"Rent" - the lawsuit - closed in federal court with a judge's ruling that the hit musical was the sole legal creation of Jonathan Larson and had not been authored with a collaborator, no matter how much she contributed to the show's success.
The decision by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan quashed an effort by Lynn M. Thomson, who was paid $2,000 as dramaturge for the show, to win recognition and a share of hefty profits as a co-writer of the rock opera about the AIDS-shadowed lives of modern-day Bohemians in the East Village.Larson, 35, died of a heart aneurysm in January 1996.
The ruling, after a four-day civil trial, came on narrow legal grounds. To have succeeded in her claim under the copyright law, Kaplan said, Thomson would have had to prove that both she and Larson had fully intended to be co-owners of a joint work.
However, witnesses testified that Larson was fiercely possessive of the show he had been developing over seven years and showed no willingness to share his authority.
While Thomson sat immobile next to her lawyers, Larson's father, Allan, mother, Nanette, and sister, Julie Larson McCollum, hugged one another and broke into tears.
"He'd be happy," said Allan Larson, glancing upward. "I was confident Jonathan would be vindicated." He said the family had viewed the lawsuit as an attack on their son and so had spurned a last-minute effort by Judge Kaplan to have the parties settle the case before his verdict. Still, Larson said he was not ruling out some possible further payment to Thomson "when the dust settles."
Thomson promised an appeal based on the judge's expressions of sympathy for her limited compensation - the $2,000, another $10,000 from one of the producers, and a small stipend - in light of her contributions to the show. "What is just and what is law should be the same thing," Thomson said.
Based on her claim of having written 24 percent of the non-musical part of the show and 9 percent of the lyrics, Thomson by an intricate formula was seeking 16 percent of the author's royalties, which court papers said could amount over the years to $250 million or more. As co-owner of the work with the Larson family, she would also have gained control over all rights to "Rent."
Despite everything, she said, "I could look Jonathan Larson in the eye and say we are co-authors and he would agree with me."
The lawsuit, filed by Thomson last November, had been viewed by some in the theater community as a test of the rights of the dramaturge, a vaguely defined figure who compiles material for a production and assists in many capacities.
Largely uncontroverted evidence in the "Rent" case, for example, suggested that while Thomson was hired to help Larson sharpen a show that was falling flat, she ended up closeted with him in his apartment actually writing and rewriting.
But Kaplan said the case was not about the role of the dramaturge "but what went through the minds of these two people."
Under a controlling Appeals Court decision, he said, "the parties must understand each has an interest in the product, the right to share in the proceeds, the right to control the work, and the right to be recognized as the author."
But referring to Thomson, he said, "The plaintiff failed to prove Jonathan Larson entertained the necessary intent."
"There is simply no proof persuasive to me that Jonathan Larson ever intended, despite warm feeling for her, that she have an interest in the product to make her a joint author," the judge said.
As far as claiming "Rent" to be a joint work, he said, "It is not so."
"Having said that," he added, "I can only express the sorrow I feel that the case ever came into this court. It is most unfortunate. It never would have happened if this young man were here today. I hope that some good may yet come of this."
The day began with the two final witnesses, Michael Greif, the director of "Rent," and Allan Larson, who testified that his son "referred to himself as the person who would remake the Broadway musical."
In closing arguments, a lawyer for Thomson, Russell Alexander Smith, charged the Larson family with directing a "revision of the history of `Rent' that minimized Thomson's contribution." But he was repeatedly pressed by the judge to explain how he could meet the law's standard that both parties intended to produce and co-own a joint work.
A lawyer for the Larsons, Peter Parcher, referring to Thomson's difficulty the day before recalling song lyrics she said she had written, said Jonathan Larson would have had no such trouble. "He would sing it and shout it from the rafters," Parcher said, declaiming:
"One song/Glory
One song/Glory
Before I go
To leave the past behind."
(According to the official "Rent" libretto, Parcher's version of the lyrics was slightly off. The final phrase should be "One song to leave behind.")