Musical Adaptation of LESS by Jason Robert Brown and Doug Wright In The Works

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 11/1/24 at 4:54pm

At his Carnegie Hall concert on October 25, Jason Robert Brown announced that his newest project is an adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less, in collaboration with Doug Wright, and previewed a few songs from the show.

I've never read the book before. Anyone familiar? Maybe someone was at Carnegie and heard some of the new material?

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 11/1/24 at 5:19pm

It's a lovely novel that may prove challenging to adapt. A middle-aged author is invited to his ex-boyfriend's wedding. In a mix of grief and panic he cobbles together a book tour as an excuse to avoid the event. He meets quirky characters and has some episodic adventures. But the heart of the book is a look at the challenges gay men face when they age alone. Jason Robert Brown seems an odd choice for this.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 11/1/24 at 5:38pm

Neil Patrick Harris is the age and look of Arthur Less. But he's a bit too savvy and sharp for such a meek, oblivious character. The role is more of a David Hyde Pierce type, from his Curtains era. 

 

EDIT: Jonathan Groff could play it in about 10 years.

Updated On: 11/1/24 at 05:38 PM

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 11/1/24 at 6:43pm

MrsSallyAdams said: "Neil Patrick Harris is the age and look of Arthur Less. But he's a bit too savvy and sharp for such a meek, oblivious character. The role is more of a David Hyde Pierce type, from his Curtainsera.



EDIT: Jonathan Groff could play it in about 10 years."

I heard that Gavin Creel had done some readings prior to his passing.

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 11/1/24 at 7:42pm

Alex Kulak2 said: "At his Carnegie Hall concert on October 25, Jason Robert Brown announced that his newest project is an adaptation of Andrew Sean Greer's Pulitzer Prize-winning novelLess, in collaboration with Doug Wright, and previewed a few songs from the show.

I've never read the book before. Anyone familiar? Maybe someone was at Carnegie and heard some of the new material?"

 I’m in the target demographic for it but found it to be a forgettable novel and have no idea why it won the Pulitzer Prize.  It’s hard to imagine how it could work as a musical — without completely changing the tone of the source material. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 11/4/24 at 2:35pm

Alex Kulak2: Maybe someone was at Carnegie and heard some of the new material?

I attended Jason Robert Brown’s concert at Carnegie Hall.  He included three songs from Less: 

- Boat (Jason Robert Brown)

- Where I Belong (Raul Esparza)

- F**k Love and Get Fat (J. Harrison Ghee)

I liked Boat the best but I found it a bit difficult to identify with since I am not familiar with the source material.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/4/24 at 5:03pm

I enjoyed Less a lot, but I still agree with Dreamboy that its Pulitzer win was a big surprise.  And I have to say I was really disappointed in the sequel Less is Lost (maybe I'm just less interest in taking the picaresque/world trip form of the original novel into an American road trip in the second--)

But, I definitely am intrigued with this project.  I feel it's material that would suit JRB's style well. . But that picaresque aspect to the story that I mentioned may prove a big challenging (has there ever been a picaresque musical that hasn't had major plot problems?  It's always been one of the issues with Candide, and arguably, despite its commercial success, with Pippin too, and can be awfully hard to adapt, especially for the stage.  And those at least had a few more recurring characters besides the lead character, which isn't nearly as true for Less.

As for casting--I dunno, Neil Patrick Harris feels way too self assured (and not great at playing shlubby) to play the lead to me.  But maybe I only read Arthur Less as being kinda shlubby (and I mean look at the casting for Seymour in the Little Shop revival so that probably will be ignored.) 

[BETTY22]

Posted: 11/4/24 at 5:27pm

I saw him last night at RAGTIME.

The house was on fire, JRB clapped lightly. 

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 11/5/24 at 10:35am

They've got some leeway with Arthur Less's looks. His backstory is that he was a kept pretty boy of a wealthy man. He didn't have to learn survival skills when he was being taken care of. That's partly why he's stuck in arrested development at age 49.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 11/5/24 at 12:25pm

BETTY22 said: "I saw him last night at RAGTIME.

The house was on fire, JRB clapped lightly."

 

Did you see any of the show?  Or did you just stare at JRB the entire 3 hours?

 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 11/5/24 at 3:45pm

JSquared2 said: "BETTY22 said: "I saw him last night at RAGTIME.

The house was on fire, JRB clapped lightly."



Did you see any of the show? Or did you just stare at JRB the entire 3 hours?

"

I can't judge, I would have done the same

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 11/5/24 at 9:48pm

MrsSallyAdams said: "They've got some leeway with Arthur Less's looks. His backstory is that he was a kept pretty boy of a wealthy man. He didn't have to learn survival skills when he was being taken care of. That's partly why he's stuck in arrested development at age 49."

You're right, and it's shown in the Paris sequence amongst others that people do find him attractive.  But certainly he isn't looking after himself.  And I can't picture NPH in the role at all (maybe I'm just focusing too much on how obnoxious I found him on the Darren Starr show Uncoupled playing a single guy dumped by his long term partner.)