104-486: Rent (stylized in all caps ) is a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson . Loosely based on the 1896 opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini , Luigi Illica , and Giuseppe Giacosa , it tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan 's East Village , in the thriving days of the bohemian culture of Alphabet City , under
208-422: A "new version" of the musical, and that she had a verbal agreement with Larson to a percentage of the royalties. She sued Jonathan Larson's estate for $ 40 million and sought 16 percent of the show's royalties, ultimately losing that suit. A revised suit claiming she had written a significant portion of the lyrics and the libretto of the "new version" of Rent was filed later. The estate settled out of court. During
312-1131: A Canadian tour (often referred to as the "Collins Tour"). The Angel tour began in November 1996 at the Shubert Theatre in Boston, where it ran for approximately six months. Anthony Rapp joined the cast for the Chicago run, and Daphne Rubin-Vega joined for the Los Angeles run. The tour finished in San Francisco in September 1999. Other members of the Angel cast included Carrie Hamilton , Amy Spanger , Luther Creek , Kristoffer Cusick , Lisa Simone , Queen Esther , and Tony Vincent . The Benny Tour began in July 1997 in San Diego, California, at
416-488: A bittersweet, evocative song..." Roger plays a quick piece, and Mark adds, "...that doesn't remind us of 'Musetta's Waltz'." This part of "Musetta's Waltz" is also later used in "Your Eyes", a song Roger writes. Rent is also a somewhat autobiographical work, as Larson incorporated many elements of his life into his show. Larson lived in New York for many years as a starving artist with an uncertain future. He sacrificed
520-483: A computer program shouting at its user. Information technology journalist Lee Hutchinson described Microsoft's using the practice as "LITERALLY TERRIBLE ... [it] doesn't so much violate OS X's design conventions as it does take them out behind the shed, pour gasoline on them, and set them on fire." In programming, writing in all caps (possibly with underscores replacing spaces ) is an identifier naming convention in many programming languages that symbolizes that
624-495: A delicate scanning of characters (from a damaged image that needs further contextual text correction). Depending on the typeface , these similarities accidentally create various duplicates (even quite briefly and without realizing it when reading). E.g. H/A, F/E or I/T by adding a bar; P/R, O/Q, even C/G from similar errors; V/U, D/O, even B/S while rounding the shape; and more deformations implying mixings. Adding digits in all caps styled texts may multiply these confusions, which
728-464: A gay anarchist professor of computer-age philosophy at New York University, calls and plans to surprise them at their apartment, but is mugged before entering. At the same time, Mark and Roger's former roommate and friend Benny, who has since become their harsh new landlord, has reneged on an earlier agreement and now demands last year's rent, before shutting down their electrical power ("Tune Up #2"). However, Mark and Roger stubbornly resolve against paying
832-424: A lawyer and Maureen's girlfriend, receives a voicemail from her parents ("Voice Mail #2"). At last, the missing Collins enters the apartment, presenting Angel, who is now in full drag ; she amusingly shares the money she earned from killing an affluent couple's dog by loudly playing nonstop for an hour ("Today 4 U"). Mark comes home, and Benny arrives, speaking of Maureen's upcoming protest against his plans to evict
936-417: A life of stability for his art, and shared many of the same hopes and fears as his characters. Like his characters he endured poor living conditions, and some of these conditions (e.g. illegal wood-burning stove, bathtub in the middle of his kitchen, broken buzzer [his guests had to call from the pay phone across the street and he would throw down the keys, as in "Rent"]) made their way into the musical . Part of
1040-417: A long, painful piece that reflects a confrontation and parting between characters in both Puccini's and Larson's work. "Quando me'n vo'" is paralleled in the first verse of " Take Me or Leave Me ", when Maureen describes the way people stare when she walks in the street. It is also directly referred to in the scene where the characters are celebrating their bohemian life . Mark says, "Roger will attempt to write
1144-399: A mainstream interpretation with the advent of networked computers, from the 1980s onward. However, a similar interpretation was already evidenced by written sources that predated the computing era, in some cases by at least a century, and the textual display of shouting or emphasis was still not a settled matter by 1984. The following sources may be relevant to the history of all caps: Before
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#17328018705731248-422: A painter instead of a filmmaker; Roger was named Ralph and wrote musical plays; Angel was a jazz philosopher , while Collins was a street performer; Angel and Collins were both originally described as Caucasian; and Benny had a somewhat enlarged role in the story, taking part in songs like "Real Estate", which was later cut. Many actual locations and events are included in, or are the inspiration for, elements of
1352-399: A pianist, he has released two CDS and two books on the music of his colleague and mentor, the composer and critic Virgil Thomson . A classical music enthusiast since his youth, Tommasini attended both Yale University and Boston University to study piano, and then taught music at Emerson College . In 1986 he left academia to write music criticism for The Boston Globe . Tommasini joined
1456-641: A sing-through of the musical in Larson's memory. The show premiered as planned and quickly gained popularity fueled by enthusiastic reviews and the recent death of its composer. It proved extremely successful during its off-Broadway run, selling out all its shows at the 150-seat New York Theatre Workshop. Due to such overwhelming popularity and a need for a larger theater, Rent moved to Broadway's then-under-renovation Nederlander Theatre on 41st Street and opened on April 29, 1996. Larson's inspiration for Rent ' s content came from several different sources. Many of
1560-532: A slowed speed is possible – but in principle too many factors of low legibility are involved." Other critics are of the opinion that all caps letters in text are often "too tightly packed against each other". Besides the aforementioned speed of reading, all caps is can be prone to character -based ambiguities. Namely, the upper-case letters are globally simpler than their lower-case counterpart. For example, they lack ascenders and descenders . Since they are built from fewer positional and building elements (e.g.
1664-416: A smaller grid pertaining to minimalist digital fonts), they are more fragile to small changes. These variations, generally involuntary but sometimes induced on purpose, are caused by a misinterpretation (the information is transferred) or by a deterioration (the data is lost, in the analysis wording). They can occur horizontally and/or vertically, while misreading (without this extra effort or time), or during
1768-494: A song and dance number and sometimes wears women's clothing. This line was originally in the film Car Wash (1976), delivered by Antonio Fargas as a flamboyant homosexual cross dresser named Lindy. The earliest concepts of the characters differ largely from the finished products. Everyone except Mark had AIDS, including Maureen and Joanne; Maureen was a serious, angry character who played off Oedipus in her performance piece instead of Hey Diddle Diddle ; Mark was, at one point,
1872-487: A survey of Thomson's piano music, Virgil Thomson's Musical Portraits (1986), which was a revision and expansion of his 1982 DMA dissertation. He was denied tenure at Emerson College, as the college eliminated his position; Tommasini later noted that although disappointing, "the best thing that ever happened to me was not getting tenure at Emerson, or I might still be there, and none of [my future career] would've happened". In response, Tommasini turned to music criticism. He
1976-663: A term is conspicuous, we look at more than formatting. A term that appears in capitals can still be inconspicuous if it is hidden on the back of a contract in small type. Terms that are in capitals but also appear in hard-to-read type may flunk the conspicuousness test. A sentence in capitals, buried deep within a long paragraph in capitals will probably not be deemed conspicuous...it is entirely possible for text to be conspicuous without being in capitals. Certain musicians—such as Marina , Finneas , who are both known mononymously, and MF DOOM —as well as some bands such as Haim and Kiss —have their names stylised in all caps. Additionally, it
2080-413: Is "no day but today" ("Finale B"). Act 1 Act 2 There are also many other non-named roles such as Cops, Bohemians, Vendors, Homeless People. In professional productions, all the minor characters are played by the seven members of the ensemble. The usual doubling is as follows: Rent received several awards including a Pulitzer Prize and four Tony Awards . Critical reception of Rent
2184-403: Is an "apparent consensus" that lower-case text is more legible, but that some editors continue to use all caps in text regardless. In his studies of all caps in headlines , he states that, "Editors who favor capitals claim that they give greater emphasis. Those who prefer lower case claim their preferences gives greater legibility." Wheildon, who informs us that "When a person reads a line of type,
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#17328018705732288-615: Is common for bands with vowelless names (a process colourfully known as " disemvoweling ") to use all caps, with prominent examples including STRFKR , MSTRKRFT , PWR BTTM , SBTRKT , JPNSGRLS (now known as Hotel Mira), BLK JKS , MNDR , and DWNTWN . Miles Tinker , renowned for his landmark work, Legibility of Print , performed scientific studies on the legibility and readability of all-capital print. His findings were as follows: All-capital print greatly retards speed of reading in comparison with lower-case type. Also, most readers judge all capitals to be less legible. Faster reading of
2392-970: Is forcibly removed from the church for being unable to pay for Angel's funeral; Benny shows compassion by paying and offering Mark and Collins drinks. Collins accepts, causing the latter and Benny to rekindle their old friendship, but Mark turns down the offer due to work commitments. Some time later, both Mark and Roger simultaneously reach an artistic epiphany , as Roger finds his song in Mimi and Mark finds his film in Angel's memory; Roger decides to return to New York in time for Christmas, while Mark quits his job to devote his efforts to working on his own film ("What You Own"). The characters' parents, concerned and confused about their respective situations, leave several worried messages on their answering machines ("Voice Mail #5"). On Christmas Eve, exactly one year having passed, Mark prepares to screen his now-completed film to his friends. Roger has written his song, but apparently, Mimi
2496-592: Is missing, and no one has seen her. Benny's wife, discovering Benny's past relationship with Mimi, has pulled him out of the East Village. The power suddenly blows and Collins enters with handfuls of cash, revealing that he reprogrammed an ATM at a grocery store to provide money to anybody with the code 'ANGEL'. Maureen and Joanne abruptly enter carrying Mimi, who had been homeless and is now weak and close to death. She begins to fade, telling Roger that she loves him ("Finale"). Roger tells her to hold on as he plays her
2600-473: Is often used in transcribed speech to indicate that the speaker is shouting. All-caps text is common in comic books, as well as on older teleprinter and radio transmission systems, which often do not indicate letter case at all. In professional documents, a commonly preferred alternative to all caps text is the use of small caps to emphasise key names or acronyms (for example, Text in Small Caps ), or
2704-479: Is one aim of Leet (intentional pseudo duplicates) and can provide simple means of concealing messages (often numbers). Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music . Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief classical music critic for The New York Times from 2000 to 2021. Also
2808-485: Is performed representing all the couples' sex lives ("Contact"). At the climax of the number, the two former couples break up, and Angel suddenly dies in Collins' arms. At the funeral, the friends briefly come together to share their memories, with Collins being the last to reminisce ("I'll Cover You [Reprise]"). Mark expresses his fear of being the sole survivor when his friends eventually die of AIDS, and he finally accepts
2912-477: Is sometimes referred to as "screaming" or "shouting". All caps can also be used to indicate that a given word is an acronym . Studies have been conducted on the readability and legibility of all caps text. Scientific testing from the 20th century onward has generally indicated that all caps text is less legible and readable than lower-case text. In addition, switching to all caps may make text appear hectoring and obnoxious for cultural reasons, since all-capitals
3016-402: Is strained by Mimi's escalating heroin usage and Roger's lasting jealousy and suspicion on Benny. Each alone, Roger and Mimi sing of love and loneliness, telling each other how they feel, as they watch Collins nurse Angel, whose health is declining due to AIDS ("Without You"). By the end of the summer, Mark continues to receive calls offering a corporate job at Buzzline ("Voice Mail #4"). A dance
3120-586: Is upset, and although they apologize to each other, Mimi goes to her drug dealer for a fix ("Happy New Year B"). Around Valentine's Day, Mark tells the audience that Roger and Mimi have been living together, Collins and Angel are nowhere to be found, and Maureen and Joanne are preparing another protest; during rehearsal, Maureen criticizes Joanne's controlling behavior , while Joanne criticizes Maureen's promiscuity. They break up dramatically following an ultimatum (" Take Me or Leave Me "). Time progresses to spring ("Seasons of Love B"), where Roger and Mimi's relationship
3224-566: The ASCII table , so can display both alphabets, but all caps only. Mikrosha is switchable to KOI-7N1, in this mode, it can display both caps and lower-case, but in Cyrillic only. Other Soviet computers, such as BK0010 , MK 85 , Corvette and Agat-9 , use 8-bit encoding called KOI-8R, they can display both Cyrillic and Latin in caps and lower-case. Many, but not all NES games use all caps because of tile graphics, where charset and tiles share
Rent (musical) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3328-543: The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation , Friends In Deed and New York Theatre Workshop. Former cast members were invited, and many from prior tours and former Broadway casts appeared, performing an alternate version of "Seasons of Love" as the finale of the performance. Rent closed on September 7, 2008, after a 12-year run and 5,123 performances, making it the seventh-longest-running Broadway show at that time, and currently
3432-534: The National Endowment for the Arts . In 2011, after soliciting comments from readers, Tommasini published a list of the ten greatest classical composers. They were, in order: 1. Johann Sebastian Bach 2. Ludwig van Beethoven 3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 4. Franz Schubert 5. Claude Debussy 6. Igor Stravinsky 7. Johannes Brahms 8. Giuseppe Verdi 9. Richard Wagner 10. Béla Bartók . The project
3536-552: The Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical . The Broadway production closed on September 7, 2008, after 12 years, making it one of the longest-running shows on Broadway . The production grossed over $ 280 million. The success of the show led to several national tours and numerous foreign productions. In 2005, it was adapted into a motion picture featuring six of the eight principal cast members from
3640-673: The Times in 1996 and became their chief classical music critic in 2000 for over two decades. He traveled to cover important premieres of contemporary classical music , encouraged diversity in both classical repertoire and ensembles, and wrote books covering influential operas and composers . Anthony Carl Tommasini was born in Brooklyn , New York, on April 14, 1948. He grew up in a family of five in Malverne on Long Island , New York. Though his parents were not musically inclined, Tommasini
3744-562: The Times . Tommasini is the author of Virgil Thomson: Composer on the Aisle , which received the 1998 ASCAP - Deems Taylor Award, and Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings . Also a pianist, Tommasini made two recordings of music by Virgil Thomson for Northeastern Records , Portraits and Self-Portraits and Mostly About Love: Songs and Vocal Works . Both were funded through grants from
3848-460: The eleventh-longest-running Broadway show . The production grossed over $ 280 million. Original cast ensemble members Rodney Hicks and Gwen Stewart returned to the cast at the time of the Broadway closing. Hicks played Benny and Stewart played the role she created, the soloist in the song "Seasons of Love". In addition, actress Tracie Thoms joined the cast at the end of the run playing Joanne,
3952-406: The homeless from a lot where he is hoping to build a cyber arts studio. Benny offers that, if they can successfully convince Maureen to cancel the protest, then Mark and Roger can officially remain rent-free tenants. However, the two rebuff Benny's offer and he leaves ("You'll See"). Mark leaves the loft again to go help Maureen with the sound equipment for the protest, unexpectedly meeting Joanne at
4056-440: The "glamourization" of the East Village in the late 1980s. Billy Aronson said, "For the record, although I was ambivalent about Jonathan's ideas for Rent when we were working together on it, I have come to love the show. And as tragic as it is that he didn't live to see his work become a huge success, I believe he knew it would be. In our last conversation I asked how the show was going and he said, with complete assurance, that it
4160-573: The 1990s, more than three-quarters of newspapers in the western world used lower-case letters in headline text. Discussion regarding the use of all caps for headlines centers on the greater emphasis offered by all caps versus the greater legibility offered by lower-case letters. Colin Wheildon conducted a scientific study with 224 readers who analyzed various headline styles and concluded that "Headlines set in capital letters are significantly less legible than those set in lower case." All caps typography
4264-420: The 1996 stage premiere. In 1988, playwright Billy Aronson wanted to create "a musical based on Puccini 's La Bohème , in which the luscious splendor of Puccini's world would be replaced with the coarseness and noise of modern New York." In 1989, Jonathan Larson, a 29-year-old composer, began collaborating with Aronson on this project, and the two composed together "Santa Fe", "Splatter" (later re-worked into
Rent (musical) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4368-452: The 5 and 10-minute time limits, and 13.9 percent for the whole 20-minute period". Tinker concluded that, "Obviously, all-capital printing slows reading to a marked degree in comparison with Roman lower case." Tinker provides the following explanations for why all capital printing is more difficult to read: Text in all capitals covers about 35 percent more printing surface than the same material set in lower case. This would tend to increase
4472-562: The Angel Tour did. Other cast members included Wilson Cruz and d'Monroe. All caps In typography , text or font in all caps (short for " all capitals ") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG. All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements , newspaper headlines , and the titles on book covers. Short strings of words in capital letters appear bolder and "louder" than mixed case, and this
4576-513: The Angry Inch wears a Rent T-shirt and speaks of his aspiration to play the role of Angel. The off-Broadway musical revue Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back includes parodies of Rent songs such as "Rant" ("Rent"), "Ouch! They're Tight" ("Out Tonight"), "Season of Hype" ("Seasons of Love"), "Too Gay 4 U (Too Het'ro 4 Me)" ("Today 4 U"), "Pretty Voices Singing" ("Christmas Bells") and "This Ain't Boheme" ("La Vie Bohème"). Lin-Manuel Miranda ,
4680-559: The LaJolla Playhouse. Michael Grief, the original director of the Broadway show was also the artistic director of the LaJolla Playhouse and was instrumental in arranging for the Benny tour to begin in the smaller city of San Diego rather than Los Angeles, California. It originally featured Neil Patrick Harris as Mark Cohen in his first musical theatre role. The Benny tour generally played shorter stops and often-smaller markets than
4784-760: The Life Support group echoes his thoughts ("Will I"). Collins, Mark, and Angel protect a homeless woman from police harassment using Mark's camera, but she chastises them, believing their intent was for Mark to make a name for himself from her situation ("On the Street"). To lighten the mood, Collins talks about his dream of escaping New York City to open a restaurant in Santa Fe ("Santa Fe"). Soon, Mark leaves to check up on Roger; while alone, Collins and Angel confess their love for each other ("I'll Cover You"). Joanne hectically prepares for Maureen's show, trying to balance
4888-592: The Marketing of Gay America" details these similarities and discusses her critiques of the musical. The line, "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be... and more of a woman than you'll ever get!", attributed to Angel Dumott Schunard at her funeral, was previously used by the character Hollywood Montrose, who appeared in the films Mannequin (1987) and Mannequin Two: On the Move (1991). Like Angel, Hollywood performs
4992-547: The Moon"). At the post-show party at the Life Café, Benny arrives, criticizing the protest and the group's bohemian lifestyle while also revealing that his wife Alison's Akita, Evita, died due to Angel's actions; Mark and his group defiantly respond by celebrating their status (" La Vie Bohème "). Mimi and Roger each discover that the other is HIV-positive and hesitantly decide to continue their relationship ("I Should Tell You"). At
5096-649: The New York Theatre Workshop version of Rent featured songs that never made it into the final version, such as: This workshop version of Rent starred Anthony Rapp as Mark and Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi. Larson continued to work on Rent , gradually reworking its flaws and staging more workshop productions. On January 24, 1996, after the musical's final dress rehearsal before its off-Broadway opening, Larson had his first (and only) newspaper interview; music critic Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times – who had been attracted by
5200-488: The case was settled out of court. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. On Christmas Eve in Manhattan's East Village, two roommates—Mark, a filmmaker, and Roger, a rock musician—struggle to stay warm and produce their art ("Tune Up #1"). Mark's mother leaves him a voicemail wishing him a Merry Christmas and trying to comfort him since his ex-girlfriend Maureen dumped him ("Voice Mail #1"). Their friend Tom Collins,
5304-560: The character of Alcindoro in Bohème , but is also partially based on Marcello. Also, Joanne is the only Rent character whose predecessor in La Bohème is a different sex. Other examples of parallels between Larson's and Puccini's work include Larson's song "Light My Candle", which draws melodic content directly from "Che gelida manina"; " Quando me'n vo' " ("Musetta's Waltz"), a melody taken directly from Puccini's opera; and "Goodbye Love",
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#17328018705735408-644: The characters and plot elements are drawn directly from Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème , the world premiere of which was in 1896, a century before Rent ' s premiere. La Bohème was also about the lives of poor young artists. Tuberculosis , the plague of Puccini's opera, is replaced by HIV/AIDS in Rent ; 1800s Paris is replaced by New York's East Village in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The names and identities of Rent ' s characters also heavily reflect Puccini's original characters, though they are not all direct adaptations. For example, Joanne in Rent represents
5512-514: The classical music world; his comment that "American orchestras should think a little less about how they play and a little more about what they play and why they play it" is often quoted. In this regard, his colleagues at the Times described him as "something of a provocateur: challenging the field to take more risks, embrace new music and rethink old, hidebound habits". Tommasini's 2020 article which suggested blind auditions be abandoned so race can be considered to assist in diversifying ensembles
5616-419: The coincidence that the show was debuting exactly 100 years after Puccini's opera – requested the interview. Larson would not live to see Rent ' s success; he died from an undiagnosed aortic dissection (believed to have resulted from Marfan syndrome ) early the next morning, January 25, 1996. Friends and family gathered at the New York Theatre Workshop, and the first preview of Rent became
5720-480: The composer and writer of the Broadway show Hamilton , has cited Rent as a main source of inspiration. He also referenced the show in a verse of the song "Wrote My Way Out" on The Hamilton Mixtape in the line "Running out of time like I'm Jonathan Larson's rent check". 2019 Rent had its first staged reading at New York Theatre Workshop in March 1993. A further two-week New York Theatre Workshop version
5824-793: The corporate job offer ("Halloween"). Roger reveals that he is leaving for Santa Fe, which sparks an argument about commitment between him and Mimi, while Maureen and Joanne argue. Collins arrives and admonishes the entire group for fighting on the day of Angel's funeral, causing Maureen and Joanne to reconcile, but not Mimi and Roger. The group share a sad moment, knowing that between deaths and leaving, their close-knit friendships will become undone. Everyone leaves except Mark and Roger, where Mark tries to convince Roger to stay in New York. Roger, unable to handle Mimi's declining health, becomes furious with Mark and leaves. Mimi returns to say goodbye, overhearing everything Roger had said and, terrified, agrees to go to rehab, which Benny pays for ("Goodbye Love"). Collins
5928-462: The development of lower-case letters in the 8th century, texts in the Latin alphabet were written in a single case, which is now considered to be capital letters. Text in all caps is not widely used in body copy . The main exception to this is the so-called fine print in legal documents. Capital letters have been widely used in printed headlines from the early days of newspapers until the 1950s. In
6032-441: The discounted $ 20 rush tickets to each show, though it generally refers to anyone who is obsessed with the show. These discounted tickets were for seats in the first two rows of the theater reserved for sale by lottery two hours prior to each show. Other Broadway shows have followed Rent ' s example and now also offer cheaper tickets in efforts to make Broadway theater accessible to people who would otherwise be unable to afford
6136-653: The end of the Act, Joanne explains that Mark and Roger's building has been padlocked and a riot has broken out; Roger and Mimi, unaware of the violence, share their first kiss. The celebration continues ("La Vie Bohème B"). The cast lines up to sing together before the plot of the second act begins, affirming that one should measure life "in love" (" Seasons of Love "). On New Year's Eve, Mark, Mimi, Roger, Maureen, Joanne, Collins and Angel gather to break back into Mark and Roger's apartment which they have been locked out of. ("Happy New Year"). Once Mark, Joanne and Maureen break in through
6240-534: The evidence that all-capital printing retards speed of reading to a striking degree in comparison with lower case and is not liked by readers, it would seem wise to eliminate such printing whenever rapid reading and consumer (reader) views are of importance. Examples of this would include any continuous reading material, posters, bus cards, billboards, magazine advertising copy, headings in books, business forms and records, titles of articles, books and book chapters, and newspaper headlines. Colin Wheildon stated that there
6344-538: The eye recognizes letters by the shapes of their upper halves", asserts that recognizing words in all caps "becomes a task instead of a natural process". His conclusions, based on scientific testing in 1982–1990, are: "Headlines set in capital letters are significantly less legible than those set in lower case." John Ryder , in the Case for Legibility , stated that "Printing with capital letters can be done sufficiently well to arouse interest and, with short lines, reading at
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#17328018705736448-563: The future of the American musical." Another reviewer wrote, " Rent speaks to Generation X the way that the musical Hair spoke to the baby boomers or those who grew up in the 1960s," while the New York Times similarly called it "a rock opera for our time, a Hair for the 90s." The show proved extremely successful off-Broadway, selling out all of its performances at the 150-seat theatre. Due to its overwhelming popularity and
6552-569: The given identifier represents a constant . A practice exists (most commonly in Francophone countries) of distinguishing the surname from the rest of a personal name by stylizing the surname only in all caps. This practice is also common among Japanese, when names are spelled using Roman letters. In April 2013, the U.S. Navy moved away from an all caps-based messaging system, which was begun with 1850s-era teleprinters that had only uppercase letters. The switch to mixed-case communications
6656-421: The leader of the meeting, replies, "Okay...but, Gordon, how do you feel today?" Gordon admits that he is feeling the best that he has felt all year. Paul asks, "Then why choose fear?" Gordon says, "I'm a New Yorker. Fear's my life." Lynn Thomson was a dramaturge who was hired by New York Theatre Workshop to help rework Rent . She claimed that between early May and the end of October 1995, she and Larson co-wrote
6760-453: The loft while Roger stays home ("Tune Up #3"), trying to compose on his guitar without success; he wishes desperately to write one last song to be remembered by before he dies ("One Song Glory"). Their neighbor Mimi, an exotic dancer and drug addict, arrives at their apartment asking for help with lighting her candle, flirting with Roger in the process; however, he is clearly hesitant to return her affections ("Light My Candle"). Meanwhile, Joanne,
6864-567: The lower-case print is due to the characteristic word forms furnished by this type. This permits reading by word units, while all capitals tend to be read letter by letter. Furthermore, since all-capital printing takes at least one-third more space than lower case, more fixation pauses are required for reading the same amount of material. The use of all capitals should be dispensed with in every printing situation. According to Tinker, "As early as 1914, Starch reported that material set in Roman lower case
6968-439: The members of Life Support had a solid block of the "forget regret" refrain, and they talked about remembering love. When Jonathan's HIV positive friends heard this scene, they told him that having AIDS was not so easy to accept: it made you angry and resentful too, and the song did not match that. Jonathan then added a part where Gordon says that he has a problem with this "credo...my T-cells are low, I regret that news, okay?" Paul,
7072-526: The motivation behind the storyline in which Maureen leaves Mark for a woman (Joanne) is based on the fact that Larson's own girlfriend left him for a woman. The Mark Cohen character is based on Larson's friends, cinematographer and producer Jonathan Burkhart and documentary filmmaker Eddie Rosenstein . Playwright Sarah Schulman alleged that Rent bore striking similarities to her novel People in Trouble . Schulman's 1998 book "Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and
7176-482: The musical. Life Café, where the "La Vie Bohème" numbers are set, was an actual restaurant (closed 2013) on 10th Street and Avenue B in the East Village of New York City. The riot at the end of the first act is based on the East Village riot in 1988 that arose as a result of the city-imposed curfew in Tompkins Square Park . "Will I?", a song which takes place during a Life Support meeting and expresses
7280-558: The need for a larger theater, Rent moved to Broadway's previously derelict Nederlander Theatre on 41st Street on April 29, 1996. On Broadway, the show achieved critical acclaim and word-of-mouth popularity. The production's ethnically diverse principal cast originally included Taye Diggs , Wilson Jermaine Heredia , Jesse L. Martin , Idina Menzel , Adam Pascal , Anthony Rapp , Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker . The production's controversial topics and innovative pricing, including same day-of-performance $ 20 tickets, helped to increase
7384-523: The opportunity to add marginal notes emphasising key points. Legal writing expert Bryan A. Garner has described the practice as "ghastly". A 2020 study found that all-caps in legal texts is ineffective and is, in fact, harmful to older readers. In 2002, a US court spoke out against the practice, ruling that simply making text all-capitals has no bearing on whether it is clear and easily readable: Lawyers who think their caps lock keys are instant "make conspicuous" buttons are deluded. In determining whether
7488-461: The pain and fear of living a life with AIDS , was inspired by a real event. Larson attended a meeting of Friends in Deed , an organization that helps people deal with illness and grief, much like Life Support. After that first time, Larson attended the meetings regularly. During one meeting, a man stood up and said that he was not afraid of dying. He did say, however, that there was one thing of which he
7592-420: The pianist Leonard Shure . A decade later, he won the 1998 Boston University School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award. Based in Boston, Tommasini taught music at Emerson College from 1978 to 1986, and also led non-fiction writing workshops at Wesleyan University and Brandeis University . In 1985 at Emerson, he met the composer Virgil Thomson , who became both a friend and mentor. Tommasini published
7696-492: The popularity of musical theater amongst the younger generation. The production was nominated for ten Tony Awards in 1996 and won four: Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Heredia). On April 24, 2006, the original Broadway cast reunited for a one-night performance of the musical at the Nederlander Theatre. This performance raised over $ 2,000,000 for
7800-489: The reading time. When this is combined with the difficulty in reading words in all-capital letters as units, the hindrance to rapid reading becomes marked. In the eye-movement study by Tinker and Patterson, the principal difference in oculomotor patterns between lower case and all capitals was the very large increase in number of fixation pauses for reading the all-capital print. All caps text should be eliminated from most forms of composition, according to Tinker: Considering
7904-506: The rent, which they were promised would not be a problem ("Rent"). Meanwhile, Angel, a cross-dressing street drummer (presently out of drag), finds Collins wounded in an alley and tends to him ("You Okay Honey?") - the two are immediately attracted to each other, each learning that the other is HIV positive . It is revealed that Roger also has HIV, which he contracted from his last girlfriend, who died by suicide after learning of her diagnosis, causing Roger to fall into depression. Mark leaves
8008-405: The role she portrayed in the 2005 film version. The last Broadway performance was filmed and screened in movie theaters as Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway in September 2008. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray formats on February 3, 2009. Successful United States national tours, the "Angel Tour" and the "Benny Tour", launched in the 1990s. Later, the non- Equity tour started its run. There was also
8112-572: The same ROM. Game designers often choose to have less characters in favor of more tiles. With the advent of the bulletin board system , or BBS, and later the Internet, typing messages in all caps commonly became closely identified with "shouting" or attention-seeking behavior, and may be considered rude. Its equivalence to shouting traces back to at least 1984 and before the Internet, back to printed typography usage of all capitals to mean shouting. For this reason, etiquette generally discourages
8216-542: The shadow of HIV/AIDS . The musical was first seen in 1993 in a workshop production at New York Theatre Workshop , the off-Broadway theatre which was also where the musical began performances on January 26, 1996. The show's creator, Jonathan Larson, died suddenly of an aortic dissection , believed to have been caused by undiagnosed Marfan syndrome , the night before. The musical moved to Broadway 's larger Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1996. On Broadway, Rent gained critical acclaim and won several awards, including
8320-503: The show, which in its final incarnation contained 42 songs. In the fall of 1992, Larson approached James Nicola, artistic director of New York Theatre Workshop, with a tape and copy of Rent ' s script. When Rent had its first staged reading at New York Theatre Workshop in March 1993, it became evident that, despite its very promising material and moving musical numbers, many structural problems needed to be addressed, including its cumbersome length and overly complex plot. As of 1994,
8424-403: The simultaneous multiple calls ("We're Okay"). Before the performance, Roger apologizes to Mimi, inviting her to come to the protest and the dinner party his friends are having afterwards. At the same time, police, vendors, and homeless people prepare for the protest ("Christmas Bells"). Maureen performs in an avant-garde, if not over-the-top, manner, basing her piece on " Hey Diddle Diddle " ("Over
8528-655: The song "Rent"), and "I Should Tell You". Larson suggested setting the play "amid poverty, homelessness, spunky gay life, drag queens and punk " in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan , which happened to be down the street from his Greenwich Village apartment. He also came up with the show's ultimate title (a decision that Aronson was unhappy with, at least until Larson pointed out that "rent" also means torn apart). In 1991, he asked Aronson if he could use Aronson's original concept and make Rent his own. Larson had ambitious expectations for Rent ; his ultimate dream
8632-422: The song he wrote for her, revealing the depth of his feelings for her ("Your Eyes"). Mimi appears to die, but abruptly awakens, claiming to have been heading into a white light before a vision of Angel appeared, telling her to go back and stay with Roger. The remaining friends gather together in a final moment of shared happiness and resolve to enjoy whatever time they have left with each other, affirming that there
8736-576: The stage. Initially hesitant with each other, the two eventually bond over their shared distrust of Maureen's "gaslighting" and promiscuous behavior ("Tango: Maureen"). Mark then joins Collins and Angel to film their HIV support group meeting ("Life Support"), while Mimi attempts to seduce Roger alone in his apartment ("Out Tonight"). Extremely upset by Mimi's intrusion, he demands that she leave him alone and resists any romantic feelings he may harbor for her ("Another Day"). After Mimi leaves, Roger reflects on his fear of dying an undignified death from AIDS, while
8840-803: The ticket prices. The film Team America: World Police includes a character who plays a lead role in Lease , a Broadway musical parody of Rent . In 2017, the song "Out Tonight" was covered by the characters Josie and the Pussycats in an episode of the television series Riverdale . Satirist Randy Rainbow parodied "Seasons of Love" as "Seasons of Trump" for his 2021 look back at the Trump administration , and "Tango: Maureen" as "Tango: Vaccine" to highlight purveyors of COVID-19 misinformation . Rent has also been referenced in other musicals. Yitzhak in Hedwig and
8944-644: The title role of Puccini's Turandot ; Renata Tebaldi as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème ; and Leontyne Price as the title role of Verdi's Aida . From his teens, Tommasini also cites a performance of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring as particularly inspirational. He was a fan of the pianist Rudolf Serkin , whose recitals he frequently attended, and
9048-441: The trial, according to a partner in the firm representing the Larson estate, Thomson could not recall the lyrics to the songs that she allegedly wrote, nor the structures of the libretto she claimed to have created. The judge ruled against her and gave Larson's estate full credit and right to Rent . A federal appellate court upheld the original ruling on appeal. In the judgement, the court ruled against Thompson saying "she had brought
9152-477: The use of italics or (more rarely) bold . In addition, if all caps must be used it is customary to slightly widen the spacing between the letters, by around 10 per cent of the point height. This practice is known as tracking or letterspacing. Some digital fonts contain alternative spacing metrics for this purpose. Messages completely in capital letters are often equated on social media to shouting and other impolite or argumentative behaviors. This became
9256-581: The use of all caps when posting messages online. While all caps can be used as an alternative to rich-text "bolding" for a single word or phrase, to express emphasis, repeated use of all caps can be considered "shouting" or irritating. Some aspects of Microsoft's Metro design language involve the use of all caps headings and titles. This has received particular attention when menu and ribbon titles appeared in all caps in Visual Studio 2012 and Office 2013 , respectively. Critics have compared this to
9360-402: The window, a voicemail reveals that Mark's footage of the riot has earned him a job offering at a tabloid news company called Buzzline ("Voice Mail #3"). The others finally break through the door just as Benny arrives, saying he wants to call a truce and revealing that Mimi, a former girlfriend of his, convinced him to change his mind. Mimi denies rekindling her relationship with Benny, but Roger
9464-459: The wrong suit." Thompson had sued over a verbal agreement she claimed to have with Larson, which she could not prove. However, the court stated in the judgment that her claim to have written some of the material in RENT, including the lyrics to the song "Glory," was credible and that she had standing to sue for ownership of some of the material in RENT. She filed suit with revised claims. In August 1998,
9568-765: Was a freelancer , and wrote for The Boston Globe for a decade, beginning in 1986. Tommasini became a staff writer for The New York Times in 1996, and was promoted to chief classical music critic in 2000. In addition to Thomson, his mentors include Richard Dyer , who was chief classical music critic of The Boston Globe for 33 years. At the Times , Tommasini traveled for important premieres of contemporary classical music , including Saariaho 's L'Amour de loin (2000), Adès 's The Tempest (2004) and Turnage 's Anna Nicole (2011). He covered certain musicians particularly often, such as Peter Serkin , Leif Ove Andsnes , Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen . Tommasini often advocated for increased diversity in
9672-558: Was afraid: Would he lose his dignity? From this question stemmed the first line of this song. The people present at the Life Support meeting in the show, such as Gordon, Ali and Pam, carry the names of Larson's friends who died. In the Broadway show, the names of the characters in that particular scene (they introduce themselves) were changed nightly to honor the friends of the cast members who were living with or had died from AIDS. The scene and song "Life Support" were also based on Friends in Deed, as well as on Gordon, Pam, and Ali. Originally,
9776-643: Was common on teletype machines, such as those used by police departments, news, and the United States' then-called Weather Bureau , as well as early computers, such as certain early Apple II models and the ZX81 , which had a limited support for lower-case text. This changed as full support of ASCII became standard, allowing lower-case characters. Some Soviet computers , such as Radio-86RK , Vector-06C , Agat-7 , use 7-bit encoding called KOI-7N2, where capital Cyrillic letters replace lower-case Latin letters in
9880-496: Was estimated to save the Navy $ 20 million a year and is compliant with current Internet protocol. An antiquated practice that still remains in use, especially by older American lawyers who grew up before the arrival of computers, is to use all caps text for text that is legally required to be emphasised and clearly readable. The practice dates to the period of typewriters, which generally did not offer bold text, small capitals, or
9984-513: Was incredible." The song "Seasons of Love" became a successful pop song and often is performed on its own. Because of its connection to New Years and looking back at times past, it is sometimes performed at graduations or school holiday programs. Rent gathered a following of fans who refer to themselves as "RENT-heads". The name originally referred to people who would camp out at the Nederlander Theater for hours in advance for
10088-637: Was interested in classical music from a young age. Beginning piano lessons in his youth, at 16 years of age he won a piano competition at The Town Hall in Manhattan , performing a Mozart concerto . From age 15 on, he regularly attended the Metropolitan Opera , with operas by Puccini being particular favorites. Other impressionable performances included Joan Sutherland as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor ; Birgit Nilsson as
10192-463: Was met with "intense debate"; In New Music USA , Maia Jasper White noted that the idea received "heavy backlash". Tommasini stepped down from his post in 2021; with a 21 year tenure he has been chief classical music critic of The New York Times for the longest period since Olin Downes . In April 2022, music critic Zachary Woolfe was named Tommasini's successor as chief classical music critic for
10296-427: Was not without controversy, and Tommasini conceded that readers who argued for Claudio Monteverdi were "probably right". He added: "Would that I could include my beloved Puccini ." He discussed these composers, and others, in his book The Indispensable Composers (2018). Tommasini lives on Central Park West in Manhattan , New York City with his husband Ben McCommon, who is a psychiatrist. After his leave from
10400-529: Was overwhelmed by Stravinsky conducting his Symphony of Psalms at the Lincoln Center . A graduate of Saint Paul's School in Garden City, New York , Tommasini studied piano with Donald Currier at Yale University , receiving a Bachelor of Arts (1970) and a Master of Music (1972). He subsequently earned a Doctor of Musical Arts (1982) from Boston University , during which he studied with
10504-415: Was performed in 1994 starring Anthony Rapp as Mark and Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi, and more workshops followed. The show opened in 1996, again at New York Theatre Workshop, and quickly gained popularity off-Broadway, receiving enthusiastic reviews. The New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley called it an "exhilarating, landmark rock opera" with a "glittering, inventive score" that "shimmers with hope for
10608-444: Was positive not only for its acting and musical components, but also for its representation of HIV-positive individuals. Many critics praised the portrayal of characters such as Angel and Collins as being happy, with positive outlooks on life, rather than being resigned to death. While critics and theatre patrons had largely positive reviews of the show, it was criticized for its stereotypically negative portrayal of lesbian characters and
10712-427: Was read somewhat faster than similar material printed in all capitals." Another study in 1928 showed that "all-capital text was read 11.8 percent slower than lower case, or approximately 38 words per minute slower", and that "nine-tenths of adult readers consider lower case more legible than all capitals". A 1955 study by Miles Tinker showed that "all-capital text retarded speed of reading from 9.5 to 19.0 percent for
10816-581: Was to write a rock opera "to bring musical theater to the MTV generation ". Aronson and Larson made an agreement that if the show went to Broadway, Aronson would share in the proceeds and be given credit for "original concept & additional lyrics". Jonathan Larson focused on composing Rent in the early 1990s, waiting tables at the Moondance Diner to support himself. Over the course of years, Larson wrote hundreds of songs and made many drastic changes to
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