Student Blog: Pura Vida, Jonathan Larson!

"They've closed everything real down

Like barns and troughs and performing spaces

And replaced it all with lies and rules and virtual life"

Those lyrics could've been written by anyone in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they were actually written by a theatre kid named Jonathan Larson somewhere between 1994 and 1996. That fragment belongs to his song (if you can call it a song) "Over the Moon" and it proves he was ahead of his time. You might have heard about him, he wrote this musical called "Rent".

When I was a kid, I heard a lot about this musical, too. I tried to listen to it several times, but I usually ended up resisting after checking the tracklist. "Tune #1"? "Voice Mail #5"??? It felt very industrial and not a lot of fun. I was a kid, after all. I didn't watch "Rent" until I was 14, around the holiday season, a day like today. I finally opened my eyes and realized I've been ignoring a show that was desperately trying to connect with me.

"Rent", inspired by Puccini's opera "La Bohéme", follows the story of a group of friends that struggle to create art in New York City during the early 90's, while surviving unemployment and a pandemic. It's a rock opera, almost completely sung through, very wordy, and you have to pay attention to every single lyric so you can get the plot. The cast isn't pitch perfect, but they sing as if their lives depend on it. It's raw, edgy and unpolished, and I love that.

This was the first time I ever saw a story with LGBT+ characters that weren't portrayed as stereotypes or comic relieves. They were real people, dealing with their personal lives and the outbreak of the AIDS pandemic. I didn't know much about the subject before, so I researched a lot about it. But there's something in "Rent" that you won't find in any textbook, and that's the human factor, the feelings and thoughts of a person wondering "but will I lose my dignity?"

Naturally, I also wanted to know who wrote this musical. Who was this Jonathan Larson? Why was this his only hit on Broadway? I was shocked when I found out he died on January 25th, 1996; the day before "Rent" opening night. Exactly one week before I was born.

The show went on that day. His family and friends went to celebrate his memory. The songs Jon had written about living each day as your last suddenly had a different meaning. It was as if Jonathan Larson had written the music for his own funeral. When that first performance was over, people were quiet and didn't know what to say, until a young person from the back said "thank you, Jonathan Larson".

Just like the characters in his musical, he was a struggling artist, living in a cheap apartment with a bathtub in his kitchen, trying to be the voice of a silenced generation. He was a genius, but it took a while for the world to catch up with him. In 1983, when he was only 23 years old, he began working on a "1984" musical, but when he didn't get permission from the George Orwell estate, he decided to create his own dystopian futuristic musical, "Superbia". "Superbia" went through a bunch of rewrites and workshops, but in the end, it was never produced.

That project meant a lot to Jon, so he was really upset when it was archived. He was about to turn 30 and he felt like a failure. But instead of giving up, he wrote his own autobiographical musical monologue, "Tick Tick Boom", in which he released all his frustrations and confessed he always felt like he was running out of time. Unfortunately, his time ran out too fast, and he wasn't able to witness the way he changed musical theatre for good.

Luckily, a lot of people have done their best to keep Jon's legacy alive ever since "Rent" saw the light, and in the last few years, we've seen some new projects that helped to preserve his memoires. For example, Jennifer Ashley Tepper, theatre historian and Broadway producer, put together the "Jonathan Larson Project", a compilation of unheard material penned by Larson and performed by musical theatre artists like Krysta Rodriguez, George Salazar and Andy Mientus.

One of the songs from the project, "Pura Vida", particularly caught my attention. It is about environmental preservation and nature. Pura Vida literally means "pure life", but in Costa Rica it's like a motto; it's an expression used in almost every conversation. It means that everything is fine, but it can also mean thank you. When I first listened to the song I wondered if Jonathan Larson had ever been to Costa Rica. How did he come up with the phrase?

I actually reached Jennifer Ashley Tepper herself before writing this entry, to see if she knew more details about the origin of the song. She believes there could be more information about it in the Library of Congress, but so far all we know is that it is a standalone song that Jonathan wrote in 1991. I hope eventually we can learn more about it.

This month, we're also getting a film adaption of "Tick Tick Boom", directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson. Tepper was the historical consultant of the project. I can't think of a better team to bring Larson's story to life; I trust they are going to bring his essence, his passion and his enthusiasm to a younger generation while paying respect to the man behind the songs.

I know Jon's story is going to speak to a lot of people, like it spoke to me when I was 14. "Rent" was my coming-of-age, it was the reason I became obsessed with musical theatre and made me realize I wanted to be a part of the theatre world, not because of the spotlight or the applause, but because I want a platform to tell the story of my friends and the things that are relevant to me and the people my age. He inspired me in a very powerful way and I can't thank him enough for that.

Pura vida, Jonathan Larson!