The Jonathan Larson Project — Page 2

CoffeeBreak said: "With auniversity director and a cast known to only superhardcore theater types, sadly this is no surprise. They needed stars, orbigger name theater people,and stronger directorto have this take off."

Honestly the failure here was the show had no story. Audiences couldn’t hook into a journey beyond nostalgia. Remarkable performances, but this could’ve run at 54 Below. 

Yeah, agreed. It felt like a really slick cruise ship show that needed much more of a point of view or at least some kind of context in which these individual songs existed. To only show the news clip at the beginning didn't help us understand or feel connected to a lot of the other stuff. I also wonder how Larson would have felt having some of his early and obviously weaker songs in the show. I took away this: his music was quite emotional and strong, even from the very beginning of his writing career. His lyrics took a lot longer to develop. As a writer, he was clearly something special, even before Tick Tick Boom...but...RENT truly was the culmination of his talent and writing ability. Not sure the earlier stuff deserved it's own evening at the theater. But I'm glad I saw it.

Updated On: 3/21/25 at 10:06 AM