Trivia / Jasper in Deadland

• Acting for Two: The ensemble plays multiple roles depending on the scene, with every actor except the mains having multiple parts.
• Cut Song: The first song from that was publicly performed was called "Agnes", and featured Jasper telling Cerberus why Agnes couldn't be allowed to die. This was replaced with "The Killing" in the Off-Broadway version.
• Dawson Casting: Jasper, Gretchen and Agnes are all 17, so the 5th Avenue actors (along with the Off-Broadway actors) were roughly a decade older than the characters they were playing.
• Orphaned Reference: "Lifesong" uses a short Leitmotif from the Cut Song "Agnes", and Pluto's short song is sung to the original melody of "Goodbye, Jasper".
• Two Voices, One Character: Multiple actresses play Agnes during the song "Goodbye, Jasper", in order to let her Speak in Unison with herself.
• What Could Have Been: The first version of the show^note The developmental draft that was workshopped by the Pasadena Musical Theatre Program in August 2011 contained a lot of character differences, some of which were literally the opposite of what happened in the final script.
  • Instead of having Jasper as a Loser Protagonist, Agnes was the loser, and Jasper's mother thought she was a bad influence on him. The draft also stated that Jasper must be "relentlessly positive", whereas in the final script he was a pessimist faced with a situation where he couldn't afford to give up.
  • There's no mention of Agnes's brilliant father and beautiful step-mother, but she does have a twin sister who's better than her at everything, which was her original motivation for not wanting to return to life.
  • In the Off-Broadway version, Agnes's first line was "I love you, Jasper." In the draft, even though Agnes called herself and Jasper "soulmates", there was no clue that Agnes loved Jasper romantically. Her death wasn't the result of her trying to prove her love for him, there was no scene of Their First Time, and Agnes playfully pushed Jasper away when it looked they were about to have their First Kiss.
  • Agnes regained her memory from reading notes that Jasper used to try and protect his memory, rather than Jasper having The Magic Touch. Jasper never wrote any notes in the final script.
  • Little Lu was originally The Chuckster, a Canon Foreigner who specifically stated that the Factories were not Hell.
  • Virgil never appeared in the draft. Most of his actions were done by an ordinary lawyer named Lester, who died around the time that Jasper entered Deadland and was The Chew Toy for most of the show.
  • "Lifesong" was originally sung by Agnes, not Eurydice. In the draft, it was never made clear if Orpheus and Eurydice even existed.
  • Neither Pluto nor Mr. Lethe could just send anyone back to the living world - they could only send someone back if another person died in their place. Persephone's trade only worked because the sudden return of winter led to a random old woman slipping and dying.
  • There was no subplot about Jasper becoming "a half-life" and gaining two wishes that led to him getting captured and then escaping. Originally, the Norse gods caught him and Agnes without assistance, and they escaped from Mr Lethe because Agnes beat him in a game of checkers.
  • Mr Lethe originally had no plan to send Lethe-Water to the Living World, he just wanted Jasper's life force to stop influencing Deadland. When Jasper got permission to return with Agnes, Lethe made no attempt to stop them.
  • Pluto was not only aware of Lethe's water making everyone forget, he orchestrated it because he was upset about Persephone leaving and wished he could forget. Meanwhile, Persephone's trade was for an extra month of winter instead of a single day.
• Word of God: Jasper's last name is Jarvis. This is stated on multiple official sources and was confirmed by Ryan Scott Oliver, however his last name isn't actually mentioned a single time in the show or script.

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