The Tragic Life of Jonathan Larson - YouTube After he graduated from high school, Larson attended Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, with a four-year scholarship as a theatre major.He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine arts degree and went on participate in a summer theatre program at The Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, as a piano player, where he earned his Equity card for the Actors Equity Association. I pass out in the theater right as the characters are singing [the lyrics] "dying in America." The musical also went on to open productions in La Jolla, California; Toronto, London and other cities across the world. 'Tick Tick Boom!' a tragic, true tale of 'Rent' creator "JL: It was very important, especially to my dad, for the casts to get a sense of who Jonnie was and personalize it for them, which is why we tried to do "Peasant's Feasts" for as many new casts as possible. AL: When Jonathan died and Rent burst forth, I speaking just for myself was in a total stupor. How many lives the show has saved that we've been told about through letters and people telling us in person that it literally saved their lives. alongside Tony-winning actors Karen Olivo and Leslie Odom, Jr. Now, Netflixs version of tick, tickBoom! So, I got dressed. He played the trumpet and tuba in his high school band, was involved in his school's choir and took formal piano lessons. He was dynamic in melodic and dramatic creation when he was in school. Hopefully, they'll continue to do that at future performances. There was definitely opera blasting on the weekends when my dad was puttering, and we owned pretty much every Broadway musical album. ", "Theater; The Seven-Year Odyssey that Led to 'Rent', "JUST WHAT IS THE PRICE OF FAME? Amy Asch - Program Editor - LinkedIn Jonathan Larson Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family [6] Larson attended White Plains High School, where he was also involved in acting, performing in lead roles in various productions, graduating in 1978. Nicola was intrigued with the early draft and the theater embarked on a development process, sponsoring readings and workshops. "It was an astonishing moment that, you know, yeah, it's 25 years ago. The department found that Larsons cardiogram at St. Vincents suggested a lack of blood flow to the heart and that his blood pressure displayed a wide gap between high and low pressure measurements, which hinted that his hearts main valve was leaking. Joan Marcus Mar 3, 2023, 8:00pm PST. Larson was 35 years old. Jonathan Larson - Trivia, Family, Bio | Famous Birthdays The composer and lyricist. 'tick, tickBOOM!' Producer Julie Oh on the Musical's Power A 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. I was recommended because I had made inventories of Irving Berlin's office correspondence and. Most of his friends happily spent their days outside, while Larson started gravitating to music before he was even potty trained. Rent, which went on to win Larson three Tonys and Pulitzer Prize, grossed around half a million dollars a week in its first year on Broadway. It was also cathartic, in some ways, while simultaneously being extremely difficult, emotionally.One of the upsides for my parents, in all the sadness, was to have the opportunity to travel the world and get to know all the beautiful, talented young people who were carrying Jon's message. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with high praise for director Lin-Manuel Mirandas direction in his directorial debut, score, and musical sequences, and Garfield's performance garnering universal acclaim. Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think youll love as much as we do. The show continued to sell out at the New York Theatre Workshop and eventually went to Broadway, where. The Health Department also claimed that the exams, cardiograms and X-rays showed at least some irregular results that should have been of concern for doctors to order more tests. The other pieces? Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale. But she's always much more private about things. After his death, Larson's family and friends started the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation to provide monetary grants to artists, especially musical theatre composers and writers, to support their creative work. The money helped Larsons family file medical malpractice lawsuits against two hospitals that Larson visited the week of his death. Born in Bronx, NY, the only child of Tess and Louis Notarius. "I knew these people. Jonathan David Larson was born on February 4, 1960, in White Plains, New York. The hospital also Dr. DeBuono also suggested that treatment and tests at Cabrini relating to the possibility of food poisoning may have actually clouded Mr. Larsons diagnosis or worsened his condition. [In the weeks before his death, Jonathan had gone to two emergency rooms with heart pain, but was sent home.] .css-5rg4gn{display:block;font-family:NeueHaasUnica,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-5rg4gn:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:-0.02em;margin:0.75rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.3;letter-spacing:0.02rem;margin:0.9375rem 0 0;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;margin:0.9375rem 0 0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-5rg4gn{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4;}}Riley Keough Explains Sex Scene With Her Husband. Lin-Man Well You've Got Tons of Future Projects. The film is based on the semi-autobiographical rock monologue written by Jonathan Larson, whos best known for writing the musical sensation Rent, and its directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known for writing the era-defining show Hamilton. Once the show was over, there was a long applause followed by silence which was eventually broken when an audience member shouted out "Thank you, Jonathan Larson."[16]. - IMDb Mini Biography By: I spoke with some of the people who were there that night. The show started with a six-week run at the 150-seat East Village theater, which was extended through March 31 and sold out. A coffee table book was also published, and in 2005, the musical was made into a movie by Sony Pictures. is headed to the 2022 Academy Awards, where its crew has been nominated for Best Film Editing, and Garfield has been nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. At the diner Larson later met Jesse L. Martin, who was his waiting trainee and later would perform the role of Tom Collins in the original cast of Larson's Rent.One of Jonathan Larson's best musicals is Tick, TickBOOM!, where Larson writes about a waiter wanting to be a waiter, but is unable to make any success. Leah Putnam As Vox reports, Larson was feeling bitter that every producer who came to his Superbia workshop had told him that it was both too expensive to mount Off-Broadway and too weird to mount on Broadway.. Miranda has long been a fan of Larsons work, telling publications over the years that seeing Rent on his 17th birthday was a life-changing moment for him as an artist. The department found that the report wasnt read until after Larson was discharged. And, frankly, in my head at that point, this was Jonnie's, this was his. New York State medical investigators concluded that Larson may have lived if the aortic dissection had been properly diagnosed and treated with cardiac surgery. He adored them, and "Unky," as he was called by them, was their favorite person on the planet. Because for Jonnie, partly, it was the money, but it wasn't necessarily a huge amount of money not to mount a production or anything. Larson stopped acting to focus on compositions. On a medical front the Marfan organization gets all sorts of communications from people.I remember one, particularly, where a gentleman wrote to me. However, officials claimed that none of these procedures are reliable to diagnose an aneurysm, which is often detected by a CAT scan or a specialized heart sonogram. . The family of late Rent composer Jonathan Larson filed a countersuit May 18 against Lynn Thomson, seeking an injunction and damages against her. Stay true to yourselves and to your dreams, and know they can come true.. After the program, Jonathan moved to New York City, where he lived on the fifth floor of a building on the corner of Greenwich Street and Spring Street in lower Manhattan with various roommates. Boom! "It really begins and ends with Jonathan's writing as a great composer and a great lyricist," says Tim Weil, who was the show's music director/keyboard player/arranger. [21][22] It has been speculated that Larson had undiagnosed Marfan syndrome, a claim promoted by the National Marfan Foundation at the urging of the New York State Health Department.[23]. Rent, of course, became a once-in-a-generation sensation, with its depiction of youthful, hopeful characters, facing enormous loss. into a three-person musical with the added performers playing Jonathan's girlfriend Susan, his best friend Michael . Its a very personal story to my family as an intimate reflection of who my brother was, says Larsons sister Julie Larson, an executive producer of the musicals film adaptation, which is directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, stars Andrew Garfield, and is due in theaters November 17 and on Netflix November 24. We wanted to be able to pass that along to promising art makers as well. David Taback, the lawyer that represented Larsons family and estate, estimated to The Washington Post in 1996 that Rent would earn $250 million in its lifetime, with a third going toward Larsons estatewhich includes his parents and sister. More than anything, it gave me permission to write about my community, Miranda wrote in the New York Times in 2014. Rev. Those things are very universal, whether it's downtown New York in the middle of the AIDS crisis, or any other time or place. The two will be joined by Chloe Fineman and Megan Stalter to play a group of childhood friends on a mission to help a former best friend. The 41-year-old Broadway star announced Allan's death Friday on Twitter. Rapp remembers, "he gave us this really lovely toast, which was, like, 'You are bringing to life my friends, some of whom are friends that I've lost. What was Jonathan Larson's cause of death? - Yahoo! News The title refers to the twin ticking clocks of his potential and his friends life, both of which he feared might be about to run out, per Vox, as Larson had already lost several friends to the AIDS crisis and his real-life best friend had told him hed contracted HIV. | And all the anger and doubt and despair when he felt like no one was ever going to understand what he was trying to do.. Then in the years after Larsons death, playwright David Auburn rewrote tick, tickBoom!, transforming it from a one-man show into a three-part work that premiered Off-Broadway in 2001, bringing even more of Larsons work to the masses. Sign up for reopening news, announcements, and exclusive discounts on tickets to your favorite shows! I'd prefer to celebrate his life. ", "We all sat there together, for very, very, very long time," says Rapp. For almost 11 months weve been afraid our suspicions were correct, and that with proper care, Jonathan would not have died, Larsons father, Allan, said at the time. [29] In 2008, the American Theatre Wing adopted and continued on the legacy through the Jonathan Larson Grants, an unrestricted cash gift to aid in the creative endeavors of the writers and promote their work. Two of them, Theron (Cipher) and Mirren (Magdalene Shaw), have already appeared in previous installments . I think thats part of the legacy that he lives behindhow do you build your life around things that you love, people you love, places that you love?, As Miranda wrote in his 2014 Times piece: Jonathan, if you can hear me, you fulfilled every promise and then some. I don't think we ever actually discussed the "why." The 2019 Sterling Scholar finalists are introduced during the Deseret News/KSL Sterling Scholar Awards ceremony at the Conference Center's Little Theatre in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 15, 2019. ", "We took a break, where intermission was," says director Michael Greif. But after Rent opened on Broadway, an archivist at the Library of Congress wrote to the Larson family asking them to consider donating Jonathan's papers to a collection that includes the rough drafts of significant writers and performers of the American Musical Theatre. Tick, Tick Boom! You've seen how that's changed over 20 years. After Larson's death, the work was reworked into a stage musical by playwright David Auburn and arranger and musical director Stephen Oremus. They also inserted a tube through his nose and pumped his stomach. [12], In addition to his three larger theatrical pieces written before Rent, Larson also wrote music for J.P. Morgan Saves the Nation;[13] numerous individual numbers; music for Sesame Street; music for the children's book cassettes of An American Tail and The Land Before Time; music for Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner; a musical called Mowgli; and four songs for the children's video Away We Go!, which he also conceived with collaborator and composer Bob Golden and directed. Not many people knew about Marfan then. For his work on Rent, Larson was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama,[14] the Tony Award for Best Musical, Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, and Tony Award for Best Original Score;[18] the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics; the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical; the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical in the Off-Broadway category; and Obie Awards for Outstanding Book, Outstanding Lyrics, and Outstanding Music. Its believed that the tearwhich was more than a foot long from and extended from his heart to his abdomenwas caused by an undiagnosed Marfans syndrome, a congenital condition that affects connective tissue and weakens the walls of the aorta, according to a 1996 report by The New York Times. The decision was finally made to move the show to a Broadway theatre, and it opened at the Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1996. 2023 Sterling Scholars semifinalists: Southwest Region hide caption. Before the debut of Rent which was inspired by Larson's friends who were artists. They don't really see the real messages. "And then, finally, a voice from the back of the theater said, 'thank you, Jonathan Larson.' .css-dkuuw0{background-color:#000000;border:thin solid black;border-radius:0;color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:NeueHaasUnica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.875rem;letter-spacing:0rem;line-height:1.1;margin-top:0.625rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-transform:none;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;width:auto;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-dkuuw0{padding:0.625rem 1rem;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-dkuuw0{padding:0.75rem 1.5625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-dkuuw0{padding:0.75rem 1.5625rem;}}.css-dkuuw0:focus-visible{outline-color:body-cta-btn-link-focus;}.css-dkuuw0:hover{color:#000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;background-color:#ffffff;}Watch tick, tickBoom! JFWeiss, Other Works . Daphne Rubin-Vega played Mimi in Rent. The doctor recognized Marfan because he had had some training in it, and he told the patient that this is what saved your life. Jonathan Larson never got to see his masterpiece on Broadway. [20] His body was found on the kitchen floor by his roommate at 3AM. [1] He was exposed to the performing arts, especially music and theatre, from an early age, as he played the trumpet, tuba, sang in his school's choir, and took formal piano lessons. . We all sat there together, for very, very, very long time. There's nothing like the feeling you get when you're hearing from somebody who says: It saved my life.The Rent cast, particularly Anthony Rapp, after many performances, handed out literature and collected donations at the back of the theatres. song, called "Sunday," is a homage to Sondheim, who supported Larson, staying close to the melody and lyrics of Sondheim's own song of the same title but turning it from a manifesto about art into a waiter's lament. her son, Jonathan, and Sheetal Singh, parents of her beloved . I remember very clearly: In those days when we'd have to do book reports, you'd literally stand there and talk about your book with a piece of paper in front of you. Now its official.. Where Did the 'Perfect Match' Couples End Up? Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. Larson was the subject of the 2021 movie, Tick, TickBoom, biographical musical drama based on the stage musical of the same name by Larson, who was played by Andrew Garfield. It truly became a huge family. Then after tick, tickBoom!, Larson returned to a project he had previously shelved, an adaptation of Giacomo Puccinis opera La Bohme, which tells the story of two poor artists living in Paris. Jonathan Larson >In February of 1996, the musical Rent, created by Jonathan Larson >(1961-1996) and billed as "The Rock Opera of the Nineties, " opened in New >York [1] City. Finished in 1995, the musical was set to go into previews off-Broadway in early 1996. The producer Jeffrey Seller saw a reading of Boho Days and expressed interest in producing Larson's musicals. A lot of songs from the labor movement. The Say Yes to Artists Gala by the American Theatre Wing will celebrate the work and impact of Jonathan Larson and his family. Who is Jonathan Larson? Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Sondheim wrote several letters of recommendation for Larson to various producers. Here's How Much Jonathan Larson's Estate Is Worth Since 'Rent' & What AL: Marfan is a connective tissue disorder. horseback riding, gardening, driving the tractor for haying, and boating with family on the river. mappychris. | Oscar winners: Charlize Theron, Rita Moreno, Helen Mirren, and Brie Larson. Rent played through its planned engagement to sold-out crowds and was continually extended. The show premiered Off-Broadway on schedule. His early musical influences and his favorite rock musicians included Elton John, The Doors, The Who, and Billy Joel, as well as the classic composers of musical theatre, especially Stephen Sondheim. And he was very excited because he had this thing set in the East Village and he was looking for the right theater in the East Village to do it. March 3, 2023, By As a student at Adelphi University, Larson co-wrote Sacrimmoralinority, a Brechtian-themed cabaret musical and his first musical, with David Glenn Armstrong. | The new piece explores the effects of mass media with a story about a family tasked with filling the airwaves of a small-town TV station in 1959. Boom! TheatreWorks USA presents the family-friendly production at New World Stages. He was in a small town in West Virginia, I believe, and had what turned out to be an attack and was taken to the local hospital. Jonathan Larson - Biography - IMDb Due to complications at birth, Josh maintained his emotions, and spent his life as an inventor, searching for something that could wake up the rest of his family and society. Flipboard. Larson is the sister of the late Jonathan Larson, the brilliant mind behind "Rent" and "Tick, Tick . By Jon's nephews [were] the light of his life. Jonathan Larson and Family to be Honored at American Theatre - Playbill [24] It is the 11th longest running show in Broadway history. In the first drafts, the story, set in the year 2064, followed the character Josh Out, a member of OUTLAND, a society where emotions are erased from everyone at birth. We all know "no day but today".JL: Exactly. But you knew about it as it was brewing and coming together? Joan Marcus Who Is Jonathan Lawson Married To - WHOISKAL At both hospitals, Larson was physical exams, cardiograms and chest X-rays. In these dangerous times, where it seems the world is ripping apart at the seams, we can all learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day, and we should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium. Jonathan David Larson (February 4, 1960 - January 25, 1996) was an American composer and playwright noted for exploring the social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, and homophobia in his work. And when you have a couple hundred people sitting together, that is a profound silence." [9], Superbia won the Richard Rodgers Production Award and the Richard Rodgers Development Grant. I would hear every beat, every time he was excited and felt there was something promising happening, Larson recalls. He had paid gigs here and there and worked for a long time on a futuristic musical called Superbia. But, that moment 25 years ago, still lingers in the minds of all those who were there that evening. L-R, Jonathan Larson's sister Julie Larson, mother Nan Larson and father Allan S. Larson. [7] However, despite performances at Playwrights Horizons and a rock concert version produced by Larson's close friend and producer Victoria Leacock at the Village Gate in September 1989, Superbia never received a full production.[8]. We wanted to be personally involved and observe how Rent touched peoples' lives all around the world. ', The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Larson&oldid=1142711482, 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights, American people of Russian-Jewish descent, Jewish American dramatists and playwrights, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from January 2021, All articles needing additional references, Internet Off-Broadway Database person ID same as Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Denis Markell and Douglas Bernstein (1993), Erik Frandsen, Michael Garin, Paul Lockheart and Robert Hipkins (1992), This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 23:55. Nicola says, Larson "walked in and saw his friend and our production manager, George Xenos. In addition, our family was very influenced by folk music listening to the Weavers, Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. Sitting there watching Andrew do such a beautiful job, sometimes I would feel like I was sharing time with my brother," she says. For this list, we'll be looking at Larson's origins and the events leading up to him creating one of the longest running and. There are still moments when I think, That was just my punky little brotherthe one who used to kill spiders and then chase her around the house with them. HBO Max Comedies Thatll Put You in a Good Mood. Someone else has permission to tell their story because you told yours.. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. "It was a lot of fun to actually be able to practically apply my research of partying," she says, laughing. [25], In December 2003, Larson's work was given to the Library of Congress. I grew up around this world. .css-4975pa{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#fff;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;display:inline-block;background-color:#030929;font-family:Termina,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.75rem;line-height:1;font-weight:bold;letter-spacing:0.02rem;padding:0.6rem 0.7rem;text-transform:uppercase;width:auto;}.css-4975pa:hover{color:#fff;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;background-color:#9a0500;}.css-4975pa:focus-visible{outline-color:body-cta-btn-link-focus;}SUBSCRIBE NOW, .css-1du65oy{color:#323232;display:block;font-family:NewParis,Georgia,Times,serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0.3125rem;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;-webkit-font-smoothing:auto;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-1du65oy:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1du65oy{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1du65oy{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1du65oy{font-size:1.3125rem;line-height:1.2;}}How to Watch The Whale, How to Watch Everything Everywhere All at Once, Everything We Know So Far About the 2023 Oscars, How to Watch All Quiet on the Western Front, Movie of Prince Andrew's Infamous BBC Interview, 'Legally Blonde 3' Is Actually, Really Happening. His early musical influences included Elton John, The Beatles, The Doors, The Who, and Billy Joel. Tick Tick Boom True Story: Real Jonathan Larson, Rent - ScreenRant JL: Oh, absolutely. According to lead performer Anthony Rapp, Larson's parents, who were flying in for the show anyway, gave their blessing to perform the show despite Larson's death a day earlier, and the cast agreed that they would premiere the show by simply singing it through, all the while sitting at three prop tables lined up on stage. 343-344. He was involved in writing the employee manual. Al, what kind of music did you play in the house, that [Jon] grew up to have so many styles? The posthumously revived Tick, Tick Boom! Larson was survived by his parents, Allan and Nanette Larson, and his sister, Julie Larson McCollum. Lin-Manuel Miranda on the 'dirty secret' hidden in Tick, Tick Boom! It may have had an adverse impact, DeBuono said at the time. He first met Jesse L Martin when they worked as waiters together. He was really just extraordinary.". The knowledge. It was named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Garfield) at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, with Garfield winning the latter. And then George got it to me." On Jan. 25, 1996, a new rock musical by a little-known writer, Jonathan Larson, gave its first performance. Boom!" an early musical by Jonathan Larson, who created "Rent" was born of sadness, anger and frustration. The first hospital, Cabrini Medical Center, told him he had food poisoning. Joan Marcus Then, one night, during a technical rehearsal, he collapsed. [Note: Since 2008 the American Theatre Wing has administered the Jonathan Larson Grants. Broadway's "Rat Pack" features Sam Gravitte, Kathryn Allison, Luke Hawkins, and Jelani Remy. The show was conceived and directed by Jennifer Ashley Tepper. Many people came to the diner to meet Larson. March 4, 2023, By Its finding people who understand you and share your most important and powerful experiences in life together that makes family., Count Miranda, the entire team of Tick, Tick Boom!, and pretty much anyone who has worked on a production of Rent among the Larsons extended kin. "JL: That was the point. ", "There was an incredible mixture of life, matching art, matching life," actor Anthony Rapp recalls of Rent's first performance. Jonathan Larson's tick, tickBOOM!, the opening show of City Center's . But, as I say, I think that in some ways I was somewhat crazy. It had gone very, very well." StyleCaster is a part of Penske Media Corporation. BOOM!, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield (in an Academy Award nominated performance) as Larson, with a rewritten script by Steven Levenson was released on Netflix on November 12, 2021. [3] His family was Jewish. Though he never saw Rent debut, Jonathan Larsons net worth and estate skyrocketed after the musicals $250 million success, which afforded his family the chance to help others survive the condition that killed the Tick, TickBoom! In statements, both Cabrini and St. Vincents claimed that to diagnose Larson with an aortic aneurysm would have been extremely difficult given that aneurysms generally produce severe, constant chest pains that patient describe as searing or ripping. Lawyers for Larson claimed that his condition fit that description and he told doctors that the pain was worse each time he took a deep breath.