单选题
Over the years, as the musical "Rent" has reached milestone after milestone—playing around 'the world in more than 200 productions from Boise to Little Rock to Reykjavik—the thousands of people who have been affected by this vibrant, gritty and compassionate work may well wonder what its creator, Jonathan Larson, would have thought of it all. Another milestone came on Monday .night. The original Broadway production of "Rent" opened at the Nederlander Theater l0 years ago this Saturday. That production, directed by Michael Greif, was an almost-intact transfer of the initial production at the New York Theater Workshop, which had opened three months earlier. To celebrate the anniversary the original cast members reassembled, rehearsed for two days and performed the show in a semi-staged version at the Nederlander on Monday. The event was a benefit for the New York Theater Workshop, for Friends in Deed (a support organization that gave comfort to several of Mr. Larson's friends dealing with H.I.V. infections.). and for the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation, which was set up by his family after the enormous success of "Rent". Before the performance, the co-chairmen of the benefit told the star-studded audience that more than $2 million' had been raised. Also addressing the crowd were Senator Charles E. Schumer and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who praised "Rent" as a timeless work exemplifying "culture, community and creativity," in the mayor's words, and saluted the show's vast contributions to New York's theatrical life. Once again you could only think, "Would Jonathan ever have imagined all this?" Mr. Larson, who wrote the music, lyrics and books for his stage works, struggled for more than 10 years to get a producer to take a shot at one of his shows. Now he was being posthumously thanked for giving Broadway a creative and economic boost. "Rent" is the seventh longest running show in Broadway history. I count myself among those who were personally affected by Mr. Larson's work. because of the inadvertent role I played in the last hours of his life. In 1996 an editor at The Times tipped me off to the opening of a rock musical, inspired by. "La Boheme", which transplanted Puccini's struggling bohemians from Paris in the 1830's to the ‘East Village in 1990's. So on Jan. 24 I went to the New York Theater Workshop m see the dress rehearsal of "Rent", which was scheduled to open in February. That performance was pretty ragged, with technical glitches and a misbehaving sound system. But I was swept away by the sophistication and exuberance of Mr. Larson's music and the mix of tenderness and cleverness in his lyrics. After the show Mr. Larson and I sat down for an interview in the tiny ticket booth of the theater, the only quiet space we could find amid the post-rehearsal confusion. For almost an hour, this sad-eyed and boyish. creator talked about his approach to songwriting, his determination to bring the American musical tradition to the MTV generation, and about friends snuggling with H:I.V. infection who had inspired the show.
单选题
The fact that the original production was an almost-intact transfer of the initial production at the New York Theater Workshop implies that______.