Jonathan Larson Tribute Setlist (Now With Review!)

[exedore]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 12:38am

Just got home from this.

Too tired to do a review (and barely capable of typing), but I thought people would at least like the set list. Someone else can fill in who sang what or I'll do it at a later point.

The Surprise Guests, btw, were Tim Weil and the entire original RENT band. The Larsons were also in attendence.

First Set - Early Work:
Seasons of Love (Recording of JL singing)
Boho Days
Ever After
Hosing the Furniture
I Won't Close My Eyes
Therapy
Pura Vida
See Her Smile
You Called My Name
Come To Your Senses
Break Out The Booze
Louder Than Words

Second Set - RENT in Development:
Halloween
Voice Mail #1b (1994 Version)
RENT/Splatter
Voice Mail #1a (1994 Version)
Right Brain
Voice Mail #Something (Steal an Air Conditioner...Gwen did the student)
Over It
Love The Pain/Goodbye Love
Real Estate
Open Road
What You Own
Finale B

Third Set - JL Foundation Winners
Albuquerque Anyway (Joe Iconis)
Refrain's The Same/Blow It Mister (Cynthia Hopkins)
Museums (Steven Lutvak)

Fourth Set - Finale with The Ministers of Music (20? member gospel choir)
Seasons of Love Extended Version (Gwen did the solo! Yay!)
Love Heals
Updated On: 10/24/06 at 12:38 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 12:53am

Voice Mail #Something (Steal an Air Conditioner...Gwen did the student)

Voice Mail #5

Er. So I've heard...

Thanks for posting! I wasn't sure if anyone from here was going, but I was curious how the event was going to be set up. Who sang what?

Updated On: 10/24/06 at 12:53 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 12:56am

Wow, sounds amazing even just from that list.

Who sang Open Road?

[Harpo]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 1:29am

Emcee, Jeremy Kushnier sang Open Road.

What a wonderful celebration of a remarkable talent. Everyone on that stage was so friggin talented The set-ups/explanations to the songs really added a lot. I'm not as well versed as others on the history of RENT. Anthony added a great vignette about how Jonathan attended his birthday party while RENT was in workshops.

I'll add the who sang what in a minute

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 1:35am

Aw, I LOVE the birthday party story. And I bet Jeremy did that song great justice. :)

[Harpo]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 1:44am

Boho Days - Anthony Rapp, Michael McElroy and Jeremy Kushnier

Ever After - Randy Graff, Michael McElroy

Hosing the Furniture - Natascia Diaz, Jeremny Kushnier

I Won't Close My Eyes - Gwen Stewart

Therapy - Jeremy K

Pura Vida - Randy Graff, Gwen Stewart, Natascia Diaz

See Her Smile - Anthony Rapp

You Called My Name - Stewart and McElroy

Come to Your Senses - Diaz

Break Out the Booze - Randy Graff (editorial comment: I think that will become my theme song)

Louder Than Words - McElroy and the Company

Halloween - Rapp, Kushnier, McElroy

Voice Mail - Graff

Rent - Rapp, Kushnier and The Company

Voice Mail - McElroy

Right Brain - Kushier

Voice Mail - Stewart

Over It - Diaz, Rapp ( I saw Diaz mouth "I'm sorry" to Anthony after the song but don't know why)

Love the Pain/Goodbye Love - Stewart, McElroy, and the Company

Real Estate -Graff, Rapp, McElroy

Open Road -Kushnier

What you Own -Rapp, Kushnier

Finale B -The Company

Seasons of Love - The Company, which including the three Larson foundation winners who had just performed their pieces. (standing ovation)

Closing song was Love Heals - The Company featuring Gwen Stewart (standing ovation)

What a wonderful, moving night!

[exedore]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 9:52am

I'm still not particularly awake (and I'm sure as hell not caffeinated enough), but I've got some downtime at work so here is my review of last night's show (with the programme to refresh my memory). Apologies in advance for spelling/grammar/incoherencies. Ask if you want more details or need clarification.

First and foremost, the whole night was simply incredible. I know that people had come in from as far away as California and Ohio for the show, and the atmosphere was simply incredible.

A member of the LoC staff started off with a brief speech, and pointed out that the Larsons were in the audience.

The first set was a collection of Jonathan's non-RENT songs. Or at least a few of them, as it was announced during the evening that Jonathan wrote 386 songs during his career.

The concert itself started off with a recording of Jonathan Larson singing the first verse of "Seasons of Love", which faded into the original RENT band doing the handclaps for Boho Days, sung by Anthony Rapp, Michael McElroy, and Jeremy Kushnier. The song itself is available as a bonus track on the TTB OCR, though having the extra parts and the harmonies brough a new depth to the song.

The next piece, "Ever After," was performed at the 1997 Today 4 U benefit (as were many of these numbers), but it was a thrill to hear it in person. The song is sweet, innocent, and deserves to be on a CD somewhere.

Natascia Diaz took the night off from Jacques Brel to come down and perform, and her first number, "Hosing the Furniture" was from an unproduced show that Larson worked on in the late 80s. It's a very comic number with a pitter-patter lyric about a housewife literally hosing down her living room while panicking about the state of her marriage.

Gwen Stewart rocked the hell out of "I Won't Close My Eyes" (does she have a solo CD? She should.), another song from Superbia (as was "Ever After"). I really wish someone would produce the damn thing by now, or put out a demo album..

Jeremy Kushnier did the solo version of "Therapy" from TTB, not too much to say about it.

The female trio (Natascia, Gwen, and Randy Graff) followed this with "Pura Vida", a lush pop song with lots of harmonies. Anthony Rapp then performed "See Her Smile" from TTB.

Gwen and Michael sang another one of JL's non-theatre songs, "You Called My Name", which had a mid 80s R&B sound (think Whitney doing a soft duet). Gwen and Michael really got into it, and moved like a couple flirting.

There's not much to say about Natascia Diaz's rendition of "Come To Your Senses" other than that she brought the house down, and that she also did it in character and off-book.

Randy Graff had to follow this act, and did so with comic flair in a 20s style jazz number called "Break Out The Booze", a grouchy number about the world being awful so why not get hammered?

Michael McElroy sang the last song before intermission, "Louder Than Words", the closer from TTB. While he did an excellent job, I missed the harmonies from the trio version.

A short intermission followed, and I checked out the display cases outside the theatre. They had some of JL's photos, sheet music, and notes, including the two notebook sheets where he did the math for the numbers in Seasons of Love that are featured in the giant RENT book.

After a brief intermission, the second set of the evening was taken from various early incarnations of RENT.

The opener was the 1995 version of Halloween, that was written to start the show. It had Anthony filming Angel's funeral and receiving comments from his crew that things were out of shot, it was raining, etc.

Voice Mail #1b from the 1994 production followed, with Randy Graff as Mark's Mom doing the "Your father got a call from Chemical Bank...we meant it when we said that you're cut off" version. One of the band members played the chords of Musetta's Waltz, and we heard the familiar chords of...

SPLATTER! Well, RENT. The early gory version, sung by Anthony and Jeremy. They did the first verse and then a bit from the end. It was loud, vicious, and beautiful.

Voice Mail #1a was presented after a short speech, with Michael McElroy playing Roger's boss and firing him over the phone.

Jeremy followed this up with "Right Brain", the precursor to Glory.

I believe there was another quick speech (it was before or after this), and another Voice Mail. Instead of "Speak", though, it was Collins and Angel from 1994 proclaiming "We went to steal an air conditioner. We'll be right back." and Gwen doing this cute, squeaky voice of a nervous student unable to find a copy of "The Story of O" in her local bookstore.

The guitars kicked up again, and Anthony and Natascia rocked the hell out of "Over It", where Mark tells Maureen that he's still pining for her, and that when she's tired of girls he'll come running back to her. I love this song.

There was another special treat after this song, as Gwen sang then hell out of "Love the Pain", a gospel number that was replaced with "I'll Cover You: Reprise". The song was beautiful, touching, and Michael had a moment to shine in it as well as he sang the monologue that was later moved to Finale A in the 1994 demos ("Time to be on your way, comrade...").

A quick speech to set things up, and the audience was treated to the (awful yet?) hillarious "Real Estate", where Anthony/Mark sings about how miserable he is and Michael/Benny and Blockbuster Video Store Builder/Randy try to persuade him to leave film and become a real estate developer instead. The song was cut for some pretty obvious reasons, but it's still a total hoot.

Jeremy Kushnier followed this up with the flip side of things, Roger's original, angsty song "Open Road", which is downtempo and emotionally raw. Kushnier's interpretation of the song definately fits in with how he played Roger on Broadway, and it makes me a bit sad that the song was cut.

As if to bridge the past and present, Jeremy and Anthony then sang an abridged version of "What You Own" (started at "The filmmaker can not see...") before the entire cast came together to do the fugue from "Finale B".

Set three came after a brief speech (forgot who gave it), and was three songs from three Larson award winners sung by said recipients.

Joe Iconis sang a standalone piece called "Albuquerque Anyway", told from the perspective of a nine year old whose best friend is moving away. It's a good number, and he has potential, but the song needed some work.

Cynthia Hopkins did a medley of a from her show "Accidental Nostalgia" and its followup (can't remember the name) of songs called "Refrain's the Same" and "Blow It Mister". These were jazzy, upbeat, and comedic numbers, and Hopkins sold them through and through.

Lastly, Steven Lutvak did a standalone song called "Museums", about an art expert who wanders museums looking for the spirit of his father who inspired him to art. The song was markedly different from its predecessors, as it was slow and moody, reminding me of Jacques Brel and other European composers.

Tim Weil gave a quick speech and handled the evening's thank-yous, before inviting The Ministers of Music, a local 20(?) member gospel choir to the stage. They sang the extended version of "Seasons of Love" with the cast, and Gwen and Michael did the solos. I'd never gotten to hear Gwen before live, and it was rather cathartic for someone who's been following the show for nearly its entire run. The performance got a standing ovation, which was only put down by the opening notes of the closing number, "Love Heals".

"Love Heals" was led by Gwen, but the entire cast and choir were doing the backups. The performance was electric, and ended an enthralling evening of music.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 9:57am

Thanks for posting that!

[circusliz]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 12:14pm

Ah--someone beat me to the review! Oh well, here's my two cents:

All in all it was an excellent evening of music. I was disappointed to see a number of empty seats, as I was informed that the event was "sold" out. But everyone who was in attendance was very enthusiastic.

Jeremy Kushnier, Natascia Diaz and Anthony Rapp nailed every song. As exedore noted above, Natascia brought the house down with "Come to your Senses." I enjoyed her performance of the song much more than Amy Spanger's on the TTB CD. Jeremy also killed with "Therapy", although to someone accustomed to the song as a duet, it left something to be desired as a solo. Natascia and Anthony did an excellent job with "Over It" -- both were in character, which made the song a lot of fun. And "What You Own", one of my favorite songs from Rent, was great as well.

Randy Graff and Michael McElroy started out a bit slow. Neither of their voices was quite right for "Ever After". But Randy really showed her talents with "Break out the Booze". She had the audience in the palm of her hand! It was a loud, sloppy number, and she just ran away with it. Definitely one of the highlights of the evening.

Michael McElroy redeemed himself with both "Louder than Words" and the monologue in "Love the Pain." He was also very good in "Real Estate", a song I enjoyed immensely, particulalry as the three performers (Michael, Anthony and Randy) were in character.

Last, Gwen Stewart. I hate to be negative, but I did not enjoy her performances at all. Now, I'll admit that she has a great gospel sound, and she is very good when singing in a broad, full-out gospel belt, ie the "Seasons..." solo. But I thought she really floundered, including having intonation problems, whenever the song required a lighter sound, and her head voice was very weak. In addition to the voice problems, she just didn't seem to be connecting with the emotions or themes in the songs. All of the other performers were clearly invested in their songs, so to me her lack of connection really stood out.

The three Larson Foundation performers were very good. I particularly liked "Albuquerque Anyway," as it sounded exactly how my boyfriend, to this day, communicates sadness and frustration.

The two closing songs with the Ministers of Music were good, although I am not particularly a fan of gospel music. Natascia was really getting into it with the choir at the end, which was very cute.

A nice touch: after clapping for the band and tech crew, just prior to leaving the stage, Anthony looked up to the heavens and gave a little applause to Jonathan. A very nice moment.

Ok, enough with the serious review...fangirl time. After the show I got Jeremy, Anthony and Randy to sign my program! I didn't hang around waiting. I was just changing my shoes and they came out on stage. Also, Anthony's boyfriend (whose name escapes me) was there, and they walked out together along with an older couple.

In the end it was a most enjoyable evening, and I'm so thankful that a BWWer alerted me to this concert!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 12:18pm

Also, Anthony's boyfriend (whose name escapes me) was there

Rodney To. Also a very talented actor himself.

I'm loving reading all of these!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 1:16pm

Thanks for posting your reviews! I wish I could have been there.

It's interesting that Therapy was done as a solo. I'm sure it's possible, but I think it's funnier when it's an argument between 2 people.

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 7:45pm

I was there too and don't have much to add other than the fact that it was an enjoyable evening. You could clearly see the love that the performers had for Jonathan's music and that is what is important. I am not an Amy Spanger fan at all (she ruined a trip to Urinetown for me), but I really liked Natascia's take on Come to Your Senses. I agree with the poster above that Gwen had some pitch problems when not doing a full out belt, but still I found her performance mezmerizing.

One thing that has yet to be mentioned is the composition of the audience. I know I (and another BWWer) was suprised that the age skewed to the higher side. I know LOC must have advertised this heavily to their contacts, so that might account for it (as well as the location). However, those around me (who hadn't heard of Rent believe it or not) seemd to enjoy the performances based on some comments I overheard. That is great to see.

A great night to cap off a theatre filled week for me. Not quite as amazing as the Emily Skinner/Alice Ripley concert for me, but great nonetheless due to its meaning.

Updated On: 10/24/06 at 07:45 PM

[Josephine2]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 8:06pm

Thanks for sharing all of this with us on the Message Board. I wish I could have been there to enjoy what seems like a great evening of music/celebration. By the way, I think Natasica Diaz is brilliant...a true "triple threat"!

[VivaBohemia]

Posted: 10/25/06 at 12:17am

Louder That Words was great too. I think I actually got chills.
I didn't think I could ever enjoy Right Brain, and Jeremy proved me wrong.

Well okay..I didnt ENJOY it, nessicarily..but it was no where near as traumatic as that original recording. Actually it really just made me want to hear His version of One Song Glory all that much more. But it was interesting hearing versions of old songs reworked to become the familliar ones we know now.

I dont know about the rest of you who went, but I certainly had a good time. I felt honored to be apart of it :) ::end cheesy moment::

[circusliz]

Posted: 10/25/06 at 1:42pm

I completely left "Right Brain" out of my review! I kept laughing during the song Don't get me wrong, it was very touching and Jeremy performed the heck out of it! It was just very disarming to hear the exact melody and instrumental for "Glory" but with completely different lyrics. To me it sounded as if someone just decided to make up their own words.

[circusliz]

Posted: 10/25/06 at 4:10pm

Sorry to double post, but I thought some of you might like to see what the Post had to say about the concert.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401513.html

[Millie42]

Posted: 10/26/06 at 8:15pm

Late to post, I know.

Thanks for the article, Liz.
I have to agree with everyone... It was a wonderful night. I was beaming for hours afterwards.

I liked all of the Larson award winners, but I ADORED the last man. That song had me in tears.

Liz, that is so wonderful that you saw them afterwards! I would have hung around but my friend was a good sport and came because she knew how much of a Renthead I am, so I decided to supress my Broadway fangirl side and head home.

Such a great night!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/26/06 at 8:42pm

That sounds absolutely amazing! It's great that y'all were able to go to this. Lucky ducks.