As a member of Rent‘s original Broadway cast, Anthony Rapp got to witness Jonathan Larson‘s genius firsthand.
“He was so prolific,” Rapp, 53, told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, March 10, while celebrating opening night of the new Off-Broadway musical, The Jonathan Larson Project, in New York City. “And he was so young, but so prolific.”
Now a legend in the musical theater world, Larson died unexpectedly at age 35 shortly before the first preview performance of Rent in January 1996. Rapp starred as Mark Cohen in the original cast alongside Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs and more.
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Rent became a career-defining success, earning Larson multiple posthumous awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. While it may be his most beloved work, Larson’s archive of music is expansive — and The Jonathan Larson Project finally gives fans access to the songwriter’s previously unheard work.
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“I really went into this not knowing,” Rapp told Us. “I didn’t want to know how they structured it. I didn’t want to know what songs were in it. I wanted to come to it totally open to whatever it was going to be, and I was very moved.”
Rapp recognized “four or five” of the numbers chosen for the sung-through showcase, which stars Adam Chanler-Berat, Taylor Iman Jones, Andy Mientus, Jason Tam and Lauren Marcus.
“[‘Valentine’s Day’] was a song that was in an early version of Rent that got cut and changed and, you know, became something else. … We from the company did a version of ‘Love Heals,’ so that was a song I was very familiar with,” Rapp told Us, also citing “Pura Vida” and “Hosing the Furniture” as deep cuts he had a knowledge of.
Along with being introduced to songs he hadn’t heard before, Rapp pointed out how special it was to see Larson’s inner circle get bigger.
“The family extends,” he gushed, detailing his own personal history with Chanler-Berat and Tam. “It’s not Rent-direct, but it’s all [connected]. So it feels like being home.”
Despite his familiarity with the new show’s cast, Rapp was hands-off during the rehearsal process. “This is theirs. I just feel grateful as a member of the family that they’re doing this beautiful work to keep him alive,” he explained. “You know, both things are true — he lives on in his work and he’s also gone forever. His legacy lives on, and his legacy is so pure. That’s remarkable.”
Speaking to Larson’s passion, Rapp told Us, “I know he had moments of doubt and he had moments where he almost gave up, but … he really did always believe in himself. And he always believed in the possibility and the power of what art and theater could be, of what song and music could do, and he was profoundly driven by that. So that’s also up and through all of this [show].”
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Larson’s family was also on hand to celebrate the emotional opening night. “It’s very hard to process it and to articulate it right away,” his sister, Julie Larson, told Us after the performance. “But this has been a long time coming and [conceiver] Jen Teffer has had this in her heart and in her sights for years. To see it come to fruition with such a talented, passionate group of people and to hear some of these songs that very few people have ever heard except our family, you know, on cassette tapes, is lovely.”
Julie continued, “It’s wonderful. And it’s always complicated emotionally, but I’m very happy at the moment.”
The project “shows a lot more colors of where he came from [and] where he started,” Julie said, praising the “wide range of styles” seen on stage. Mientus agreed, telling Us that he was struck by the “curiosity and playfulness” in Jonathan’s writing.
“Jonathan Larson is the whole reason that I do this … and I thought we’d seen all the work we had of his,” the actor continued. “So to not only have new work playing in New York City right now, but to be a part of it — to be in Jonathan Larson’s third-ever original cast in New York City — is a dream I didn’t even know I could have, and it’s somehow come true.”
The Jonathan Larson Project is now in performances for a 16-week limited engagement, ending June 1, at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City.
Us Weekly
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