The show features previously unrecorded music of late Rent composer Larson, including songs from never-produced shows like 1984 and Superbia; songs that were cut from Rent and tick tick… BOOM!; songs written for theatrical revues and the radio; and songs about politics, love, and New York City.
The album will be produced by Tepper, Rosen, and Kurt Deutsch.
“Larson’s work has always spoken to me deeply,” says director Tepper. “It was a theatre historian’s dream to spend several years researching his lesser-known songs at the Library of Congress in order to create a new song cycle. We presented The Jonathan Larson Project at Feinstein's/54 Below this fall and the energy of both the collaboration and of the audiences at the 12 performances was like nothing I've ever experienced. Jonathan’s lost songs, which had been sitting in boxes for decades, are relevant and fascinating and personal and political and fun and heartbreaking. Rehearsing them with some of the greatest theatre artists of our new generation and then watching the way they influenced new audience members made me feel his legacy in a powerful way. Now we get to share that legacy with the world by recording it as an album. A few years ago, most of these songs only existed as demo tapes in a library vault from the 1980s and 1990s, featuring Jonathan and his piano. Now they comprise a brand new theatre piece that has been fully realized musically and will be available for everyone to listen to. I could not be more excited for a wider audience to experience The Jonathan Larson Project.”
Like many other theatre professionals, Annie was the first real musical I ever performed in. In 1995, I played Drake the Butler/ extra chorus orphan in the Boca Raton Jewish Community Center production of Annie... and it was the gateway drug to a life of musicals. Here I am center stage as a chatty 4th grade orphan with long braids...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...and here I am this past summer, interviewing Annie librettist Thomas Meehan at the New York Public Library for an event! Not only did I get to ask Tom questions about the classic musical (and his other hits!) in front of a room of theatre writers, I even got to tell him about my performance as Drake - and thank him for opening a door for me through his words.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
I went to NYU and majored in Dramatic Writing, because I loved theatre and I loved writing- but I wanted to work as a theatre historian and in theatre producing, so I was a bit out of place in a department of playwrights and screenwriters. Because of this, I started to produce a concert series for BC/EFA with friends from various departments at NYU, to exercise those creative muscles... During one of our productions, the musical [title of show] was running off-Broadway nearby at the Vineyard Theatre, and we were all obsessed with it. I wrote to the creators and asked if we could do a song from the show in our performance. We couldn't, since it wasn't published yet - but we invited the creators to attend our show anyway, and they actually came! This is me and my sister Jessica with [title of show]'s Jeff Bowen, Susan Blackwell, and Hunter Bell, right after meeting them for the first time...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
![...What you see next is a photo by Peter James Zielinski, of a year and a half later at the Lyceum stage door, after <i>[title of show]'s</i> first preview on Broadway. That's me in the background, working on my first Broadway show. Great things happen wh](http://assets.playbill.com/editorial/_embeddedGallerySize/b407ccde328a2376697012aaf74849d1-Playbill2B.jpg)
...What you see next is a photo by Peter James Zielinski, of a year and a half later at the Lyceum stage door, after [title of show]'s first preview on Broadway. That's me in the background, working on my first Broadway show. Great things happen when you take a chance and reach out to people you admire!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
I was in 42nd Street in high school, and I actually got the gypsy robe! (That's right, my high school was cool enough to have a gypsy robe that went to the student who was in the ensemble for the most productions- how rad is that.)...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...Here I am performing in "Lullaby of Broadway" in 42nd Street, worried that Peggy Sawyer will leave show business behind for Allentown...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... It was then that I started to identify with the character of Peggy Sawyer... who goes out there a youngster and comes back a star... and years later, I (partially) dedicated my second book to her. "To all the Peggy Sawyers and all the Peggy Olsons."
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
For my Bat Mitzvah sign-in board in 1999, I was Mimi popping out of a pile of Rent Playbills...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
![...Years later, I got to work as <i>Rent</i> director Michael Greif's assistant on several projects. Here we are at the Broadway Flea Market in 2008, with my other boss at the time, <i>[title of show]</i> director Michael Berresse...](http://assets.playbill.com/editorial/_embeddedGallerySize/c815a90d6cc691d6d0508edd7f607f30-Playbill4B.jpg)
...Years later, I got to work as Rent director Michael Greif's assistant on several projects. Here we are at the Broadway Flea Market in 2008, with my other boss at the time, [title of show] director Michael Berresse...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...Rent was so important to me, and still is. Last year during Encores! Off-Center's production of tick... tick... BOOM! I got to produce a lobby concert event celebrating lesser-known Jonathan Larson work, featuring this amazing group.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
My first year in New York was theatrically overwhelming. I had only been to NYC three times before I moved here at the age of 18. Here I am literally surrounded by Playbills in my freshman dorm room (which- fun fact- was once Philip Seymour Hoffman's dorm room!)...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...and here I am the first time MY name actually appeared in a Broadway Playbill, for the 2011 Godspell revival.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
In high school, my senior yearbook quote was from "Our Time" in Merrily We Roll Along, my absolute favorite musical. A few years later, I was even Mary Flynn for Halloween!...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... And here I am with original cast members Jim Walton, Mana Allen, and Lonny Price, after they all participated in an edition of my If It Only Even Runs A Minute concert series. The series celebrates underappreciated musicals with songs, stories, photos, and original cast performances. Our next show is on October 14 at 9:30 at Feinstein's/ 54 Below! (http://54below.com/artist/if-it-only-even-runs-a-minute/) I have been so lucky to get to know the original Merrily gang, who I worshipped when I was a kid, and who have now become mentors, collaborators, and friends.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Hunter Foster was my absolute favorite actor during my teenage years. From this diary entry when Little Shop of Horrors came to Florida...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... to this stagedoor pic after Urinetown, I wore my love for this charismatic, versatile theatre leading man on my sleeve...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...and I still do. When Hunter performed "Anthem" from Chess in my Runs A Minute series, I nearly died. He also tells some great stories in the Untold Stories of Broadway book series. Here we are after the final performance of Hands on a Hardbody.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Another obsession always in rotation on my boom box (!!!) as a kid was Richard Maltby and David Shire musicals. From Baby to Big to Starting Here Starting Now to Closer Than Ever, I loved the intelligence married to heart in all of their work. I was part of a musical theatre troupe that traveled to Florida retirement communities performing "gigs", and my star number was their (perhaps not appropriate in this situation) "Miss Byrd"...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... One of the first shows I produced when I came on board at Feinstein's/54 Below in 2013 was a Maltby & Shire celebration. These are some shots with them and our musical director Jeremy Robin Lyons, and with the cast, featuring many original cast members from their shows.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... One of the first shows I produced when I came on board at Feinstein's/54 Below in 2013 was a Maltby & Shire celebration. These are some shots with them and our musical director Jeremy Robin Lyons, and with the cast, featuring many original cast members from their shows.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
During my freshman year of college, I was oddly but proudly obsessed with the underappreciated musical Good Vibrations. It was filled with unbelievable emerging actors who have gone on to great careers. There was something about its joy and innocence... and the energy of the cast... that spoke to me. I saw the show 4 times, from the front row student rush seats. At the closing performance, leading man David Larsen's tears hit the stage as he danced and sung the title song, and I reached out and touched them...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... Here we are on stage at the Colonial Theatre in Boston this summer, where he was leading the Book of Mormon tour as Elder Price...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...The other pic is of Good Vibrations swing and Broadway debut-er Krysta Rodriguez and I, posing with the show's window card at Sardi's. Go see David in Book Of Mormon on tour and Krysta in Spring Awakening at the Brooks Atkinson!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
On my first trip to New York City ever in 2001, I was lucky enough to get tickets to the hottest ticket in town - The Producers. My 15-year-old self was blown away by the show... and just as much by the whole experience, my first time at the St. James. We waited on the street for 6 hours for standing room tickets, and made friends with dozens of strangers and shared donuts. New York was filled with strangers who cared about theatre- really cared!...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...Now I work every day at Feinstein's/54 Below with the producers of The Producers - including Tom Viertel and Richard Frankel, pictured here at my second book release party.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
The girl who once wrote Sondheim lyrics in her high school planner margins for inspiration...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... became the girl who took a photo with Sondheim at the 31 year reunion party for the original cast of Merrily We Roll Along.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
The girl who once took a photo with Jason Robert Brown at the stage door for the out-of-town tryout of Urban Cowboy...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... became the girl who interviewed Jason Robert Brown for a live event.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Backstage with Patti LuPone at Avery Fisher Hall while working as a production assistant on the 2010 Sondheim Birthday Concert...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
..and "sharing a bill" with Patti at Feinstein's/54 Below a few years later!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Playing Eleanor in Starmites the musical at the JCC...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... and with my family and Starmites' original Eleanor, Liz Larsen, after directing a benefit called Broadway Recycled that she appeared in.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
My writing beginnings: embarrassingly titled 30-minute plays...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
..and actually becoming an author: celebrating with my frequent collaborators Joe Iconis, Eric William Morris, and Molly Hager...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... and autographing a book at Northwestern for student Janie Dickerson.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
Fandom doesn't stop at childhood! I was such a fan of Josh Safran, show runner of Smash, who put "Broadway, Here I Come!" written by Joe Iconis, on television, that I tweeted this at him...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...and a few months later we were putting together Hit List, the stage version of the fictional musical from Smash, together at Feinstein's/54 Below!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...and a few months later we were putting together Hit List, the stage version of the fictional musical from Smash, together at Feinstein's/54 Below!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...and a few months later we were putting together Hit List, the stage version of the fictional musical from Smash, together at Feinstein's/54 Below!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
After seeing Wicked as a teenager, I loved the show so much that I convinced my friends to wait at the stage door in the pouring rain for an hour...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... years later, I got to work with Stephen Schwartz on another of his Broadway shows, which played right next door to where Wicked was (is) still playing... Godspell!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
![Jay Armstrong Johnson and I became good friends at NYU (when working on the same concerts that introduced me to the <i>[title of show]</i> team!). Here we are in rehearsal with our fellow classmates...](http://assets.playbill.com/editorial/_embeddedGallerySize/c1fef989df2cd3bae089ca86e82ffb66-Playbill18A.jpg)
Jay Armstrong Johnson and I became good friends at NYU (when working on the same concerts that introduced me to the [title of show] team!). Here we are in rehearsal with our fellow classmates...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... here's the photo I took when Jay made his Broadway debut as Claude in Hair...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... and here we are after the first preview of Hands on a Hardbody. Getting to see Jay rise on Broadway and share his talent on important stages has been one of the biggest thrills of my career in New York theatre so far. I have believed in this guy so hard since we were 19 years old, working together on musical theatre in a basement.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
This is one of the trippiest "then and now" photos for me. This is my bookshelf as a teenager...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... and this is the bookshelf of the teenage character from my frequent collaborator Joe Iconis' musical, The Black Suits. On Lisa Bred's bookshelf, as she stood there and sang "Blue Hair", lived the first ever copy of my first ever book. The "test" copy of volume one of The Untold Stories of Broadway was part of the actual set for the Center Theatre Group production of The Black Suits.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
In high school, my hugest passion was Florida Thespians - I lived for the annual state competitions where all of the kids who loved theatre the most would gather in Tampa and share what they'd been working on. In 2003, I was part of a group that won the State Championship in the group musical number category. We performed "Forget About The Boy" from Thoroughly Modern Millie. I played Miss Flannery and watched Anne L. Nathan's performance on the 2002 Tony Awards hundreds of times for inspiration...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
... A decade later, Anne was the first person I interviewed for The Untold Stories of Broadway series. Here we are with Lauren Marcus checking out the second book!
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
My childhood was filled with slam books, where my friends and I would write a category at the top of each page and then each write our answer. In 4th grade, for "Favorite Singer", I wrote "Marc Kudisch". I was 9. And in Florida! It was the very beginning of a ridiculous life of gigantic love for all-things theatre...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...I am grateful every day that I have a life where I get to spend my time making things I care about, surrounded by all of my "Favorite Singers". From backstage with the cast of the Broadway revival of Godspell...
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
...to backstage at Feinstein's/54 Below before an If It Only Even Runs A Minute concert... I've gotten to be in some very special rooms. And no matter what I've been doing in them, before anything else, I'm always a fan.
Jennifer Ashley Tepper
