Jonathan Larson was born on February 4, 1960. He grew up in White Plains, New York (a subrub in NY) with his parents (Al and Nan) and older sister (Julie, she is five years older than him).
One of his best childhood friends was Matt O'Grady, a friend who is often wrote about his in his work and who often inspired him to write (Matt inspired Jonathan to write "Rent" and the character Angel is based on Matt, also Matt is "Michael" in jonathan's rock monologue "tick...tick...BOOM!"). Matt and Jonathan both went to white plains high school. Jonathan was active in the music and drama department.
Jonathan went on to go to college at Aldelphi University in Long Island, NY. He also wrote his first musical at Aldelphi, "Sacrimoralimmortality" with David Armstrong (this play was about the new Christian Right). Jonathan also met a long time girlfriend of his at Aldelphi, victoria leacock. they broke up after a while, but remained friends. Victoria even helped him produce his plays such as "tick...tick...BOOM!" and "Superbia".
Jonathan wrote music often. For extra money even wrote money for kid's shows (like "Sesame Street" and the video "Away We Go!") finally after much work, he created "Rent". Jonathan brought it to the New York Theater Workshop (located on East Fourth Street, NYC), they workshopped it there in 1994. "Rent" was revised and work on A LOT, finally in 1996 it was ready for an opening. Previews started on January 25th. Jonathan did not live to see "Rent" open; Jonathan collapse in his apartment while making tea at 3AM and died from aortic aneursym. "Rent" (and Jonathan's dream) continued on. It officially opened at NYTW on February 13th, 1996, received brilliant reviews and went on to open on broadway at the Nederlander Theater on April 29th, 1996. And the rest as they say is history.