When the house lights dim at the Orpheum Theatre and The Jonathan Larson Project begins, the audience is told in a voiceover, “Not a word of these songs has been changed.” During the next 90 or so minutes, some twenty vibrant, virtually unknown compositions crafted by the long-lost maker of Rent – before he wrote Rent — are lovingly performed by a lively five-member ensemble backed by a hidden but oh-so-nice five-musician band.
Showbiz buffs probably know how Larson unexpectedly died at age 35 just a few days before his Rent premiered at New York Theatre Workshop to widespread acclaim in 1996, followed by a dozen years as a Broadway hit, numerous worldwide tours and productions (eventually a year-long Off Broadway revival) and multiple awards including the Pulitzer Prize. Today, Larson is fondly regarded as a gifted musical theater craftsman who would have enjoyed his 65th birthday last month, and one cannot help but wonder what might have been …
Other than a poignant video montage underscored by familiar Rent tunes before the actors arrive onstage, the specific circumstances of the songwriter’s life and untimely loss are not addressed in The Jonathan Larson Project, which premiered on Monday. Instead, as smartly conceived by Jennifer Ashley Tepper and swiftly staged by director John Simpkins, the show is a revue presenting various songs Larson wrote for unproduced musicals, cabaret acts or simply for the hell of it. Matching the show’s academic title, its Playbills are stuffed with a four-page insert of notes detailing the source and history of each number. This new Off Broadway production, however, dealing out songs and dances with only a few bits of dialogue, is anything but a classroom affair.
Expect the environs to casually suggest a downtown Manhattan barroom, which the performers assemble during their opening song with stools, tables and chairs while singing “Greene Street,” an upbeat hand-clapper about hanging out and “laughing the day away.” As the show rolls along, songs are sometimes presented as stand-alone segments showcasing the variety of Larson’s work and spotlighting the actors, togged out by designer Tracey Christensen in circa 1990 street clothes.
Adam Chanler-Berat, whose lanky, dark appearance recalls Larson’s boyish looks, sweetly offers up aspirational or soulful material reflecting an artist’s seesawing emotions. Jason Tam cheerfully romps through a rowdy “Casual Sex, Pizza and Beer.” Taylor Iman Jones boldly delivers sexy mama turns like her “Out of My Dreams” crooner which transforms into a steamy MTV-style interlude involving satin sheets, live video angles and fuchsia colored lighting. Andy Mientus, clad in black, coolly handles bad boy stuff such as “Valentine’s Day,” an unexpected banger about a B&D tryst that echoes with a “Beat me ‘til I’m black and blue and gray” refrain. Lauren Marcus, sporting a comical attitude as sharp as her pageboy bob, makes the humorous most of wacky pieces like the mock-futuristic “Hosing the Furniture,” which indeed she does in a manic soprano amid billows of purple stage fog.
Tepper and Simpkins inventively link six songs with a satirical scenario about the grooming of a political candidate that starts off lightly and then gets dark fast, concluding in a bitter “The Truth is a Lie” lament. It’s creepy to realize how the lyrics of that 1990 composition reflect the crazy talk so often heard today.
Byron Easley’s nimble choreography lends further animation to Simpkins’ well-paced production. Half a dozen screens of various size are situated amid scenic designer Michael Schweikardt’s casual, flexible surroundings and they usually display video designer Alex Basco Koch’s glowing mix of fresh and vintage images. A rainbow array of lighting hues by Adam Honoré and Shannon Clarke color the visuals. Music supervisor Charlie Rosen does nobly by the songs and their arrangements; all the performers are capable singers and their combined voices sound lovely, especially so during the radiant anthems that conclude the show.
For all of its excellence as a production, the revue’s charm possesses a deeply nostalgic quality in its looks and its music likely to appeal far more to the now middle-aged (and older) Rent-head crowd than to a succeeding generation born after Larson’s times. Will high schools ever produce this musical? During the event’s 16-week stint it will be interesting to learn whether younger audiences respond to this expert, agreeable if not always exciting collection of unknown show tunes and other songs written well before the turn of the last century.
The Jonathan Larson Project opened March 10, 2025, at the Orpheum Theatre and runs through June 5. Tickets and information: thejonathanlarsonproject.com
