Jonathan Larson is coming to London
The composer of Rent died as his musical opened in New York. After a decade of research, Jennifer Ashley Tepper has transformed his unheard songs into a hit show
Jennifer Ashley Tepper made her devotion to composer Jonathan Larson clear long before she became one of the world’s foremost authorities on his work. For her bat mitzvah, the theatre-obsessed teenager chose to dress as the character Mimi from Rent and pose emerging from a pile of playbills.
Jonathan Larson’s name is forever linked with Rent, but a new generation discovered him through Andrew Garfield’s Oscar-nominated portrayal in Tick, Tick… BOOM! “When the Rent cast recording came out, it changed my life,” recalls Tepper. “It hit me hard. It inspired me and showed me what new school theatre could be.”
Growing up in Boca Raton, Florida, she was what she cheerfully describes as “a theatre kid from birth”. Every Chanukah she asked for cast recordings and immersed herself in Broadway scores. Larson quickly became an obsession once she realised his story was as compelling as his music.
The composer died suddenly from an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm at just 35, hours before Rent‘s first New York preview in January 1996.
Tepper has spent much of her professional life ensuring Larson’s story does not end there. We are speaking ahead of the European premiere of The Jonathan Larson Project, the acclaimed Off-Broadway musical she spent more than a decade developing from a concert of forgotten songs into a fully realised production. Now, under original director John Simpkins, it arrives at Southwark Playhouse on 9th July.
The production is the culmination of more than a decade’s work for Tepper, who has devoted years to uncovering and championing songs that might otherwise have remained unheard.
That is only one of the hats Temper wears. With New York zeal she reels off: Creative and Programming Director of New York’s famed 54 Below, where she has curated or produced more than 8,000 shows; author of five theatre books and consultant on some of musical theatre’s biggest recent projects.
The seeds of The Jonathan Larson Project were planted in 2014 during a New York City Center production of Tick, Tick… BOOM! starring Lin-Manuel Miranda. “I put together a miniature unheard Jonathan Larson concert for the lobby before the performance,” she recalls. “At that point I started talking to the Larson family, to Jonathan’s parents who were still with us, and to his sister Julie, about expanding it into a full evening.”
What followed was years of detective work and hours spent at the Library of Congress in Washington, where Larson’s papers, journals, cassette recordings and lyrics are housed.
“The songs he wrote and pounded out in his apartment and recorded on tape,” she says. “No one had remembered them or heard them.”
Across 18 years, Larson wrote around 200 songs for unproduced musicals, workshops, benefit concerts and personal projects. The deeper Tepper went into the archive, the more personal the project became.
“I wasn’t only looking for songs. I was reading his journals and listening to him playing Billy Joel and Elton John covers because he loved them. You realise this was a person. Someone’s brother. Someone’s best friend.”
That sense of loss remains impossible for Tepper to ignore and hours before we spoke, Larson’s Seasons of Love was used during the Tony Awards Memoriam tribute.
“Every time there’s anything like that, you just go, ‘Oh my God, millions of people love this song. It means so much to people.’ And he’s not here. How crazy, how tragic, how unbelievably heartbreaking.”
Tepper’s expertise became so widely recognised that Lin-Manuel Miranda recruited her as a consultant on his film adaptation of Tick, Tick… BOOM!
“Andrew gave the most incredible performance,” she says. “I would talk to him about Jonathan and forget he was British.”
Tepper has also considered how Larson’s identity informed his work.
“There are at least a dozen references to Judaism in Rent,” she says. “Jonathan wasn’t deeply religious, but his faith was woven naturally into his characters and his outlook. The Jewish ‘seeking out of social justice’ thing is at the heart of much of his work.”
For Tepper, The Jonathan Larson Project is about discovery rather than nostalgia.
“When Jonathan passed and Rent was his legacy, what an incredible legacy. But he could do more than that. This show gives audiences the chance to discover the wider body of work that almost disappeared with him.”
Southwark Playhouse Borough from Thursday 9 July to Saturday 22 August southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/the-jonathan-larson-project/
Keep community journalism free.
Jewish News is free for everyone. No paywall. No barriers. Just trusted journalism for anyone who wants to stay connected to Jewish life in Britain.
If you value that, please support us.
From as little as £5 a month, you can help keep our journalism free and accessible to all.
Every day, we report on the issues that matter to our community. We celebrate achievements, support charities, challenge antisemitism and ensure Jewish voices are heard more widely.
From as little as £5 a month, you can help us continue to:
- Report on the stories shaping Jewish life in the UK and beyond
- Bring our community together through shared stories, events and campaigns
- Celebrate the people, culture and moments that define our community
- Support organisations doing vital work across Jewish Britain
You can make a one-off donation or become a regular supporter. Every contribution helps keep our journalism free, independent and accessible to all.
If everyone who values Jewish News gave a small amount, it would make a real difference to our future.
