Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1433736
3 2 P E R S P E C T I V E | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 theatre world so deep and lasting that roadway will never be the same. In the mission statement shared with collaborators at the outset of making his feature fi lm directorial debut, Lin-Manuel Miranda talks about how seeing Jonathan Larson's Rent at age 17 was the catalyst that set him on his path toward a career in musical theatre. The missive goes on to explain, however, that the road map to that calling was another less-known Larson work originally conceived of as a confessional musical monologue that Jonathan would perform himself, and eventually—following his sudden death on the eve of Rent's breakout success—was reworked as a threeperson o roadway production. This show that Lin was so moved by at age 21, then performed in as Jonathan at age 34, and was now fi nally directing a movie version of at age 40 was tick, tick…BOOM! The piece had clearly played a huge part in his creative and professional development and meant a great deal to him. It was crucial to get it right. In our fi rst discussions about the project, Lin and I were mostly focused on the need to show the New York of 1990 as it really was and not a romanticized version. The city at that time was undergoing many changes but had not yet fully metamorphosized into the corporate wonderland it would become. For instance, the subways had been sanitized and stripped of their spray-painted dream coats, but Times Square had not yet gone through its socalled isneyfi cation. While the stigma of the dark and dangerous metropolis of the '70s and '80s was slowly beginning to erode, NYC still had a roughness and griminess as its cross to bear. For the creative team capturing this essence was crucial for two reasons. Number one, the audience had to understand Jonathan's desperation to succeed. Stubbornly incapable of cashing in on his gifts for a cushy job in advertising, his only way out of the starving artist lifestyle and the slums of SoHo would have been by writing and staging a hit. We had to establish the stakes. The second, and perhaps most important; realism was key to 1 2 3 4 13'-0" 9'-0" 12'-3" 8'-0" 19'-2" 15'-6" 5'-6" 22'-6" PLAN 1/4" = 1'-0" 1 LIVING ROOM ROOM ROOM ROOM MICHAEL'S MICHAEL'S MICHAEL'S MICHAEL'S ROOM KITCHEN KITCHEN KITCHEN WC WC WC OUTER HALL JON'S ROOM ROOM ROOM ROOM HALL SKYLIGHT SKYLIGHT SKYLIGHT 4 1 2 3 5 6 7 A. JONATHAN'S APARTMENT AT 508 GREENWICH. FLOOR PLAN AND CAMERA STUDIES OF THE STAGE SET. DRAWN IN VECTORWORKS BY BLYTHE QUINLAN. A