Remembrance: Larry Larson made a strong mark on Atlanta’s arts scene
This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
Larry Larson’s colleagues admired him for his many gifts. It wasn’t just his ability to bring characters to life as an actor and playwright but his dedication to remaining an Atlanta-area performer when other artists were leaving for supposed greener pastures. A veteran of more than 75 stage appearances and 20-plus film and TV roles, Larson passed away last month from pancreatic cancer at age 77. He was best known for his work with theaters across metro Atlanta, his frequent collaborations with Eddie Levi Lee and more than a decade as a radio personality.
Born in Minneapolis, Larson moved to Atlanta in 1970 and joined the company of the Academy Theatre, where he performed in more than 30 plays. He also started directing for the Academy Laboratory Theatre program and writing for the company’s youth theater.
While at Academy Theatre, Larson began a fruitful partnership with Lee. The two wrote and performed on WTBS’ late night comedy/variety show offering, “The Tush Show,” which aired in 1980 and 1981, and Larson joined forces with Lee and Rebecca Wackler’s company, Southern Theater Conspiracy. Larson and Lee’s first play together was “Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends (A Final Evening with the Illuminati).”
“It’s our best work,” Lee says.
“Tent Meeting,” written by Larson, Lee and Wackler, also made noise. The story of a fundamental evangelist in the South, the play premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, received a positive review in Time magazine and had an off-Broadway run in 1987.
Southern Theater Conspiracy wasn’t all about prestige offerings, however. Lee and Larson also liked to poke fun at slasher films of the time, and out of that came their “Blood Orgy” trilogy of plays, which became iconic crowd-pleasers.
During this time, Larson also branched out as a stage actor, starring in more than a dozen plays at the Alliance Theatre, including “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Twelfth Night” and “Night of the Iguana.” Horizon Theatre became his frequent home, with appearances in productions such Andrew Wreggitt’s and Rebecca Shaw’s “The Wild Guys,” Dario Fo’s “Abducting Hilary” and Rebecca Gilman’s “Boy Gets Girl.”
When Horizon co-founder and co-artistic/producing director Lisa Adler started the New South Festival in 2000, she was looking for writers. She workshopped two of Larson and Lee’s plays, and the duo’s “The Waffle Palace: Smothered, Covered and Scattered, 24/7/365″ later debuted as a main stage production for the 2012-13 Horizon season and received a remount two years later. Both were commercial successes and led to “Waffle Palace Christmas” in 2019. In all, Adler says that Larson was involved with 13 productions with the theater and that he and Lee, who also created “Charm School” for the company, were a powerful writing tandem.
“He and Eddie were so smart and funny together,” she says. “They were funny separately but magically funny and talented together.”
Lee speaks highly of their working relationship as well. “There was not a hint of ego in our collaboration,” he says.
For 14 years, Larson also lit up music station 1690/ WMLB-FM (which billed itself as “The Voice of the Arts”) with his show “The Morning Ride.” Station owner Joe Weber was seeking someone with a sense of humor and creative streak for a new show. Enter Larson, whom Weber saw in Horizon Theatre’s version of Quincy Long’s “The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite” and knew was a perfect fit. Beginning in 2004, Larson became the morning drive host and would play ’50s, ’60s and ’70s music and follow his regular DJ routine with comedy skits, creating his patented zany characters.
Weber was never sure if Larson held a full-time job. “I think he cobbled together (work) being an actor, so radio was a great gig,” he says. “He scratched out a living as an actor at the time Atlanta was not a vibrant theater city. He did it for a long time, and not a lot of folks did that.”
In 2021, Larson started Creative Conspiracy Productions and served as the CEO with a mission to develop new work.
Larson didn’t realize the full extent of his illness until recently, his sister Carol says. “He seemed as surprised as any of us,” she says. “To be honest, I’m not sure when he received the diagnosis. He may have known earlier than April and (been) trying to spare our 99-year-old mother, or it may have been denial and determination to see his final play produced that kept him from confronting the illness. Or perhaps both.
“For me, it was a matter of weeks from diagnosis to passing. I honestly believe it was sheer force of will to speak to the people who could take his play to the finish line that kept him alive.”
Carol called Adler on May 8 to tell her the news and advised her to see Larry immediately.
“I went that night,” Adler says. “I put out a Facebook post (for others to visit), and he was dead by Sunday.”
In true Larson manner, he spent an hour during his time with Adler pitching her on his musical, “Big Jules Gets Whacked!” “It was full Larry, a mile-a-minute talking. He was not in any pain and was fully cognizant,” Adler says.
A reading of that self-funded play, featuring music by Larson and Barry Stoltze, took place earlier in the season, but has not yet received a formal staging.
Carol only saw her brother one time onstage, but she read all of his plays and reconnected with him to write a play about their family. She also saw all of his films, TV appearances and commercials. One of his last appearances was in the 2022 film “Sam and Kate” with Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek, filmed in Thomasville.
She remembers his eager-to-please nature. “There was never a time in Larry’s life when he wasn’t creating something or some character,” she says. “He loved making people laugh and wanted to make people think critically while still entertaining them.”
Adler remembers the revolutionary work Larson was doing early on in his career as part of what she calls his legacy.
“He and Eddie went into rural Georgia, the rural South, with interracial casts doing stories about all kinds of liberal things (which) were so groundbreaking,” she recalls. “He and Eddie were part of that movement with Frank (Wittow),” the Academy Theatre founder.
“He was part of that wave of people in the ’70s that made change happen,” she says of Larson. “He was like (the late actor) Chris Kayser. They were two people who decided to make their careers here (in Atlanta), acting and directing and writing — and successfully did it their entire lives. That is really difficult to do.”
A memorial service will be held at a date to be determined, according to the family.
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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband Craig.
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