James Nicola on how Jonathan Larson’s Rent changed Broadway

Jonathan Larson at NYTW during Rent’s work-in-progress workshop, 1994

Lin-Manuel Miranda saw Rent on his 17th birthday and has said it’s the reason he decided to write musicals. The show, with book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, changed what Broadway sounds like and who it speaks to, blending theatrical narrative with rock to tell a story that wasn’t being told. James Nicola – the former artistic director of New York Theater Workshop who first championed Larson at the East Village theater where Rent was workshopped – leads the new Lyrics & Lyricists show Louder Than Words: The Songs and Legacy of Jonathan Larson (Mar 1-3). Ahead of the production, Nicola talked with us, sharing the stories only he can tell about Rent’s unlikely beginnings and unimaginable trajectory, reflecting on Larson’s enduring influence, Stephen Sondheim, and more.

Tell us about Louder Than Words – the perspective you’re bringing to Jonathan Larson’s life and work, and how this show is distinct from others celebrating him.

I’ve seen other Lyrics & Lyricists shows and have always welcomed the examination – critically and aesthetically – of the role of the lyric writer. Jonathan has never had that kind of consideration, so I’m really excited to have the opportunity to celebrate his work from that perspective.

And we’ll be looking at Jonathan’s influence on the next generation of Broadway composers and lyricists. When I saw the Lyrics & Lyricists Oscar Hammerstein show last fall, I was struck by the decades of work and lyric writing that were there to explore. Jonathan had not even one decade of work. There is no huge treasure trove. But his legacy is huge, so we’ll be looking at the creators who came after him and were directly inspired by him, like Lin-Manuel and others. Each of the three performances will have a special guest whose work in musical theater and on Broadway is the result of Jonathan’s influence.

Take us back to 1992, when an unknown composer left a cassette with a few songs for you. What first struck you about Larson’s music and his idea for Rent?

New York Theater Workshop was moving from the West Village into a new theater in the East Village. Over a summer between seasons, we were remodeling the theater. That’s when Jonathan came by on his bike and dropped off some songs. I had been looking for something of interest – and specifically about – the people and lives in this neighborhood that was new to us. I wanted a kind of calling card – a welcoming in to our neighbors. And randomly, this work dropped in my lap.

Adding to that, when I was in high school, I took private voice classes at one of the nearby colleges that had a good opera program. The song I studied was from La Bohème, and I developed a childlike obsession with it. So in the dropping off of a script and a tape, these two things collided. I had been looking for something that would speak to our new neighborhood, and here was a reinvention of La Bohème – adapting lives in 19th century Bohemia to contemporary life in the East Village – it was meant to be.

When I listened to the songs, I remember getting to Mimi’s “Light My Candle,” and realizing Jonathan had the capacity to write a very compelling, engaging tune, that he knew how to structure it rhythmically so it would land in a contemporary ear, and that he could dramatize an event and write a character and a theme in addition to his lovely poetry. To be able to combine all of those elements in a three-minute song? I thought, this is a person with a rare and remarkable gift.

Broadway since Jonathan Larson looks and sounds very different from Broadway before him. What do you see as his most significant contribution to musical theater?

When we took Jonathan on, thinking of him as a Broadway composer was not even in my mind. We were thinking about East Fourth Street. Well into the process of working with him, the thought was still not one of going to Broadway, just to a different, larger space, and very consciously not in a Broadway framework, but one that would appeal to a different kind of audience. When we all gathered the morning after our opening of Rent and we read the reviews, it just landed on us with no discussion – this had to go to Broadway, and go right away, considering what the reviews were saying about it.

One of the shows that had deeply impacted me as a very young person was Hair. For me, that was the marker of when the musical aspect of Broadway shifted. I don’t think there was an electric guitar in a Broadway pit prior to 1968. And when we began talking about moving Rent to Broadway, I felt that this was the next evolutionary chapter of a new sensibility. Hair had brought new performers to Broadway – “hippies” and their contemporary ideas about life, none of which had been on a Broadway stage. And I think Rent was the next level of that – the next chapter of revolution against the mainstream. And with that came the next generation with their own aesthetic – in the music and words they responded to, the ideas they held. With Rent, Jonathan told the story of what was happening in this catastrophic, transformative moment of the AIDS epidemic. He was telling this story – with rock music – in the context of musical theater, a place that hadn’t really dealt with that. I don’t think the LGBTQ community was as freely given permission to be on the Broadway stage before Rent. It marked a big change.

Larson’s tragic story has taken on a kind of mythology. How have you come to reflect on it?

I go back to the night of the dress rehearsal for Rent’s Off-Broadway opening. It was, coincidentally, just days before the 100th anniversary of the world premiere of La Bohème. The New York Times’ music critic Anthony Tommasini was planning to write something about that, and he heard about this East Village reinvention of La Bohème in a sort of pop world. He wanted to possibly include it in his piece. But he was about to go on vacation, so had to come to the dress rehearsal or not include it. We all discussed this, I mean to have the New York Times’ critic at your dress rehearsal?! But we agreed, yes, ok. When the dress rehearsal was over, Tommasini asked if he could meet with Jonathan privately to talk. We put them in the box office – the only place that was quiet and out of the way amidst the chaos. We were waiting to have a production meeting after the dress rehearsal – a really important moment with all the designers and stage management and crew to process through what had happened, talk about changes, and we kept waiting for Jonathan, because he was critical to that conversation. I kept going out into the lobby and looking at the box office and watching the two of them talk. After an hour or so, I interrupted, needing Jonathan to join us. When the production meeting was over, he told me Tommasini had said he loved the piece and thought Jonathan had immense talent and a brilliant future. And Jonathan went home and died. So, what I think about is, how many young, unknown artists have the most important critic in their community recognize their particular genius and point to their success? It was the perfect moment to exit. There would be no downside. Jonathan was at the apex. He was at the top of the mountain.

Is there a lyric of Larson’s that resonates most for you?

“For someone who longs for a community of his own / Who’s with his camera, alone?” (from “Goodbye Love”). I say this following many years of reflection now. Jonathan and I started working together in 1992 and until the New York Theater Workshop production in 1996. And in those four years, we got to know each other really well. He would have these group Thanksgivings and dinners, where he would invite a wide circle of friends from different corners of his life. And I felt a kinship with him. Being the artistic director of a theater is about convening. About being in a space together to ask questions. To challenge each other. To find common ground. To create rituals of identity. I feel like Jonathan did that by writing musicals – by telling stories with songs – and I think I did it by producing plays and gathering people to come and see artists speak to them. It’s the same basic human impulse. Seeking a community of one’s own.

While in college, Larson wrote a letter to Stephen Sondheim – the beginning of a relationship that would last the rest of Larson’s life, with Sondheim as both mentor and friend. Sondheim appeared on our stage in the very first season of Lyrics & Lyricists in 1971. How does it feel to be creating a kind of arc with this show?

Yes and wow. Well, we’re speaking a lot about Jonathan and the legacy of Jonathan, and Jonathan was, in a sense, the legacy of Sondheim. And to be on the same stage where Sondheim was at the very beginning of this whole series and this whole notion of exploring a lyricist’s craft? That’s beautiful.

LOUDER THAN WORDS: The Songs and Legacy of Jonathan Larson – Saturday, March 1 at 7:30 PM, Sunday, March 2 at 2 PM, and Monday, March 3 at 7:30 PM. 

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