Adam Pascal & Anthony Rapp Live Performance – 10.27.18

First of all, there are two key things you should know here.  1)  RENT was one of the first musicals I ever loved.  The cast recording blew my mind when I first heard it, and a lot of my early exploration of musical theatre used RENT as a jumping-off point – I followed original cast members to other cast recordings and discovered new actors/composers, I followed Jonathan Larson to tick, tick… BOOM! and discovered Raúl Esparza, etc.  However, 2) I’ve never seen a live production of RENT.  I was probably 15 or 16 when I first got into it and desperately wanted to see a tour of it, but it was deemed too “adult” by my parents.  And by the time I was older and more able to make those decisions for myself, things just got in the way:  the national tours wound down, the original Broadway production closed, and other shows started vying for my attention.

All of which is to say that the opportunity to see two members of the OBC in concert together taps into a very particular, very special type of awesomeness in my life.  Even though my Broadway tastes have exploded outward in all directions since my RENT days, there was still something utterly astounding about seeing Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp onstage in front of me.

They began with two largely-separate acoustic sets, Pascal taking the stage first.  Accompanying himself on the guitar, he performed a mixture of mostly rock (some of which was his own material) and a few Broadway numbers.  I’ll cop to not being as familiar with most of the songs in his set, but his voice is still to die for, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I especially loved the two Broadway songs he performed – not just because both were songs I know well, but because of what he did with them.  The first was a lovely rendition of Sweeney Todd’s “Johanna,” slipped surprisingly into the middle of “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” by Jeff Buckley (it was so unexpected that Pascal had to ask someone in the front row, “Why are you laughing?” after the initial, “Wait – is that ‘Johanna’?” reaction that followed the first line.)  And later, after a story about how much it meant to him to be a part of Cabaret, he sang “Maybe This Time.”  What I loved about these songs was that he performed both in ways I’ve never heard them performed before.  They were true covers with his own take on them:  a light rock flavor with slightly-altered rhythms to fit the style, both sounding fantastic in his voice.  Overall, he did less talking than Rapp, but whenever he did, it counted – I loved Pascal’s story about how people would get the two of them mixed up when they were in RENT.

For the assembled audience, Anthony Rapp had the more notably-crowd-pleasing set.  With a few exceptions – R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” (Rapp’s audition song for RENT) and “Everybody Hurts” (dedicated to the people of Pittsburgh) – it was all Broadway stuff, a varied collection that included a bunch of favorites.  Some were from shows he’s been in, like “Origin of Love” from Hedwig and “Happiness” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, while others were from shows he loves but knows he’ll probably never be in, like “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” from Jersey Boys and “Falling Slowly” from Once.  Each number was accompanied by a personal story or a reason why Rapp chose it; he paid special attention to composers who’d followed in Jonathan Larson’s footsteps and changed the face of Broadway, and I loved the time he took to paint a mental image of himself in Hedwig for us (5-inch heels!!)  He pointed out, self-deprecatingly, that he didn’t have Pascal’s instrumental talent and was accompanied by one of the musicians from RENT’s original pit band, playing both piano and guitar and, for reasons unknown, sharing a guitar strap with Pascal – they literally had to pause the show a few times to swap the strap between guitars.

Rapp’s set also eased us into the RENT portion of the night.  He sang a gorgeous rendition of “Without You” (which he’d sung at his mother’s memorial service back when he was still in RENT,) along with the general “No Day But Today” theme, before bringing Pascal back out for “What You Own.”  Then, Pascal performed “One Song Glory,” and the two of them closed the show with “Seasons of Love.”  And okay, I know I’m just kind of listing the songs here, but that’s because I don’t know how to describe how amazing this was.  It was just me dying happy over and over again – as in, “Then they did ‘What You Own’ and I died… then Adam Pascal did ‘One Song Glory’ and I died…  How am I even here right now?!?”  So, so, so unbelievably cool.

Obviously, they knew that these were the songs everyone was waiting to hear, but I appreciate that they really gave them their due.  Both were gracious with their time and attention during these performances, and there was no sense of them phoning it in or getting the songs over with.  While both of them have gone onto varied careers, they’re still very much defined by their involvement in RENT, and they seemed to recognize and respect that.  Even if that was the 1000^th time they sang “What You Own” together, they gave everyone in the audience a specific, powerful performance to remember.  I’m really grateful to them for that.

Top Five Songs: RENT

I’ll always remember how much this score excited me the first time I heard it.  To me, it was so new, so original, so special.  Even now that I’ve greatly expanded my musical theatre education, it’s still an important score for me.  Of the many vibrant songs in the show, these five are my favorites.

(Pictures are either from the original Broadway production or the movie - whatever I could find for each song.)

“One Song Glory” – This was the first song I heard from RENT, the one that made me rush out to get the cast recording.  It’s Roger’s “I want” song, but given the subject matter – his desire to write one great song before he dies of AIDS – it’s far more melancholy and desperate than such songs usually are.  The rock melody is gorgeous, and I love the emphasis it places on the power of music.

Best line:  “Find, the one song / Before the virus takes hold, glory / Like a sunset. / One song / To redeem this empty life.”

“Another Day” – The back-and-forth in this song between Roger and Mimi is fantastic – her pursuit, his retreat, his despondency, her hope.  I like that the two halves of the song are so different musically, but they layer well on top of each other, and it’s cool that Mimi repeats the same chorus introduced in “Life Support.”  More than just a recurring motif, it demonstrates her familiarity with Life Support and shows how much further she’s come in dealing with her illness.

Best line:  “There’s only now. / There’s only here. / Give in to love / Or live in fear.”

“La Vie Boheme” – You have to love this boisterous anthem to our Boho heroes and their East Village life.  It’s so full of life, passion, and defiance, and while it’s a great showcase for Mark, everyone gets a chance to shine.  Plus, who can memorize all the lyrics and not feel a sense of accomplishment?

Best line:  “To being an us for once instead of a them! / La vie Boheme!”

“I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” – After listening to this song as a light, lovely duet in Act I, it’s heart-wrenching to hear it retooled as a mournful solo in Act II.  You can practically hear Collins tearing apart as he sings, and the choral backing that rises behind him is just beautiful.

Best line:  “If you’re cold and you’re lonely, / You’ve got one nickel only, / When you’re worn out and tired, / When your heart has expired, / Oh lover, I’ll cover you.”

  

“Goodbye Love” – Another sad song.  This remains one of the best book numbers I’ve ever heard.  The group’s falling out is so raw and real, Mark and Roger’s fight feels absolutely visceral, and the final moments between Roger and Mimi are a gut punch.  Amazing scene.

 

Best (two) line(s):  “You’re always preaching not to be numb / When that’s how you thrive. / You pretend to create and observe / When you really detach from feeling alive.”

“Perhaps it’s because I’m the one of us to survive.”

Relationship Spotlight: Angel Dumott Schunard & Tom Collins (RENT)

 

Revisiting RENT naturally brought me back to Collins and Angel, my favorite couple in the show.  I’ve resumed my occasional habit of trolling YouTube for videos of Jesse L. Martin and Wilson Jermaine Heredia as these terrific characters, so I figured it was time to write about them.

 

Speaking relatively, Collins and Angel don’t have a ton of face time in the musical or its film adaptation (disclaimer:  though I’ve listened to the album many times, I haven’t seen RENT onstage, so these observations may be somewhat off-base for the theatrical version.)  Roger and Mimi obviously make up the central romance, and Maureen and Joanne get a lot of flashy hot-and-cold interactions, but Angel and Collins just keep on keeping on in their supporting roles.

 

That’s no hindrance for me.  In fact, my favorite romantic pairing in many stories is a supporting one (like Turk and Carla on Scrubs.)  There are plenty of advantages to not being protagonists; you can be entertaining/likeable without having to do much narrative heavy lifting.  This is especially important with romance, because it means you don’t have to get saddled with a lot of manufactured drama to make you “more interesting.”  RENT is no exception – Roger and Mimi’s relationship is threatened by issues of fear, trust, jealousy, and misunderstanding, and they’re forever thrown together and pulled apart.  It’s not like that with Collins and Angel.  I’m not sure what it says about RENT that “only” being HIV+ is considered “low drama,” but here we are.

 

Anyway, let’s talk Collins and Angel.  They’re an unexpected couple, but not in a clear “opposites attract” way.  Collins is an out-of-work philosophy professor with a talent for creative activism, cynical but not jaded.  Angel is a street musician (a 10-gallen plastic-tub percussionist) with creative ways of getting cash, sweet but not saccharine – just as an FYI, since Angel is often in drag, I’ll follow drag pronoun rules and call her “she.”  Their meeting is a 100% chance encounter, with Angel helping Collins after he’s mugged, but their connection is instant.

 

Besides being young and attractive, it’s hard to say why they’re so immediately taken with each other.  Angel’s eagerness to help plays a part in it, of course, but there’s something more that I can’t quite name.  I like that being HIV+ isn’t an issue for their getting together.  For Roger and Mimi, it’s a stumbling block for the entire first act, whereas Angel reveals her status to Collins right away, and he reciprocates in kind.  In fact, it seems to help them to get together as quickly as they do – in addition to providing a commonality, it also reduces worries about infection.

 

It certainly influences the swift intensity of their relationship.  Pretty much as soon as Collins and Angel connect, they’re both all in.  They’ve taken the “No Day But Today” mantra of the Life Support meetings to heart and seem in unspoken agreement to love as much as they can for as long as they can.  Because of this belief, and because of the invisible specter of the virus within them, they don’t let the drama get to them.  Hand in hand, they can weather the storms. 

 

I dunno.  I’m not usually a “love at first sight” kind of person, but it feels different here.  It’s less that they’re swept away by their overwhelming feelings, and more that, having an initial attraction and knowing they have an impending expiration date, they make the decision to love each other.  They throw themselves into it, not because they have no self-control, but because they want to make up for the lost time yet to come.  There’s something gorgeous about that.

Pros and Cons of the Positives in The Normal Heart and RENT

 

Thought I’d write a bit about the ways these works depict HIV+ characters.  Neither is perfect, in my opinion, but both have certain strengths and major, often complementary differences.  It’s to be expected – they were written ten years apart, and understanding of HIV changed a lot in that time, and both pieces have different agendas.  Still, I thought it’d be interesting to explore.  (Note:  for this blog, I’ll be focusing on the versions from my recent reviews – The Normal Heart’s 2014 HBO film and RENT’s 1996 Broadway production.)

 

We’ll start with the major time-period differences.  In the early-to-mid ‘80s, almost nothing was known about HIV.  We didn’t know how it was spread, who could catch it, how to identify those who were HIV+ but not yet sick, or how to treat it.  It was a terrifying, unknown monster that struck without warning and cut down men in their prime.  By the mid-90s, HIV was a serious virus that led to fatal illness, but it was less of a shadowy bogeyman.  We knew a lot more about it, and we had support groups, medicines, and a population of HIV+-identified people who hadn’t developed AIDS yet.  So, from the get-go, we’re dealing with different worlds.

 

RENT’s HIV+ characters are, for the most part, much more developed than The Normal Heart’s.  Roger, Mimi, Collins, and Angel are all full characters with distinct personalities, and we get to know them very well over the course of the musical, whereas in The Normal Heart, Felix is the only HIV+ character who gets much focus.  The others have smaller supporting roles, mainly existing in the story to fall ill and die.  There are far more of them than there are in RENT, even counting the Life Support members, so the sense of horror is heightened, but the personal investment in individuals isn’t as strong.

 

I love RENT’s emphasis that these people are more than a virus; though they know it will take them in the end, it doesn’t get to own them.  Look at the toast “To people living with, living with, living with, / Not dying from disease” – the distinction it so vital it’s said three times.  I get why The Normal Heart doesn’t dwell on this – besides the historical differences mentioned above, it was written with a vastly different goal.  It’s an unnerving political lion designed to shake audiences from complacency, so it makes sense to focus on the horror.  It’s shrewd politics, but as a story, it paints the HIV+ characters as tragic statistics rather than people.

 

At the same time, The Normal Heart always treats HIV as a gravely serious matter, while RENT sometimes takes an almost-cavalier attitude toward it.  Not always – look at “Will I?” or “One Song Glory” – but there are some awfully glib remarks.  It seems disingenuous for a terminally ill person to say, “I die without you,” and the Life Support leader is pretty dismissive of a young HIV+ man’s fears.  Mimi has no qualms about offering herself to Roger on a plate before realizing he’s HIV+, too.  Not that people with HIV can’t have sex, but it seems like something a prospective partner should know upfront. 

 

One final nitpick for each – I really dislike that in RENT, the straight man and woman have a history of intravenous drug use and the two gay men don’t.  While I know it’s not stated how any of them contracted it, it still perpetuates the idea that gay men get HIV from having sex while straight people get it from shooting up, a false and damaging belief.  Also, The Normal Heart is so white.  Seriously, there’s maybe one PoC in the whole thing; RENT clearly has the edge there.

RENT (1996)

 

This Alphabet City rock opera was the show that kicked off my love of musical theatre.  I was 16, and I was in love with this musical.  I remember buying the cast recording at a CD store in the mall and playing it on a loop.  In 2005, when I was in college and the movie came out, I drove to Barnes & Noble to get the soundtrack before class and listened to it in the car on my way to the theater after class.  I haven’t listened to it in a while – so much theatre, so little time – but watching The Normal Heart inspired me to pull out my cast recording again.

 

The Broadway debut of the late great composer Jonathan Larson, RENT had its first preview the night after Larson’s sudden death.  It became a phenomenon, winning heavy-hitter Tonys, running for 12 years, and garnering a loyal following of “Rentheads.”  When it opened, there weren’t a huge number of rock musicals, and even fewer that dealt with gritty subject matter.

 

It’s easier to describe RENT’s focus than its story.  It follows a group of East Villagers, mostly starving artists, through a single, significant night (Christmas Eve) in Act I and the ensuing year in Act II.  The racially/sexually diverse ensemble struggles with love and fear, art and commercialism, and life and death.  Not skimping on sex, drugs, or rock ‘n’ roll, it was an anomaly on the Great White Way in 1996.

 

The reason The Normal Heart sent me back to the CD is because HIV looms large in both stories.  Half of RENT’s eight core characters are HIV+:  Roger the depressed rocker, Mimi the playful S&M dancer, Collins the anarchist professor, and Angel the kind-hearted busker.  Also featured are Mark the rudderless documentarian, Maureen the flighty performance artist, Joanne the uptight professional, and Benny the “soulless” sellout. 

 

In terms of the story, the relationships between the characters are central.  There’s Mimi and Roger, the way they dance around their attraction to each other and struggle to open up.  There’s Roger and Mark, best friends who both can understand the other better than they can themselves.  There’s Collins and Angel, bravely taking the chance to dive into love while they can.  There’s Mark and Maureen, exes who still have enormous pull over each other.  There’s Maureen and Joanne, with their tempestuous on-again off-again romance.  And there’s Benny in the middle of it all, stirring up trouble professionally and personally, even though he used to be their friend.

 

The score is terrific, deftly mixing rock elements and Broadway sensibilities.  From the guitar-driven duet “Another Day” to the poppy love tune “I’ll Cover You” to the Broadway rock scene-song “Goodbye Love,” this musical is filled with great, immensely hummable songs.  The lyrics range from snarky to heartbreaking, and recurring melodic motifs knit the story into the music.  The original Broadway cast is top-notch, combining emotive acting performances with great rock and pop voices.  I discovered so many good actors through the cast recording, including Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal, and they all hold a special place in my estimation.

 

Warnings

 

Strong language, sexual content, drug references, and thematic elements.