In 1996, an original musical was staged on Outer Broadway. At the time, no one expected that this humble musical by an unknown composer would change Broadway.
Young, jerky, reckless, RENT is like a fire, hitting the conservative atmosphere of American society, breaking the monopoly of big productions on Broadway, and making the art form of musical theater stand with young people for the first time.
After 12,000 performances in 21 countries, "Yoshiya Rental" landed in Shanghai Culture Square at the end of August and began 22 residencies.
Adapted from Puccini's classic opera Bohemian, "Yoshiya Rental" tells the story of 525,600 minutes of 7 down-and-out literary youths in New York in the 1990s: Mimi, a dancer in search of true love, Roger who longs to leave a famous song before his death, Angel the little angel, and the documentary filmmaker Mark... They don't know where next month's rent will be, where the inspiration for the next song or painting will be, or when the disease will strike, but everyone is pursuing their dreams and finding warmth in song and dance.
"We reflect the anxieties of young people through the lens of a documentary filmmaker, after all, this is an autobiographical work done by creator Jonathan Larson in a cramped apartment so small that when you open the door, you will hit people." "Yoshiya Rental" producer Stephen Gabriel said.
Written, composed, and lyricist, Larson is the soul of Yoshiya Rental, a perpetual "bohemian" who truly experiences poverty and illness.
In the seven years of creating "Yoshiya Rental", Larson lived poorly and sloppily. He lives in New York's East Village with some artist friends, and he himself lives on the fifth floor of a cramped apartment, as small as a kitchen and bathroom shared by a house, with no heating. Because all his energy was spent writing the script, Larson did not have time to go out to work, so his financial resources were very poor.
The stage is full of Larson's personal experience of crying blood. For example, the "live cafe" at the end of the first act of the musical is the café where Larson writes, meets and chats on weekdays. There, he not only created his own works, but also observed the living conditions of many artists at that time, he transferred those flesh-and-blood details to the play, and even many of the characters were named by Larson's real-life friends.
Unfortunately, Larson worked hard to create "Yoshiya Rental", but did not wait for the day of its premiere.
After a rehearsal, Larson collapsed on the floor of his apartment and never woke up, and the next day was the day that "Yoshiya Rental" was previewed on Broadway. Larson's life is over, and the story of Yoshiya Rental has only just begun.
"Before the Broadway rehearsal, the show's reputation in the circle was already very good, many people had heard of its big name, and Larson's unexpected death added a lot of color to it - isn't this the truest portrayal of the artist?"
At the time of his death, Larson was only 35 years old. He created such a work about marginal artists, and for the first time on Broadway in the pursuit of big production, he spoke out for young people, young, vigorous, and brought unprecedented youthful power.
In 1996, "Yoshiya Rental" debuted on Broadway and won that year's Pulitzer Theater Awards, the New York Theater Forum Award for Best Musical, and four Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
"The show sold out very quickly because the plot and the story behind it were so similar, like two parallel spaces unfolding at the same time." Gabriel said, "Larson's state of work and ultimate fate confirm the theme of his writing — today, love hard — because we don't know when accidents and deaths will come, and maybe tomorrow, we have to live out the most vivid state with the greatest enthusiasm." ”
Larson brought a lot of artist friends into the crew at that time, such as the lighting engineer who used to work in a nightclub, so the lighting design was very different from the traditional stage. The first version of the director wanted a band on stage, so the guitarists would be integrated into the plot. The abandoned bike is dotted with two wreaths of leaves, the Christmas tree of the people in the play, which is not very beautiful, but represents life itself – life is not always smooth, sometimes ugly, but also difficult. ”
At the time of the premiere, Gabriel had just proposed to his wife, and at that time, he had no idea that more than 20 years later, the couple could fight side by side and work together to produce this musical.
Gabriel sighed that more than twenty years later, the times have undergone earth-shaking changes, but the crew has always insisted on maintaining its style of the times, "the lighting should not be modern, everything remains as it is, staying in the nineties of the last century." ”