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me: RENT was inspired by the struggle of those living with AIDS, many that Larson knew personally and even included them in the show (see: Life Support). The song "Will I" came from a meeting at the support group Friends in Deed where Larson was attending with his best friend who had just been diagnosed with AIDS himself. Throughout the making of his show, five of his closest friends died from the disease; they're credited in Life Support. The poverty seen in the show was an accurate representation of Greenwich Village, where Larson lived; there were extension cords out of the windows so that people could have power. He wore the same pair of shoes for five years and worked at a diner for almost ten. He finally saw his dream of becoming a composer coming true after ten years of worry and failure (see: tick tick boom) and was interviewed only once for this show, the night before the opening of it Off-Off-Broadway. He went home and died that night and never got to see the show go to Broadway. His sister had to accept his Tony Awards. The show pulled people out of poverty like Idina Menzel, who was performing at weddings and bars to survive and losing most of her profit. The show redefined the meaning of the term rock musical and has impacted musical theater greatly (see Next To Normal). It was one of the eight musicals ever to win a Pulitzer Prize and won four Tony's. It is the modern adaptation of La Boheme, teaching people that groups of people throughout all of time can suffer and bond together, that the story of struggle and survival is timeless.