TAKEN FROM THE RENT BIBLE!
In 1982 Larson began writing a musical based on George Orwell's 1984. When he was unable to get the rights from Orwell's estate, he converted some of the material into his own futuristic parable, Superbia, which opened with a satire of "We Are the World" popstar benefits and went on to offer a scathing critique of the mindles, conformist, totalitarian culture of a media-controlled society.
Victoria Leacock: He was terrified that there was this bottom-line mentality that was going to destry the planet and life as we know it. In Superbia everybody's going to be "delimbinated", which is the removal of the arms, legs and upper torso so that everyone's heads can be put in a box with a 32 inch color monitor.
The way he'd develop stuff is that he'd play it to you in his living room, with the speakers facing you and literally play you the whole musical. You weren't allowed to get up, walk around, ask questions, pee. It was dead serious. He develpoed a lot of Superbia that way.
Unfortunately Jonathan had trouble developing the show in more public venues. In 1988 he did win a Richard Rodgers Production Award, chaired by Stephen Sondheim, which paid for a staged reading at Playwrghts Horizon.
Victoria Leacock: That was a terrible production, By the time he did it, he didn't have the people and music he wanted, and they forced him to make changes he wasn't comfortable with. Then Sondheim came. At intermission, Sondheim said, "Nice work, I've got to be on Good Morning America tomorrow morning, so I'd better go." Jonathan was devastated.
Stephen Sondheim: I thought the show was interesting, and what he was trying to do was interesting. What was wrong with it had to do with the story and how the story was told. Some of the songs were good and some were not. He was still finding a voice, and I think he still would be, but he had a voice and that was the important thing.
Driven by his own belief in his work, and supported by Leacock, Larson continued to work on Superbia. In 1989 they produced the show as a rock concert at the Village Gate, a nightclub in Greenwich Village.
Victoria Leacock: It was free, and more than 200 people came. Everybody said it was fabulous. We were $2000 dollars in debt, and nothing came of it. So Jonathan gave up on Superbia. They were always saying it was too big, there were too many people in it, it was too expensive to do. So around that time, Jonathan decided to do his monologue.
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I love the RENT book, and I love every single thing about Jonathan Larson. Hope that answered questions. By the way, if the Superbia music/script are still around, don't you think it could be produced now, in the age of multi-million dollar spectacles? I don't know. Food for thought.
"The stage is where I live and come alive and act out all the things that go on in my life. It's not just what I do for a living, it's my shrink and my love affair. No one in my life has ever or ever will kiss me on the mouth like this lover called my relationship with my performance."
