The Rent team retold the heartbreaking story of the show's creator dying hours after dress rehearsal

(Image credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images)

published 2 May 2016

Rent creator Jonathan Larson never lived to see the wild success his groundbreaking show about AIDS would become in its 12-year, Tony-winning Broadway run. In fact, he died of an aortic aneurysm just hours after the show's off-Broadway dress rehearsal.

In a compelling oral history for Vulture, the cast and crew remembered losing Larson and the importance of carrying on his artwork after his death:

Jim Nicola (artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop): At 8 a.m. the morning of the first preview, my phone rang. It was our production manager saying his body had been found in his apartment.Jesse L. Martin (Tom Collins): I was freaked out when Jim called. The insecure actor in me said, "I'm getting fired." He said, "Jesse, we lost Jonathan." No part of me heard that Jonathan had died. I thought maybe Jonathan quit.Billy Aronson (co-creator and playwright): It didn't make sense.Taye Diggs (Benjamin Coffin III): I didn't feel like I had the right to go to his funeral. I didn't really know him. Much later, I felt guilty and wished I had gone.Nicola: We proposed canceling the preview. But the cast felt Jonathan would want the show to go on. So we compromised that we'd sit on the stage and sing it through, and we could all bring our friends and family.Julie Larson (Jonathan's sister): My parents were like, "Absolutely, the show must go on." But it was torture. [Vulture]

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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.

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