Product Description

In these pages, Rent offers what most theater books can't: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds.

Rent has single-handedly reinvigorated Broadway and taken America by storm. Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, refleting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page -- through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show's creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent's life-affirming message all the more poignant.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21101 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-04
• Released on: 1997-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Amazon.com Review
This is by far the must-get theater book of the year. With dazzling punk graphics that will quickly win book industry awards, the volume contains the entire libretto of the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical about love and loyalty among starving AIDS-stricken artists in New York's East Village. But editors Evelyn McDonnell and Katherine Silberger wisely understand that the story of the show's creation is as compelling as the musical itself--so more than half of this volume is devoted to an oral history of the composer/lyricist/librettist Jonathan Larson, who came to New York hoping to revolutionize musical theater--then died of an aortic aneurysm the night of the show's final preview. It's an event book for an event musical.

Review
"Rent is the breakthrough musical for the 90's." -- -- Newsweek

"The most exuberant and original American musical to come along this decade." -- -- Time

About the Author
Jonathan Larson won the Pulitzer Prize for Rent, as well as Tony Awards for Best Book, Best Lyrics, and Best Musical, three Drama Desk Awards and numerous others. His "overnight success" came after fifteen years of writing, composing, and performing. He wrote the musical Superbia and the rock monologue tick, tick...BOOM! and composed a variety of music for children, including songs for "Sesame Street," audio books, and the video Away We Go! Mr. Larson died unexpectedly of an aortic aneurysm on January 25, 1996, the night before Rent's first performance. He was thirty-five.

Customer Reviews

A MUST HAVE TO REMEMBER RENT
I have been so fortunate to have known this show for twelve years. Now that it has ended, I will have my memories of seeing the show as well as this amazing book. I own two copies of the book and have read it front to back. Thank you Jonathan Larson and thank you to all that have made this show the great piece of musical theatre that it is. I will miss the show, but this book will stay with me forever. This book is a great thing to have for any musical lover, and I hope that RENT will change lives just as it has mine. Through this book, RENT is authentically seen and can be remembered by all

This is so awsome
This is not just the story of RENT and its creation, but the story of it's creator as well. Jonathan Larson's story is just as moving as RENT is, and this book gives an awesome insight into the life of this amazing composer who was taken far too early. This coupled with interviews from more people than I can count makes this a highly enjoyable read. The book also includes a whole bunch of pictures one would not see anywhere else, and the libretto, so the entire experience is bundled up in this one big black book with fake duct-tape binding. It was such an enjoyable read and made me cry just as much as the show itself. No Day But Today.

The Renthead's Bible
This book has everything you need if you are interested in more than just the movie. The whole script is included. Interviews with the entire cast! The whole story of how rent was created, start to finish. It is worth every penny and is the only rent book you'll ever need.