Rent One Song Analysis

April 29, 1996. Rent’s opening night on Broadway at the Nederlander theater. From there on out the lives of the cast and crew of the musical would never be the same. People of all classes sit in the audience. Adam Pascal, who plays Roger in the musical, begins singing his solo: “One song glory, one song before I go. One song to leave behind. Find one song, one last refrain.” A parallel to the life of the writer of Rent, Jonathan Larson, for it was his ‘one song’.

After graduating Adelphi University with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts, everything went downhill for Larson. He had dreams of being an actor, and when that failed his dreams turned to becoming a successful playwright. He spent seven years on a play that was never produced. He wrote a monologue of his life called Tick, Tick…Boom! which was produced but short lived. He needed income and had to pick up a job at the Moondance diner, which was a job he would not be able to quit

The characters did not live in the nicest part of New York City, and their once friend, now landlord, wanted to evict them from their apartments. This story is very close to Larson’s own story. As far as he knew he was not in danger of dying, but nonetheless lived like his characters. He had a run down apartment, and very little money. He had to work extremely hard to eat. Many of his characters were based off his friends. One of his friends stated, in reference to the night that he told Larson he was HIV positive, “One night Jonathan was there with me, and somebody said, you know, ‘Will I lose my dignity?’ And now it’s a beautiful song.” Larson took nearly all the inspiration for Rent from his own life. The musical conveyed the message that the poorly judged group of people the musical was representing were in fact people, with lives and emotions. The characters exemplified themes of love and togetherness, as they lived a truly difficult