Pivotal shows

This first link is an article showing how big of an impact RENT had on the world.
http://www.angelfire.com/in2/everythingisrent/articles/newsweek4.html

http://www.angelfire.com/in2/everythingisrent/jon.html

"Rent is about a community celebrating life, in the face of death and AIDS, at the turn of the century."
That was Jonathon Larson's summation of RENT. I think the reason RENT was such a pivotal show was based on more than the fact that they tackled serious subjects. I think it had to do more with the music. Larson loved the theatre, but he didn't like the fact that Broadway was still using flashy songs and bright dance numbers. He believed that the music featured in musicals should be modern music that anybody would enjoy to listen to. He felt that people, like himself, would enjoy and appreciate the theatre more if they actually could stand the music being played. The second link explains why he wrote RENT and why he wrote it the way he did. Larson related to the story he wrote because he and his friends were living the life he wrote about. So, it was one thing for these events to happen in real life, but for someone to write about it and turn it into a musical to the whole world could peek into that lifestyle was another thing.