The late Jonathan Larson
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New NY Notes Night Celebrates Late Larson, 7 Mar

As previously tipped (See The Goss, 29 Dec 2003), Notes from New York, the West End concert platform for contemporary US musical theatre, will return next month. The one-off evening – this time featuring the work of Rent’s late creator Jonathan Larson as well as Tony Award winner William Finn (A New Brain, Falsettos, Infinite Joy) and a new selection of songs by Jason Robert Brown (Songs for a New World, Parade, The Last Five Years) - will take place at the Donmar Warehouse on Sunday 7 March 2004.

Larson (pictured) is best known as the composer of Rent, which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, before transferring to the UK where its had multiple West End seasons and tours. He died prematurely of an aortic aneurysm ahead of the show’s premiere in New York. His only other musical Tick Tick Boom was produced posthumously Off-Broadway in 2001 and has yet to receive a UK production.

Less prominent than Larson, though more prolific, William Finn was himself mistakenly diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour in 1992. His show A New Brain is based on his experience of being misdiagnosed. His other shows include In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland and Elegies.

For the March event, Paul Spicer (The Witches of Eastwick, Fame, Taboo) and Julie Atherton (Mamma Mia!) will be joined by Debbie Kurup (who has previously starred in Rent in the West End and is currently in Rod Stewart’s Tonight’s the Night) and Craig Purnell (who won a Whatsonstage.com Award for Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World at the Bridewell).

Notes from New York will once again be directed by David Randall with musical staging by Paul Spicer. It’s produced by Neil Eckersley.

- by Terri Paddock

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