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Jonathan Larson

  • Daphne Rubin-Vega played Mimi in Rent. "It was a lot of fun to actually be able to practically apply my research of partying ..." she says. "I knew these people. I knew this world." She's pictured above with Adam Pascal in New York Theatre Workshop's 1996 production of rent. CREDIT: Joan Marcus
    Arts & Culture
    13,140,000 Minutes: It's Been 25 Years Since The First Performance Of 'Rent'
    On Jan. 25, 1996, a new rock musical by a little-known writer, Jonathan Larson, gave its first performance. Friends and family filed into a small off-Broadway theater to see Rent. The show was a retelling of La Boheme, set on the Lower East Side of New York, as people were dying of AIDS. It became an international phenomenon, winning the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, among others, but the performance almost didn't happen. Early that morning, Larson died of an aortic aneurysm. I spoke with some of the people who were there that night.