Editing Rent (musical) (section)

==Sources and inspiration==
Larson's inspiration for ''Rent''{{'}}s content came from several different sources. Many of the characters and plot elements are drawn directly from Giacomo Puccini's opera ''La Bohème'', the world premiere of which was in 1896, a century before ''Rent''{{'}}s premiere.<ref name="Rent: Leap of Faith">{{cite book | title=Rent ("Leap of Faith")| last=Larson| first=Jonathan| author-link=Jonathan Larson |author2=McDonnell, Evelyn |author3=Silberger, Katherine |year=1997| pages=18–37| publisher=HarperEntertainment / HarperCollins| location=New York, New York| isbn=0-688-15437-9 }}</ref> ''La Bohème'' was also about the lives of poor young artists. [[Tuberculosis]], the plague of Puccini's opera, is replaced by HIV/AIDS in ''Rent''; [[1800s Paris]] is replaced by New York's [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village]] in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The names and identities of ''Rent''{{'}}s characters also heavily reflect Puccini's original characters, though they are not all direct adaptations. For example, Joanne in ''Rent'' represents the character of Alcindoro in ''Bohème'', but is also partially based on Marcello. Also, Joanne is the only ''Rent'' character whose predecessor in ''La Bohème'' is a different sex.

{|class="wikitable" style="white-space:nowrap;"
|-
! ''La Bohème''
! ''Rent''
|-
| Mimì, a seamstress with tuberculosis
| Mimi Márquez, an erotic dancer with [[HIV]] and Roger's girlfriend
|-
| Rodolfo, a poet
| Roger Davis, a songwriter-musician who is HIV positive and Mimi's boyfriend
|-
| Marcello, a painter
| Mark Cohen, an independent [[Jewish-American]] [[filmmaker]] and Roger's roommate
|-
| Musetta, a singer
| Maureen Johnson, a bisexual performance artist and Joanne's girlfriend
|-
| Schaunard, a musician
| Angel Dumott Schunard, a drag queen and percussionist with AIDS, who is Collins's partner.
|-
| Colline, a philosopher
| Tom Collins, a gay, part-time philosophy professor at [[New York University]] and [[anarchist]] with AIDS and Angel's partner.
|-
| Alcindoro, a state counselor
| Joanne Jefferson, a lesbian lawyer, who is Maureen's girlfriend (also partially based on Marcello)
|-
| Benoît, their landlord
| Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III, the local landlord and a former roommate of Roger, Mark, Collins, and Maureen
|}

Other examples of parallels between Larson's and Puccini's work include Larson's song "Light My Candle", which draws melodic content directly from "Che gelida manina";<ref>{{cite journal|last=Nisbet|first=Ian|title=Transposition in Jonathan Larson's RENT|journal=Studies in Musical Theatre|date=2012|volume=5|issue=3|page=237|doi=10.1386/smt.5.3.225_1|url=http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Article,id=12998/|access-date=April 28, 2014|archive-date=April 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429061726/http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Article,id=12998/|url-status=live}}</ref> "[[Quando m'en vo'|Quando me'n vo']]" ("Musetta's Waltz"), a melody taken directly from Puccini's opera; and "Goodbye Love", a long, painful piece that reflects a confrontation and parting between characters in both Puccini's and Larson's work.<ref name="Libretto">{{cite web|url=http://www.impresario.ch/libretto/libpucboh_e.htm|title=La Bohème&nbsp;—Libretto in English|publisher=Kernkonzepte: Impresario|author=Puccini, Giacomo|author-link=Giacomo Puccini|access-date=November 30, 2006|archive-date=October 12, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012180921/http://impresario.ch/libretto/libpucboh_e.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> "Quando me'n vo'" is paralleled in the first verse of "[[Take Me or Leave Me]]", when Maureen describes the way people stare when she walks in the street. It is also directly referred to in the scene where the characters are celebrating their [[Bohemianism|bohemian life]]. Mark says, "Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song..."  Roger plays a quick piece, and Mark adds, "...that  ''doesn't'' remind us of 'Musetta's Waltz'." This part of "Musetta's Waltz" is also later used in "Your Eyes", a song Roger writes.

''Rent'' is also a somewhat autobiographical work, as Larson incorporated many elements of his life into his show. Larson lived in New York for many years as a starving artist with an uncertain future. He sacrificed a life of stability for his art, and shared many of the same hopes and fears as his characters. Like his characters he endured poor living conditions, and some of these conditions (e.g. illegal wood-burning stove, bathtub in the middle of his kitchen, broken buzzer [his guests had to call from the pay phone across the street and he would throw down the keys, as in "Rent"]) made their way into the musical .<ref name="Beals">{{cite journal|author=Beals, Gregory|title=The World of ''Rent''|journal=Newsweek|date=May 13, 1996|volume=CXXVII|issue=20|pages=58–59}} ([http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/larson-jonathan/gregory-beals-essay-date-13-may-1996 Abstract] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035255/http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/larson-jonathan/gregory-beals-essay-date-13-may-1996 |date=September 30, 2007 }})</ref> Part of the motivation behind the storyline in which Maureen leaves Mark for a woman (Joanne) is based on the fact that Larson's own girlfriend left him for a woman.  The Mark Cohen character is based on Larson's friends, cinematographer and producer Jonathan Burkhart and documentary filmmaker [[Edward "Eddie" Rosenstein|Eddie Rosenstein]].

Playwright [[Sarah Schulman]] alleged that ''Rent'' bore striking similarities to her novel ''People in Trouble''. Schulman's 1998 book ''Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America'' details these similarities and discusses her critiques of the musical.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagestruck:_Theater,_AIDS,_and_the_Marketing_of_Gay_America | title=Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America }}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2025}}<ref name="Schulman">{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2131017|access-date=March 3, 2011|title=Sarah Schulman: the writer Rent ripped off|date=November 23, 2005|first=June|last=Thomas|publisher=Slate.com|archive-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129164522/http://www.slate.com/id/2131017/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The line, "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be... and more of a woman than you'll ever get!", attributed to Angel Dumott Schunard at her funeral, was previously used by the character Hollywood Montrose, who appeared in the films ''[[Mannequin (1987 film)|Mannequin]]'' (1987) and ''[[Mannequin Two: On the Move]]'' (1991). Like Angel, Hollywood performs a song and dance number and sometimes wears women's clothing. This line was originally in the film ''[[Car Wash (film)|Car Wash]]'' (1976), delivered by [[Antonio Fargas]] as a flamboyant homosexual cross dresser named Lindy.

The earliest concepts of the characters differ largely from the finished products. Everyone except Mark had AIDS, including Maureen and Joanne; Maureen was a serious, angry character who played off [[Oedipus]] in her performance piece instead of [[Hey Diddle Diddle]]; Mark was, at one point, a painter instead of a filmmaker; Roger was named Ralph and wrote musical plays; Angel was a [[jazz]] [[philosopher]], while Collins was a street performer; Angel and Collins were both originally described as Caucasian; and Benny had a somewhat enlarged role in the story, taking part in songs like "Real Estate", which was later cut.<ref>[http://www.siteforrent.com/intro.html SiteforRent.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070406222216/http://www.siteforrent.com/intro.html |date=April 6, 2007 }} accessed April 15, 2007.</ref>

[[File:WSTM Team Dustizeff 0098.jpg|thumb|Life Café]]

Many actual locations and events are included in, or are the inspiration for, elements of the musical. Life Café, where the "La Vie Bohème" numbers are set, was an actual restaurant (closed 2013) on [[10th Street (Manhattan)|10th Street]] and [[Avenue B (Manhattan)|Avenue B]] in the East Village of New York City.<ref name="Life Cafe">{{cite web|url=http://www.lifecafenyc.com/ls_press.shtml|title=Making Rent; A Spell for Alphabet City|access-date=January 5, 2007|publisher=Life Cafe|year=1998|author=Ben Lerman|author2=Andrew Jacobs|work=Life Press|archive-date=November 5, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061105011536/http://www.lifecafenyc.com/ls_press.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Rent: Connection">{{cite book|title=Rent ("Connection")|last=Larson|first=Jonathan|author-link=Jonathan Larson |author2=McDonnell, Evelyn |author3=Silberger, Katherine |year=1997|pages=138–141|publisher=HarperEntertainment / HarperCollins|location=New York, New York|isbn=0-688-15437-9 }}</ref> The riot at the end of the first act is based on the East Village [[Tompkins Square Park riot (1988)|riot in 1988]] that arose as a result of the city-imposed curfew in [[Tompkins Square Park]].<ref name="Rent: Connection" />

"Will I?", a song which takes place during a Life Support meeting and expresses the pain and fear of living a life with [[AIDS]], was inspired by a real event. Larson attended a meeting of [[Friends in deed|Friends in Deed]], an organization that helps people deal with illness and grief, much like Life Support. After that first time, Larson attended the meetings regularly. During one meeting, a man stood up and said that he was not afraid of dying. He did say, however, that there was one thing of which he was afraid: Would he lose his dignity? From this question stemmed the first line of this song. The people present at the Life Support meeting in the show, such as Gordon, Ali and Pam, carry the names of Larson's friends who died. In the Broadway show, the names of the characters in that particular scene (they introduce themselves) were changed nightly to honor the friends of the cast members who were living with or had died from AIDS.<ref name="Rent: Friends In Deed">{{cite book | title=Rent ("Leap of Faith: Friends in Deed")| last=Larson| first=Jonathan| author-link=Jonathan Larson |author2=McDonnell, Evelyn |author3=Silberger, Katherine |year=1997| page=21| publisher=HarperEntertainment / HarperCollins| location=New York, New York| isbn=0-688-15437-9 }}</ref>

The scene and song "Life Support" were also based on Friends in Deed, as well as on Gordon, Pam, and Ali. Originally, the members of Life Support had a solid block of the "forget regret" refrain, and they talked about remembering love. When Jonathan's HIV positive friends heard this scene, they told him that having AIDS was not so easy to accept: it made you angry and resentful too, and the song did not match that. Jonathan then added a part where Gordon says that he has a problem with this "credo...my T-cells are low, I regret that news, okay?" Paul, the leader of the meeting, replies, "Okay...but, Gordon, how do you feel today?" Gordon admits that he is feeling the best that he has felt all year. Paul asks, "Then why choose fear?" Gordon says, "I'm a New Yorker. Fear's my life."