg helped Jonathan through a lot of revisions. I think one version of Rent began at Angel's funeral and the whole story was told in flashback beginning with "Halloween" and she's the one who helped him make the story linear again.