The Jonathan Larson Project, a revue of 18 songs from the Rent composer's archive, opened at Southwark Playhouse Borough in London, showcasing his lesser-known material. The show, conceived by Jennifer Ashley Tepper, ran off-Broadway last year and draws from songs written for obscure cabarets, cut from musicals, or otherwise unused, stored in the Library of Congress.
Opening number sets the tone
The opener, Greene Street, written when Larson was 23 and new to New York, features propulsive piano and a crush of a song in awe of the city. The cast of five shares the blissful number, which puts a bucolic spin on the SoHo address. A later song, Rhapsody, offers a jaded flipside, describing a rat-infested city where "life's not free", echoing Rent's themes of artistic aspirations against harsh realities.
Production design creates intimate setting
John Simpkins' production, with set design by Nate Bertone, suggests a Manhattan apartment where friends share drinks and stories around the piano. A stepladder stands in for a fire escape, and a sheet is used for projections alongside Livi van Warmelo's band. The ramshackle charm eases extreme musical leaps, from the tipsy blues of Break Out the Booze to the breathy pop banger Out of My Dreams, owned by Imelda Warren-Green and Natalie Kassanga respectively.
Standout performances and songs
Warren-Green reaches dizzy hilarity in Hosing the Furniture, a fever-dream homemaking sketch inspired by the 1939 World's Fair, with a spray lighting effect by Sam Biondolillo. Michael Mather brings intense physicality to the queasy Valentine's Day, shifted from third to first person. Max Harwood is bracingly vulnerable on Falling Apart, while Marcus Collins masters the storytelling of the ghostly Iron Mike about the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Truth Is a Lie, a miscellany of misinformation from 1990, is both goofy and chilling, distinctly Trumpian in an evening reflecting on Reagan's 1980s.
Overall impact
Some songs don't command attention, and there is an over-long weak satire of a stump speech, but the night's best songs are revelatory. Larson wrote at 23 that playing the piano can "save my soul", and the equivalent effect comes from hearing these songs. The show runs until 22 August.
