John Larson's death — Page 2

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#26

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/11/04 at 11:53pm

I went to see Rent at the Wang Center in Boston on June 19th. In each Playbill there was a pink slip of paper that talks about Marfan syndrome, the undiagnosed ailment that ultimately le to Mr. Larson's death.

Among other info, the paper says that "Marfan syndrome affects the heart, specifically the aorta, and the connective tissue throughout the body. It is not a well-known disease, even within the medical community, yet approximately 200,000 Americans have Marfan syndrome or a related connective tissue disorder. Untreated, the aorta may dissect with fatal results." It says that Mr Larson "died alone at home of an undedected aortic dissection" at age 35. It also says that if Mr. Larson's condition had been detected, proper treatment could have prevented his death.

After the show, Brian Gligor, who played Mark, came back on stage and basically reiterated what the paper said, and said that there will be actors in the lobby to collect money for Marfan syndrome research, to be given in memory of Mr. Larson. I gladly gave some money.

Anyway, there you have it, the technical explanation of Mr Larson's death. Its a real shame he never saw the fruits of his labor and vision. He truely is a musical theatre genius. RIP

#27

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:04am

awww this is so sweet!:

Marlies Yearby: I think opening night was the first night i openly cried. It was such a relief that it was up, the realization of the whole journey.
Don Summa: When the show started, Adam walked on, the cast walked on and eveyone in the audience just stood up. Then everybody say down and Anthony said 'we dedicate this and every performance to the memory of jonathan larson' and then everyone just stood up again cheering and applauding and cheering and whooping.
Daphne Rubin Vega: We were operating on pure adrenaline. When we hit the wood and people began applauding that was the moment when Jonathan's absence was so loud and pathetically ironic
Timothy Britten Parker: As we got to our places, the applause started out slowly and built to a crecendo for what was probably 2 or 3 minutes. There was such a feeling of love, a feeling of being embraced, a feeling that already Jonathan's work had touched these people.

aah that almost makes me want to cry

i cannot even put into words what a loss that was to musical theatre as we know it

#28

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:41am

Oh - wanted to add that (if I remember correctly) Jon's parents won a malpractice lawsuit against the hospital, and gave the money to help research Marfan......

#29

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:50am

---Oh - wanted to add that (if I remember correctly) Jon's parents won a malpractice lawsuit against the hospital, and gave the money to help research Marfan...... ---

really? i would think that that would be widely known... but i had no idea...

kinda sad that people can write tons of articles about who jennifer lopez is dating and a lot of other crap but they cant take a time out to say something like that

#30

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:57am

They did a story on PrimeTime Live about the lawsuit, I believe. I taped it, but I have no idea where my tape went.

Here's a related link.
http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/articles/wallstj/96/382

#31

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:24am

well I had been listening to the CAST RECORDING for almost 6 months before I went to NYC to see the show, I am happy to say that Rent was the first show that I ever saw on B-way (Hairspray being the second) and I remember walking into the lobby the day of the show to get tickets. I guess the cast was in the middle of he matine performance, cause I all I heard was LVB at the end I walked in and heard "are we packed" .... I started mouthing the words and my friend looked at me and said what r u doing I said I really love this show because I can relate with so much in it, and I know every word. I had chills when I paid for the tickets and I refused to put them anywhere but in my hand.

When we came back later that night to see the show I was so shocked it was a totaly packed house (the Fri after Thankgiving) we sat beside this awsome family a mom dad nad there 2 sons (both under 15) and they lived in NY and said that some of there friends recomended seeing the show it was the only one they had yet to see that was a really big name musical so far the mom and I chatted I told her almost everything I knew about the show and really surprised here on a lot of things Like it being based on La Bohem and all. I

When the show started it was strange to me because I saw actors and crew sausally walk around the stage and all of a suddne I hear Mark say WE BEGIN and I grabed my friends hand and didnt let got till almost the end of RENT. I cried 3 times thru the show. and I still get chills and almost start again everytime I hear the same somgs on the CAST RECORDING.

after the show I was walking around the ochestra level and I bought a poster that they were selling for Broadway Cares talking to the lady I bought it from I learned a few new facts and she intoduced me to the guy playing Roger ( jeremy kushnier, who I think had just started playing that week or somewhere around then cause there was an insert for the playbill with his bio and stuff on it) and we talked for a few minutes and he signed my playbill. I came away from the show say

Wow now I really want to be on Broadway someday justso I can return to someone what I just got from this show.

All the cast was great and Jeremy was cool too, but really again I know none of it would have happened without Johnathan LArson and his dreams for theatre and Broadway. Thanks everyone

In the words of the great MargoChanning "Broadwayworld.com -- Your One Stop on the Internet for All Things Broadway, Nasty Political Discussions, Meltdowns, Name-Calling and General Nonsense along with being a Premiere Pick-up Joint for Hotties, Shut-ins, Rambunctuous Teenagers With Bad Grammar, and All Manner of Bitter, Jaded Theatre Queens with WAY Too Much Time on Their Hands"?

#32

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 12:12pm

---They did a story on PrimeTime Live about the lawsuit, I believe. I taped it, but I have no idea where my tape went.
Here's a related link.
http://www.aidsinfobbs.org/articles/wallstj/96/382 ---

woah thanks its nice to know that the larson's got some mooney for jon's death but in my opinon the family should have gotten so much more money...

o well i guess the money doesnt matter i just hope that somehow they can see how important their son's life was to all of the rent fans out there

#33

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 3:58pm

Has anyone noticed how ironic a lot of the lyrics in Rent are?

#34

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:00pm

[This post is far longer than I expected it to be. I am a bit of an activist.]

For someone who never met Jonathan Larson, I feel like I knew him.

I know his high school best friend.

I met one of the ER doctors who was sued.

I have many friends with Marfan, one of whom (Julie Kurnitz of Minnie's Boys among other shows) recently died.

The key with Marfan is diagnosis. With that you've got a shot at it because now there is treatment. Marfan was not one of the checklist things that an ER thinks of. With grants from the Larson Foundation for training, it is now. The Larson Foundation also received all Jonathan's royalties from the show.

My question was and is, "Where were the pediatricians?" Marfan is genetic. You are born with it. You cannot catch it. It is there from day one.

Jonathan Larson had Marfan for 35 years and the last week of his life, doctors who have never met this man are expected to give at least a preliminary diagnosis? Well, yes. Unfortunately this didn't happen.

From photos I have seen, Jonathan had many classic outward physical markings of Marfan which might include and the key word is long; long face, long arms and fingers, thin and tall (men can be 6'8" women can be 6'4"; can be but not all are), long lower half of the body; then there is extreme myopia, flat feet, a breastbone that curves in or curves outward, double-jointed, curvature of the spine.

Many of these characteristics are those of athletes. Michael Phelps appears to have many of these characteristics. Sports organizations now have doctors screen for Marfan to hopefully prevent deaths like Olympic Gold Women's volleyballer Flo Hyman who dropped dead on a court in 1986 of undiagnosed Marfan.

The more people who know about Marfan the fewer tragedies like Jonathan's there are.

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

#35

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:07pm

yea they are pretty ironic... 'one song before i go' 'dying in america'... plenty more strange coincidences that i dont feel like finding at the moment

#36

re: John Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:13pm

thanks wosq for that information... it kind of sheds some light on the doctors who gave the wrong diagnosis... they shouldnt be the only ones blamed... if it could have been caught at any given time during his 35 years of life, then there should be other people to point fingers at.

then again if the disease is as hard to diagnose as people say, then maybe we shouldnt be so hard on the doctors at all...

i dont know.

#37

re: Jonathan Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:29pm

Sometimes a diagnosis for Marfan is very easy.

I have made at least one, and I am about the most unscientific person you've ever met.

The more people who know the outward signs of the syndrome (I think diseases can be caught), the more correct diagnoses can be made. I told my 'positive' that I'd rather be wrong and have him never speak to me again than be right and not say anything.

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

#38

re: Jonathan Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:38pm

"Has anyone noticed how ironic a lot of the lyrics in Rent are?"

Have you listened to TTB? That was the very definition of ironic.

#39

re: Jonathan Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:43pm

I dont think tick tick boom is as ironic as Rent. tick tick Boom was an autobiography and it doesnt really deal w/death like Rent does. "Dying in America" is the most ironic lyric I can think of right now.

#40

re: Jonathan Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:49pm

In Louder than words he sings about waking up a generation and that struck me as very ironic, how he is so fixated on writing a great musical and how he's worried about running out of time. It's all about his birthday, and when you see it, you can't help but think he only had five more to go.

#41

re: Jonathan Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 4:55pm

Thats true. I never really though about the whole birthday thing.

#42

re: Jonathan Larson's death

Posted: 8/12/04 at 9:08pm

Jonathan Larson had Marfan for 35 years and the last week of his life, doctors who have never met this man are expected to give at least a preliminary diagnosis?

I still have that PrimeTime live segment, and there were things the doctors should have caught. I don't think the doctors should have diagnosed the Marfan - and I don't think they were faulted for that. But, they should have caught the aneurysm. On the PrimeTime special, they were showing Al Larson the x-rays for the first time, and they said a first-year radiologist should have been able to look at that and see something was wrong. His aorta was incredibly enlarged - very abnormal. That's what they should have caught and treated - and apparently a court thought so too.

**Not to mention the abnormal heart EKG where the doctor questioned a possible heart attack right there on the EKG printout.....There was so much that should have been checked out.

But WOSQ, thanks for your post. There should be more information out there about Marfan and other diagnosable diseases.

Updated On: 8/12/04 at 09:08 PM

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