Book by Dyanne Asimow                                           

Music by Eric Mayron

Lyrics by Eric Mayron & Dyanne Asimow

 

 

rocksong. explodes with the pop and punk music scene

of LA in the early 80s, from its garage bands

to the well-appointed suites of high-powered music execs. 

 

 

The rock musical opens after the death of JONATHAN GREEN, underground cult rock musician and performing artist, bludgeoned by a lead pipe.  It jumps back and forth in time as the main characters in his life try to unravel how he died.  And who killed him. 

 

Could it be...  

ZENA, a talented but callous would-be rocker, who feels Jonathan has thwarted her musical destiny, wailing her anger in her song, Zena, the Zero 

GARY, his best friend from college, now a music executive, who sees Jonathan as holding the promise of a hit if only he would write it (as expressed in Rocksong) 

JANET, who loves, but can no longer live with Jonathan, partly because she has abdicated her own talent to become a player in the music industry machine, which he both mocks and admires in Art is Death, Janet will Live

…and LARRY, a virulent fan, who will do anything – live, die, even kill – for his idol.

 

Crucial to the investigation of his murder are questions about the nature of art and success – JONATHAN’s ironic outsider stance is pitted against the commercial common sense of his friends.  As he struggles with the challenge of being true to his musical ambition, he is pressured to find popular success at a price he is not willing to pay. 

   

The night of his big ur-musical, Attila, the Hun, GARY jumps off the ship of faith that JONATHAN demands, and JANET leaves him because she’s tired of being the only adult in their relationship.  Yet, paradoxically, she, like GARY, is invested in a vision of him that is artistically uncompromising. The push and pull of contradictory forces compel him to become more extreme, to withdraw, to escape.

 

Arrogant, boyish, likable, manipulative, JONATHAN is anything but consistent. He has a loyal following thanks to his underground weekly cable access program.  But in contrast to the groups he allows on his show – the Exacto Blades, the Pierced Babies, and ZENA, who are all on ‘Pins and Needles’ with the chance to make it big – he provokes the suspicion that he is frightened by risk; that he clings to his arcane turf to protect himself from failure.

 

Friends, lovers, and hangers-on, all want JONATHAN to be their idea of who he is.  Although he is charismatic and ardently admired by his fans, he is confronted with the fact that he really does not know who he is, and perhaps can only find out through death.  

 

Fueled by anger, anguish, and desperation, it is just possible that JONATHAN lives his life as his art, and that he views his death as necessary in order to give the art its ultimate frame.

 

After witnessing his bizarre and horrifying demise, his friends pay tribute the only way they know how – they package one of his songs so that with any luck, it will hit the charts.

 

Jonathan is loosely inspired by Peter Ivers, a cult figure in the Los Angeles underground music scene of the early 80s.