The '90s come calling and an RIP to Sondheim
The '90s come calling and an RIP to Sondheim
Exploring the ebullience of joy and doldrums of inexplicable sadness this Thanksgiving season thru the lens of legacy, unexpressed love, and "jagged" memories.
Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos. - Stephen Sondheim
When the American composter and playwright, Jonathan Larson died of an undiagnosed Marfan’s syndrome in the early hours of January 25, 1996, he was nearly ten days shy of turning 36. Of further note, he died on the same day that the rock musical, Rent, for which he would be known for, debuted in its first Off-Broadway preview performance. The show did go on that night, despite Larson’s passing. At the end of the performance, applause was held and there was silence in the theater until someone in the audience, said, “Thank you, Jonathan Larson.”
In comparable terms, it’s like if Lin-Manuel Miranda, also a young, hip rock opera creator and the director force behind the new Larson biopic on Netflix, Tick, Tick... Boom!, passed away right before his Hamilton premiere on Broadway. Of further eery coincidence, both Miranda and Larson were the same age when they produced their signature, hit musicals (35) to date. Miranda, himself, shared that being able to make this film was his way of repaying the favor that Larson did for him for it was Larson’s musicals that facilitated Miranda’s love for the form of performance in the first place.
Like Larson before him, Miranda experienced a level of critical success at a young age. Unlike Larson, however, Miranda was able to live on and experience commercial and theatrical recognition and success. He’s won a Pulitzer, 3 Tonys, 3 Grammys, 2 Emmys and a Kennedy Center Honor, and that’s not even all. Both men are gifted writers and master storytellers, with a knack for tying those lyrics to music that is catchy and poignant at the same time.
Inherent in the themes of their work is a focus on social and class issues, death and violence, interpersonal relationships, and art as a healer attempting to bring light and understanding to that which feels inexplicable and disparaging. For Larson, it was the AIDS epidemic and watching his friends die at unfathomably young ages. At one point in Tick, Tick... Boom!, Larson (Garfield) comments about the friends he has lost to AIDS and how a few of them didn’t make it to 25.
Given both this context and his own inner drive, Larson is presented in the film as a young man haunted by an intrinsic race against time soaring and faltering towards his ultimate goal - that of having his work featured on Broadway (or even off) - as if he had a bomb ticking away inside and couldn’t give up a modicum of a moment of his life for fear of never being relevant.
Against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic killing young adults, lack of public awareness around what causes the transmission of AIDS (ergo misinformation leading to bias against homosexuality in the generic public) non-heterosexuality as identity, multiculturalism, issues of poverty, class wars, artists trying to express their art under “duress” or at least tackling the age old adage for creatives, “How do I avoid selling out?” lies Larson’s work and the spirit of the film. The film also tells the tale of how Larson and others lived in squalor, as young Bohemians, working at the Moonshine Diner during the day and working on art at night.
For a solid interview with Andrew Garfield (who is superb as Larson and sings all of the music in the film), check out AV Club’s interview with him below.
A timely footnote on Tick, Tick... Boom! - Famed composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) - a luminary and early fan of Larson’s work is also featured in the film. Given how much prestige and honor Sondheim carried as a forefather of musical theater (West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, etc.), having Sondheim in his corner cheering him on, surely encouraged Larson. It also reinforces the importance of the connection and access. Sondheim took a liking to Larson and no doubt because he was gifted and he saw the raw talent, but he also likely saw someone like himself in Larson making that desire to help him that much more visceral.
For those honoring and missing Sondheim this weekend (he passed away on 11/26/21), the documentary, Six by Sondheim, (not to be confused with the Broadway musical Six, a modern take on the wives of Henry VIII) is a watch-worthy retrospective on the composer’s life. A cool tidbit was that Sondheim grew up in Doylestown, PA not far from Oscar Hammerstein’s home. Sondheim’s own family life being fractured, he spent most of his early years at Hammerstein’s home. He comments that if Hammerstein were an archeologist, he would have become one. For our sakes, I’m glad he happened to be an artist. Again, back to the point of interconnected/intertwined legacies - That of Hammerstein and Sondheim, Sondheim and Larson, and Larson and Miranda - becoming successful and being made means having the right people and influencers in your corner and/or paving the path for you to exist in the first place.
Survey Says: For those who enjoy musical theater and appreciate Miranda’s aesthetic and style of infusing musical numbers into narrative about social history as told thru a motley crew of flawed and real characters, don’t miss this one.
Trending this week: While on subject of time ticking and people being taken away too soon, check out Garfield on Colbert talking about unexpressed love = grief, based on how he chooses to wrestle with the intense emotion he experiences from the loss his mother in 2019 and turn it into a positive, healing moment - creating the connection with his playing Larson and Garfield’s own mom - both artists. This interview has been a trending social media hashtag for a number of days now.
Skip ahead to 4:00 if you don’t have patience to listen to the rest.
And from Jamie Anderson, of Goodreads, thank you for putting words to that lump in my throat that’s been there since I was a kid and lost my mother.
“Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.”
Jagged on HBO Max is a documentary about famed 90s pop/rock mother of confessional singer songwriters Alanis Morissette, whose album Jagged Little Pill holds the record as the best-selling debut album worldwide to this day and second best-selling album by a female artist, with the first one being Shania Twain, another Canadian born singer.
Jagged, the documentary debuted at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2021, and at its core tells a generally favorable tale about Alanis’ meteoric rise to commercial fame - another ‘90s artist that tasted success young but with the double edged sword of being a female and one that didn’t conventionally fit into any commercial boxes. Fortunately for her, she stuck to her guns and didn’t sacrifice her vision for the sake of what others thought, including her former Canadian label, MCA.
Her song, Right Through You (which you can listen to below) is a good capture of that sentiment and also how she laughed all the way to the bank.
Wait a minute man
You mispronounced my name
You didn't wait for all the information
Before you turned me away
Wait a minute sir
You kind of hurt my feelings
You see me as a sweet back-loaded puppet
And you've got a meal ticket taste
I see right through you
I know right through you
I feel right through you
I walk right through you
You took me for a joke
You took me for a child
You took a long hard look at my ass
And then played golf for a while
Your shake is like a fish
You pat me on the head
You took me out to wine dine 69 me
But didn't hear a damn word I said
Oh hello Mr. Man
You didn't think I'd come back
You didn't think I'd show up with my army
And this ammunition on my back
Now that I'm Miss Thing
Now that I'm a zillionaire
You scan the credits for your name
And wonder why it's not there
I see right through you
I know right through you
I feel right through you
I walk right through you, yo
The documentary is a good nostalgic ‘90s trip for any of us young or old enough to appreciate coming of age during that time. It captures a turning point for female singers in the ability for someone like Alanis to achieve success (check), but also have that achievement doubted and her value eclipsed by society’s attempt to diminish her, readily labeling her “angry young woman.”
The silver lining here of course is Alanis’ gift for writing and singing. She just kept popping out beautiful songs throughout the course of her life that told her story and we keep listening because she’s that good. For those naysayers who point out the angriness as a motif in all her songs, for as many songs that could be interpreted that way, there are least a few that expressed the exact opposite - take Ironic, for example:
Alanis has been touring with Shirley Manson (Garbage) and Cat Powers and having the time of her life, if her Instagram feed is to be believed. As a nod to her force, think of all the female powerhouse singers you may or may not listen to today who wouldn’t have likely achieved the same level of commercial stardom without her: Taylor Swift comes to mind, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and even Beyonce.
If you’re looking for another documentary or two about a female singer-songwriter, I highly recommend you read the post below.
As with Larson and Sondheim before him, it’s a chain effect. No artist exists in a silo all their own - each inherits that legacy and is the keeper of his/her story but also bear the weight of that responsibility of being apart of something greater than themselves through helping to pave the way for younger generations.
For the record: If you’re interested in reading more about the female eff-you anthem and see a comparison of Taylor’s Swift 10-minute ode to innocent, hurtful love in All To Well and Alanis, read here. Also, can we lay to rest the whole “F*ck the Patriarchy” keychain controversy drama and doubting how Taylor could have penned these lyrics 13 years ago because it wasn’t culturally in the zeitgeist? I mean, Taylor, is having a laugh on all of us here by selling it online. And I bet you people are buying.
Of note: The documentary has been under attack, by Morissette, who came out against how the final production came together. It’s been rumored to be related to the allegations of statutory rape made by Alanis as she was 15 when she first became a victim of sexual assault.
Here’s what she has to say about Jagged:
“I sit here now experiencing the full impact of having trusted someone who did not warrant being trusted,” she said. “This is not the story I agreed to tell. I was lulled into a false sense of security, and their salacious agenda became apparent immediately upon my seeing the first cut of the film. This is when I knew our visions were in fact painfully diverged.”
Survey Says: If you’re looking to take a trip back to the ‘90s, pair this with Tick, Tick... Boom! and just be ready to be a sponge for the deep, dark and profound feels of that grungy emo time. I mean, heck, some of us still do our best work and living in those moments.