As I listened to his tapes, I worked to match each audio recording with a song title in the index. Jonathan created a song index document a couple of years before he died, listing (almost) every song he wrote, by project. It’s never been recorded or publicly performed. “Rhapsody” (Theater Songs), 1983 “Rhapsody” is a very personal song of Jonathan’s about New York City and money and struggle and day jobs and relationships, written when he was 23 years old. He received rejection letters from every major not-for-profit and commercial producer in New York. While Jonathan never obtained the rights to adapt 1984, this didn’t stop him from sending it to theatres and producers. (While doing research at the Library of Congress with the Jonathan Larson Papers, I even found a letter he saved from The Duplex, rejecting his cabaret act!). Jonathan saved many of his rejection letters. Much of the score of 1984 is more traditional than Jonathan’s later work, but “SOS” calls out most to the pop-rock influence he would later integrate into his musicals. “SOS” is sung by Winston Smith, the protagonist of 1984, at the very end of the show.
After years of failing to get the rights, he decided that if he couldn’t do 1984, he would instead write his own original futuristic dystopian musical, and that became Superbia. His goal was to get it produced in the year 1984 itself.
“SOS” ( 1984), 1982 The first full book musical Jonathan wrote was an adaptation of the book 1984 by George Orwell.
0 kommentar(er)
