The Jonathan Larson Project at Southwark Playhouse Borough presents a selection of 18 lesser-known songs from the composer and lyricist's archive, revealing the industriousness and calibre of his work beyond Rent. Conceived by Jennifer Ashley Tepper, the revue includes material written for obscure cabarets, cut from musicals, or otherwise unused, stored in a Library of Congress archive.
Opener and City Anthem
The opener, Greene Street, written when Larson was a 23-year-old newcomer to New York, is a propulsive piano-driven crush of a song, in awe of the city with sun bursting through on a snowy day. Larson puts a bucolic spin on the SoHo address, with the new arrival receiving a wink from a stranger amid urban anonymity. The song is irresistibly shared by the cast of five.
Flipside and Artistic Aspirations
That song later gets a flipside with Rhapsody, a jaded tour of the rat-infested city where "life's not free". Throughout the lyrics, artistic aspirations butt against harsh realities, as considered by Larson himself in an introductory archive recording.
Production and Set Design
John Simpkins' production features a set design by Nate Bertone that suggests a crammed Manhattan apartment where pals share drinks and stories around the piano, with a whisky bottle poured and doubling as percussion. A stepladder stands in for a fire escape, and a sheet is used for projections alongside Livi van Warmelo's band.
Musical Range and Performances
The ramshackle charm eases extreme musical leaps, such as from the tipsily rhyming, fatalistic blues of Break Out the Booze to the breathy pop banger Out of My Dreams. Imelda Warren-Green and Natalie Kassanga respectively own each solo's range. Warren-Green reaches dizzy hilarity, armed with a power hose to clean the furniture in a fever-dream homemaking sketch inspired by the 1939 World's Fair, given a spray lighting effect by Sam Biondolillo.
Emotional Depth and Storytelling
The songs are reordered from the 2019 album, with the perspective of the queasy Valentine's Day powerfully shifted from third to first person, with Michael Mather bringing intense physicality to its abuse narrative. 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.
Weaknesses and Strengths
A couple of songs don't command attention, and there is an over-long, weak satire of a stump speech. However, The Truth Is a Lie's miscellany of misinformation from 1990 is both goofy and chilling, distinctly Trumpian in an evening that mostly reflects on Reagan's 1980s.
Conclusion
When the world is falling apart, playing the piano can "save my soul", writes a 23-year-old Larson. Not only does he get away with such a sentiment, but there's an equivalent effect from hearing the night's best songs. A revelation. At Southwark Playhouse Borough, London, until 22 August.
