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Video: Inside Opening Night of THE JONATHAN LARSON PROJECT
Mar 14, 2025
Guests at the Orpheum Theatre had something very special to celebrate on Monday night. The new musical, The Jonathan Larson Project, officially opened off-Broadway. The musical dives deep into previously unreleased material from the late, great musical theatre icon.
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0:00
The fact that there's just that much more opportunity for people to acquaint themselves with his genius and his heart, his brain, his soul, his music, I think is really, really special
0:16
Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. The new musical The Jonathan Larson Project features undiscovered songs and works from the Pulitzer Prize winning writer, and we're here to celebrate with the first-nighters
0:28
I feel unbelievable. We have worked soon. hard for two months now to the day, I think, on this between rehearsal and previews and all of it
0:35
Our cast has had the flu. We have, like, tried songs in different places
0:40
We have tried different songs in different places. We have tried different drafts of songs from, like, various decades
0:44
I mean, we've put so much work into this. So to be able to complete it in front of our friends and family, always a joy with every show
0:51
But this show, it's like the third Jonathan Larson opening ever in New York City, and I'm a part of it
0:57
And so it's just like a true lifelong. dream that I didn't even know I could have come true, you know
1:03
I'm thrilled. I'm feeling really proud and, yeah, just, you know, I've been feeling Jonathan in the room
1:11
with us this entire time and I'm feeling him especially tonight and I think he would be
1:17
really proud of what we made. Jonathan's work has sort of like been with me my entire career and so to kind of come back
1:26
to it when I'm in my late 30s and find that. the new things, you know, in his material
1:33
It just feels really nice. Jonathan had a huge impact on my life a huge reason why I got so into theater He a huge reason why I ended up moving from Hawaii to New York
1:45
I'm getting to work with people that I've worked with and that I'm a huge fan of for decades in this industry, in this city
1:54
And I love getting to sing what I get to sing. It feels appropriately, I don't know if protest-y is the right word, but it just feels for the times that we're living in
2:05
right now, it feels good to be doing this material. You know, he may have passed, but we have so many people who are still here with us
2:11
who knew him really well. And so tonight especially just felt so, I felt so honored to be delivering this for them
2:19
and anyone who's ever been a fan, but especially those who knew him
2:25
And introducing Jonathan's music to a whole new generation, what that means to you
2:30
It means absolutely everything. I'm watching the reactions of Al-Baution. members who are rent fans or Tick-Tick Booms fans come in and take in this new music and they're
2:41
so moved and on their feet. It's moving to experience. I think for me the idea that we could be
2:47
some small piece of keeping Jonathan's legacy alive is one of the most proud that I could imagine
2:53
ever being. Taking this music and passing it on to the next generation and moving us to
3:00
touch people's hearts to celebrate and change the world. Hopefully in some sense
3:05
small way, but honored and honored to be a part of this journey. Someone came to
3:11
the show the other day and said they had no idea about rent or tick-tick-bomb. They were 16
3:15
and this was their first Jonathan Larson musical and they loved it That the dream of a lifetime I so honored by that Yeah I mean sadly human memory is very ephemeral So all we can do you know to continue on a culture of tradition and musical you know
3:29
growth through the years is just keep telling people about this music. It was lovely to see Jonathan again
3:36
And I was astounded at how correct I have always been on how much a vision is
3:46
he really was. And it all comes to life here. I was just saying, if you feel freaked out about today
3:54
you might find some solace in this music because he saw it decades ago and wrote it down
4:01
And it just keeps spinning around. And so just knowing that can make you feel stronger
4:06
I already feel stronger just having heard him again. Some of these things were written when he was probably 22, 23
4:13
and to me it's very unfortunate that some of these songs are wildly relevant right now
4:22
They should feel like old, you know, things from the attic that are like, oh, well, that's nostalgic and that's nice
4:29
And unfortunately, a lot of them are very relevant. So I think it speaks to the times beyond everything else
4:37
And we're very happy. It's just there's been so much love. And there's such a wonderfully talented, fabulous group of people who have just done it with absolute love every step of the way
4:49
which seems to be the way with, like, my brother's stuff. You know spend so much of my life since being a part of Brent trying to do my part to uphold his legacy So it really meaningful that there are many other people doing that That really special
5:07
And I think that one of the things that tonight really does
5:10
is it gives that much more of a glimpse into his, the scope of his work and how much heart and intelligence is in all of it
5:21
And there's a purity of spirit that I think people might not be super
5:26
prize by his sense rent to me has such a period of spirit but i always said that there in my
5:32
experience of him the time the short time that i knew him there wasn't a cynical bone in his body
5:37
there were times when he would feel you know uh the world is cynical he would reflect on that
5:44
or be you know the struggles that he had but he in my experience it never made him have a dark
5:52
way of expressing himself he always found he always was strives that he always was strives
5:56
driving to find the light. And I think that this really captures that in a beautiful way
6:04
And I don't know. I mean, I was familiar with some of this music
6:08
because we did a concert of a lot of his non-rent songs
6:13
during the run of rent. We did a benefit concert. So there were like maybe three or four of the songs
6:18
that I knew from that. And then there was just, I mean, I don't even know how many
6:21
I don't know how many hundreds of songs he wrote. He was so prolific. So this is the fact that there's just that much more opportunity for people to acquaint themselves with his genius and his heart, his brain, his soul, his music, I think is really, really special
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