The unlucky landlord of "Rent" died the night his smash Broadway musical was born in 1996. Following the musical's final dress rehearsal, Broadway's Great White Hope for the American musical unexpectedly perished in his apartment of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35. Theater's wunderkind reworked

Bombast, Dramatic, New american musical, Overflowing, Pop, Tragic

As Anglo-Irish tensions tore his country apart, William Butler Yeats sought to give Ireland songs of identity rooted in the island's particular history and myth. Invoking a strong sense of place and folk tradition, Yeats attempted to counter the rapid growth of industry and materialism that he saw as

Lyrical, Modernist poetry, Mythic, Rebel, Sublime, Tragic

Born in New York's Harlem in 1915, Arthur Miller was not a good student. After a lackluster high school career, he was ready to join his father's clothing business when he read Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov." Suddenly, the world changed -- Miller decided to dedicate his life to reading and writin

Empty, Political, Post-war theater, Tragic