Jonathan Larson

Jonathan Larson, the composer of Rent and Tick, Tick....Boom! Both were musicals released in the early 2000s. The music in these musicals were not entirely an orchestra more of classic rock, which I believed made both movies even better and brought out the storyline even more. Jonathan Larson was born to a Jewish family on February 4, 1960 in White Plains, New York, USA. At a young age he was exposed to performing arts being music and theater. He was very involved in his high school arts programs. He played trumpet and tuba in high school and was involved in his school's choir and took piano lessons. He was also considered a great actor in high school, acted thee lead role in many productions at White Plains High School. He was influenced by rock musicians such as Elton John,…

an overture is nowhere to be heard, the curtains are missing and the haphazardly placed lighting rigs have not yet dimmed. All at once, the stage erupts with cast members running in-between and out of the industrial themed set, a strum of a guitar is heard and a critically acclaimed overnight sensation is born in the image of Jonathon Larson. Adapted from the popular opera La Bohème, Rent the musical was created in the hopes of representing the minute bohemian culture of New York City at the end…

Aside from this, the author does spend a great deal of time focusing on just how many other great works and careers were inspired by the 1893 World’s Fair. For instance, “Walt Disney’s father, Elias, helped build the White City; Walt’s Magic Kingdom might well be a descendant” (Larson 373), and “the writer L. Frank Baum and his artist-partner William Wallace Denslow visited the fair; its grandeur informed their creation of Oz” (Larson 373). These two statements alone are just a couple of…

Listen, I know it’s a bit late, but I’m finally getting back to you on those book recommendations. I just finished reading a novel called The Devil in the White City, and I’m pretty sure that you would find it quite interesting. The book is set around the time of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and follows the parallel paths of Daniel Burnham, the fair’s architect, and H. H. Holmes, a prolific serial killer who used the fair’s magnetic allure to find his victims. Burnham’s storyline is about…

The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction book that is divided into four different parts. The last part takes the reader into two perspectives. One perspective is of Daniel Burnham who was the architect that built the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair. The book describes of the obstacles that Daniel and his partner John Root had to overcome. These obstacles include the two of them having to figure out an attraction more spectacular than the Eiffel Tower. Also, Daniel was left building the fair by…

During the summer of the years 1133 to 1855 a famous fair came into London, most commonly known as the Bartholomew Fair. Hosted in Smithfield, otherwise known as the location popular for slaughterhouses and public executions, the fair was a trading event that attracted Londoners of all classes. Ben Jonson uses this factor to his advantage with his play entitled, “Bartholomew Fair.” The type of people, activities, and crimes that occur at the fair gives Jonson the opportunity to reflect on his…

‘Chicago’ Carl Sandburg The poem ‘Chicago’ by Carl Sandburg describes the city of Chicago in the United States of America, presumably at the time of writing, 1914. Sandburg is first speaking to the city, then speaking to the people who is reading the poem. Sandburg has described Chicago as a city of the big shoulders, busy and brawling. Sandburg’s deep affection for his city arises, in spite of the outsiders staring at the hard working people who colonise the city. He makes us imagine Chicago…

It witnessed Fredrick Jackson Turner’s The Significance of the Frontier in American History as well as Fredrick Douglas, who used his platform to present a speech that both indicted Columbus and criticized the fair (McGarry 10/2016). The White City was seen as the epitome of western civilization. For the first time, visitors were able to view anthropological exhibits where they could measure their own skulls. Because the Midway had a variety of intriguing exhibits and different forms of…

Erik Larson is argued to have a difficult time creating realistic details for a book about a time period he could only research about. In The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses brilliantly constructed figurative language in order to insightfully display his interpretation of the story (entailing the events of the Chicago World Fair and the serial killer H. H. Holmes) and realistically and informatively describe the details of people, places, and events in the novel. The first figurative…

Erick Larson’s The Devil in the White City traces the period of chaos that took place in building the World’s Fair and the moment of pride that followed. Published in 2003 in New York, this book also displays the evil that worked behind all of the effort to expose America’s architecture to the world. In his book, Larson demonstrates America’s strive and desire to successfully host the 1893 World’s Fair. Larson tries to illustrate America’s stamina and endurance despite all of the troubles that…