Jonathan Larson was an playwright and composer and wrote the Broadway musical "Rent". He was very young when he died (only 36) of an aortic dissection.
The story goes that the "Rent" cast did a dress rehearsal on the night of January 24th, 1996. Jonathan was extremely excited despite feeling unwell. He'd been to a couple different doctors complaining of chest pains and nausea in the week prior to his death. The docs misdiagnosed him with the flu or stress and sent him home each time. Anyway, Jonathan gave an interview to the NY Times and went home around midnight, where he put a tea kettle on. They believe that sometime between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. his heart simply gave out. He wasn't found until later in the morning (around 6?) by his roommate.
That evening was to be the premiere of "Rent", and there was a lot of speculation whether or not to go on with it. Jonathan's parents, who were flying in to see the play, gave their overwhelming approval that the show should go on. The cast decided to simply do a run-through while sitting on the 3 tables that are used throughout the play, but by "La Vie Boheme" they were so energized that they finished the play as it was supposed to be.
I'm a recent "renthead" and have been devouring any information I can find about the play, the original cast, and Jonathan Larson. My copy of the movie "Rent" came with a 90 minute documentary about Jonathan and the evolution of the play. Interesting stuff! It's so sad that he never got to see how his play affected so many people, or the awards it's won.