Sondheim wrote back and became a mentor.Īmong Larson’s most interesting student plays was Herstory, or Little Miss Muffet Spat On Her Tuffet, a cabaret about women’s issues performed at Adelphi in 1980. When he was at Adelphi, Jonathan wrote a fan letter to Stephen Sondheim. He won a scholarship to Adelphi as a drama major, and soon was writing as well as acting in musicals and dramas. In high school, he was the star in the school’s musicals and displayed a good baritone voice. Jonathan had grown up in White Plains, a suburb north of New York City, where he studied tuba and piano and put on shows in his backyard.

He knew he had talent, and he did, so that wasn’t being cocky.” Some people might say he was opinionated. She fell for Jonathan because “he was funny, articulate, and had strong opinions. For example, when I threw birthday parties I wanted an eclectic crowd and I invited my dry cleaner, a movie star and the guys from my deli, and Jonathan loved that.” I wore kabuki makeup and unusual clothes. Jonathan fell in love with Victoria “because I’m generous and loyal, and he appreciated my belief in him. Her mother was Marilyn West, a fashion model and painter. Richard Leacock was a celebrated director of cinema verite documentaries. Larson was intrigued by Victoria partly because she was Bohemian and partly because she had a father who was in the creative field.

Even though I’d been going to Studio 54 since I was 14 and there wasn’t much in life that I hadn’t tried, Jonathan was the first man I loved.” He was Malvolio in Twelfth Night that year. He was an acting major, a tall, gangly guy with black hair, and “a very good actor,” according to Leacock. Leacock says she first saw Jonathan when he starred as Christ in the college’s production of Godspell in 1981. She was a freshman at Adelphi University, on Long Island, and Jonathan was a senior. She said that when she met Larson she was more blatantly sexual, exotic and funky. Leacock was a slender, youthful-looking 38 in 2001. So much has been written about Rent and about Larson’s death Leacock is the ideal person to talk about Larson’s life and his work. When t ick…tick…Boom! finally opened at the Jane Street Theater in 2001, one of the musical’s producers was Victoria Leacock, one of Larson’s closest friends. He put aside tick…tick…Boom! when he started writing Rent, and it never had a theatrical run until five years after his death. Larson wrote tick…tick…Boom! In 1989, when he was on the verge of turning 30. I’d prefer to celebrate his life.Ī previous show, before Rent, was autobiographical, and when it had a posthumous off-Broadway premiere and an RCA recording, it gave us a look at his career. Jonathan Larson is mostly remembered for his untimely death just as his creation, Rent, was about to open.

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