Jonathan Larson won the Pulitzer Prize for Rent, as well as Tony Awards for Best Book, Best Lyrics, and Best Musical, three Drama Desk Awards and numerous others. His "overnight success" came after fifteen years of writing, composing, and performing. He wrote the musical Superbia and the rock monologue tick, tick...BOOM! and composed a variety of music for children, including songs for "Sesame Street," audio books, and the video Away We Go! Mr. Larson died unexpectedly of an aortic aneurysm on January 25, 1996, the night before Rent 's first performance. He was thirty-five.