The Broadway producer, historian, and creative and programming director at New York City’s Feinstein’s/54 Below Jennifer Ashley Tepper discusses the new album The Jonathan Larson Project (Ghostlight Records), Larson’s music and legacy, theatre, and more, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

One of the more exciting albums from Broadway has just been released, The Jonathan Larson Project. It’s following a successful run of shows at Feinstein’s/54 Below, which is described as Broadway’s living room. It is the brainchild of one of the street’s dynamic promoters and historians, Jennifer Ashley Tepper. She joins me now to talk about finding material previously unheard in the archive of the late Jonathan Larson in the Library of Congress. His notes, photos, ephemera, were donated there following his untimely death in 1996, just as his musical Rent was to have its world debut. The show went on to receive the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as multiple Tony Awards. It continues to be performed in more than two dozen languages around the world and was made into a major motion picture. Another of Mr. Larson’s works tick, tick… BOOM! is set to be made into a film, and Ms. Tepper is serving as a historian for that project. This new album which is available for digital download and streaming features Jonathan Larson’s work arranged by Charlie Rosen, and a lot of this generation’s great musical theatre talent including Nick Blaemire, Lauren Marcus, Andy Mientus, Krysta Rodriguez, and George Salazar. The work is ground-breaking, and Larson’s words and music is timeless and awfully timely. There are some numbers off the record that strike a chord with today’s politics, the struggle of an artist, and divisions in society that existed thirty or so years ago when Mr. Larson wrote this material, and that is prevalent today. A limited edition CD package will be available on 14 June 2019, that includes a remarkable 40-page book that has images of original lyrics, notebook pages, and photos. Jennifer Ashley Tepper is a theater historian, the creative and programming director at Feinstein’s/54 Below, as well as a producer of the current Broadway musical Be More Chill, which was nominated for a Tony Award yesterday for best score. That was written by Joe Iconis, who is also writing the musical Broadway Bounty Hunter, which Ms. Tepper is also producing, that will open off-Broadway in the summer. This new album is from Ghostlight Records. Visit www.ghostlightrecords.com. @jenashtep is the Twitter handle. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Jennifer Ashley Tepper; Ms. Tepper, good morning.

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