The Southwark Playhouse production of The Jonathan Larson Project brings previously unheard material from the Rent and Tick, Tick... Boom writer into a small, intimate setting, giving local audiences a rare window onto songs that never made it to stage or screen.
Intimate snapshots of a gifted writer
A company of five performers presents 18 of Larson’s unearthed pieces as short musical snapshots. Each number plays like a fragment of a larger story — some feel like cut songs that might once have sat within Larson’s better known works, others read as standalone vignettes or monologue-songs that suggest a whole world beyond what is heard in Southwark.
“The best writers write like they’re running out of time,”
The quotation from Lin-Manuel Miranda, included in the production’s material, is a fitting touch: there is an urgency and tenderness in these pieces that echoes Larson’s tragically brief career. The show is offered, in effect, as a tribute to a composer who did not live to see the success his work would achieve.
Standout moments and staging notes
One of the clearest highlights is the comic number Hosing the Furniture, which showcases sharp comic timing and precise diction from Imelda Warren-Green and recalls the Stephen Sondheim Award Larson received for the song. Vocally the cast are strong and the acting gives shape to the short pieces, allowing audiences to imagine the unseen contexts from which the songs might have been taken.
- Number of songs: 18 previously unproduced or cut pieces
- Company size: Five performers
- Notable track: Hosing the Furniture (Stephen Sondheim Award-winning)
However, the show is not without its practical frustrations. A video backdrop is used to display footage of Larson, animated segments and the title of each song; from some seats the display is distorted by a bend, making it hard to read song titles and therefore to place each number in context. At times, choreographic transitions feel distracting rather than enhancing, interrupting the flow between pieces.
| Aspect | Observation |
|---|---|
| Vocal performance | Strong; expressive and convincing across varied styles |
| Staging | Intimate but hampered by video readability and some unnecessary movement |
| Overall effect | Feels like a live showcase or gig; a respectful tribute to Larson |
For Southwark audiences interested in musical theatre history and the development of an important late-20th-century writer, the production is an engaging, if occasionally imperfect, evening. It provides both memorable musical moments and a reminder of how much of an artist’s work can remain unseen — and how the smallest venues can play a part in rescuing it for new listeners.
