This is a distinct kind of once in a lifetime honor that we're getting here to bring these songs out of boxes, files, you know, floppy disks, the stuff that was just sitting in the library for decades, thought to be lost forever.

I hear footsteps down the hall.

Don't know how much they're loud If you're waiting for the last wheel I think the time is now.

Ohhh, SOS, oh Jesus SOS, oh Buddha SOS, Immanuel yes oh yes oh Turn 30 in the 90's Into my hands now The ball is passed I want the spoils, but not too fast Jonathan Larson had an effect on everyone who was making musicals today, whether they know it or not.

Lin-Manuel Miranda says Jonathan Larson is one of his heroes.

And the way he writes musicals is because of Jonathan Larson.

Jonathan's dream was to make musical theater collide with pop music and rock music, and he did it.

You know, his greatest dream came true and he very sadly wasn't around to see it.

We're not gonna pay Last years rent This years rent Next years rent Rent rent rent rent rent Were not gonna pay rent Cause everything is rent it is so strange to think that some of these tunes, nobody knows.

And I think sometimes that people are going to come in and whether they know it or not, they're expecting to see rent.

It's not rent.

It can't be rent because it's not rent.

Obviously, rent is incredible and will live forever, but it's really exciting to hear what else was up in his head.

Another failure, another flop.

And I should try another hobby.

This has got to stop.

I feel like a tightrope walker without the wire.

One more disaster.

One more dud.

It could be worse.

at least this time no flood though it's the 14th time that I almost caught on fire again.

Maybe it's luck.

What is luck?

How could this be luck?

No one's luck could be this bad Maybe it's fate.

Maybe it's time.

one of these days.

I'll find a way.

I'll make it to the top.

Leave them all back in the dust.

I want to think about what makes musical sense.

Right.

You want to think about how things flow together.

What makes something harmonically interesting and rich and beautiful, And also what helps with the storytelling.

First, have the actors in our show be themselves and sort of exist in their own world and then bring them further into characters that Jonathan created to set yourself kind of back in the eighties and nineties when a lot of the stuff was written.

What he was influenced by musically, but also like what was going on in the world at that time and how that informed a lot of his ideals and his lyricism and how he composed as well.

Very interesting for a listener.

Im right In 1984 Diehard fans I think they're going to consider this a love letter to all that they've looked up to this whole time.

He may not be here, but Jonathan is definitely in the room with us.

We consider that with every step we make on this.

Stage, younger people are going to gravitate towards this because of the style of music, but they're also going to find like really solid nuggets of like wisdom of humanity.

I think Jonathan provides a light, a source of knowledge, a way for people to move through the world, to move through times of difficulties.

One of these days I'll find a way.

All rise above the throng.

They'll be amazed at who they see.

One of these days, someone will say, I knew it all along.

One of these days, that's what will be.

Jonathan challenged all of us in musical theater and hopefully everybody who has ever heard his music to figure out how his sound and his words could evolve.

It is the honor of my life, and I wish I could turn to the piano and say, Is this going all right?

And we've talked to his friends and his family and what I hope that Jonathan would have loved about what we're doing is that placing it in a accessible context to right now, he would be really proud of he would have kicked down so many more doors.

And all of this music sort of forces us to figure out how could we tell this story in a way that both honors where he was on the cutting edge of musical theater and where we have found ourself now 30, 35 years later.

Every day in rehearsal, there's at least one moment where we're like, We cannot believe Jonathan Larson wrote that in 1985 or 1993, because it feels like he wrote it in 2025.

For us, there are.

Lines that we would have to stop in rehearsal and say to someone, Add this.

No, no, we're using his words, We're using his lyrics.

It's it's.

Crazy.

The songs make you want to move, you know, it makes you want to groove.

And that we do.

And hopefully that groove will be extended to the audience and most importantly, the music.

It soothes the spirit.

We deal with political stuff, challenging things, lost hope, and in the end, hopefully something that lets us stand and see, okay, how are we going to go forward today.

miracle's in for a landing, gonna get here, gonna happen One of these days