Seasons of Love: Why Rent Matters

The story of Rent is a theatrical legend, but one that has not been properly told: the story of Jonathan Larson, the young composer working in a diner when Rent became his big off-Broadway break; the composer who was mentored by Sondheim but struggling to break through; and the young man who tragically died the night of its final dress rehearsal. Seasons of Love: Why Rent Matters is an ode to the small Off-Broadway musical that swiftly moved uptown without its composer and broke box office records and won every award in the book. Alongside that legendary romantic story is a musical that changed musical theatre. The importance of Rent is often overlooked, sometimes reduced to parody and pulled apart for its narrative in ways other classics have not been. Emily Garside has serious questions to ask about why Rent is taken less seriously than other musicals of its caliber. It may have had a romantic and media friendly subplot, but musicals do not win the Pulitzer Prize for column inches. Rent is a robust work, and one whose history and significance should be recorded. Seasons of Love concludes with a celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Rent, which falls in 2021. Garside considers that as we look to older works for inspiration, and to fill our theatres, we may well be returning to Larson's work as a reflection of our times.