The late, great Jonathan Larson.
Courtesy Library of CongressNearly 30 years after his untimely death, an all-new musical from Jonathan Larson is coming to the stage.
The Jonathan Larson Project is a new musical featuring over 20 songs written by the Broadway legend that have never before been a part of a fully staged production. This new production is set to make its Of-Broadway premiere in February 2025.
What is 'The Jonathan Larson Project'?
The Jonathan Larson Project features more than 20 songs written by Larson — including songs cut from his two hit Broadway musicals Rent and tick, tick… BOOM!, as well as songs from projects that never saw the light of day, such as 1984 and Superbia, as reported by Deadline. Even songs that Larson wrote for the radio and other theatrical revues will be included — some of which were never publicly performed or recorded before.
The new musical, conceived by Jennifer Ashley Tepper and directed by John Simpkins, will have a 16-week limited engagement. Previews will being on February 14 at the Orpheum Theatre, with an official opening night scheduled for March 10, 2025.
Who is Jonathan Larson?
Jonathan Larson was a playwright, composer, and musician who wrote hit musicals tick, tick… BOOM! and Rent in the 1990s — which were both radically inclusive of LGBTQ+ characters for the time.
Larson was one of Broadway's most promising young writers before tragically passing away at age 35 of an aortic aneurysm, as noted on the Encyclopedia Britannica. He passed away just days before Rent had its first previews in New York City.
After his death, Larson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tonys for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score, as well as three Drama Desk Awards.
What inspired Jonathan Larson to write 'Rent'?
While Rent was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème and was originally going to be written by playwright Billy Aronson, Larson had the idea to focus the story in Lower Manhattan, where he and his roommates lived in an apartment together, and made the project his own.
At the time, Larson's New York community included many queer people, homeless people, artists, and people living with HIV/AIDS — and Larson felt the need to write about them (as reported in The New York Times, via Wayback Machine). In the period that he took to write Rent, Larson had three friends who died because of complications from HIV/AIDS.
He also had a childhood best friend, Matthew O'Grady, who was a gay man living with HIV/AIDS. Being gay and living with the virus were two things that O'Grady confessed to Larson before he told anyone else.
How can I learn more about Jonathan Larson's life?
If you want to learn more about Larson's life, you can watch the movie version of Larson's semi-autobiographical musical tick, tick… BOOM!, which stars Andrew Garfield as Larson in the process of putting together a musical. The film, which is directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, also stars Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, and Robin de Jesús.
tick, tick… BOOM! is streaming on Netflix.
