I’ve always appreciated the time
Andrew Rannells takes in longer discussions about acting (especially in
print/podcast interviews) to talk about how his “overnight success” in The Book of Mormon was actually borne on
the back of years of struggling, hustling, and pounding the pavement. He’s quick to point out that his tidy bio
leaves out the months of unemployment and panic between roles, and he’s not one
to shy away from talking about feelings of frustration, despair, and/or
jealousy from repeated rejection at auditions.
And now, he’s basically written a book about all that.
Although it takes some forays into
his formative years in Omaha, Too Much is
Not Enough focuses chiefly on the seven years Andrew Rannells spent in New
York before making his Broadway debut in Hairspray. In essay format, he relates stories of the
grind and the self-doubt, the day jobs and the audition strategies, summer
stock gigs and Pokemon Live!, along
with the personal and interpersonal growth he went through during that period.
First of all, this book makes me
admire Rannells and everyone like him who’s really taken big steps to go after
their dreams. I was never destined for
Broadway, as much as I love it, but as a Midwesterner who adores New Yoork, I
enjoyed getting lost in his descriptions of moving there (in the days before
you could just Google your way out of problems on the sidewalk!), unsure and
fumbling but learning his way. And when
it comes to my dreams, I’m one who didn’t abandon them but certainly put them
on hold while establishing a very
firm safety net, so it’s compelling to read about the brave, reckless ways he
just went for it.
There’s a lot of humor to be found
here, which isn’t surprising. Rannells’s
exploits are filled with all kinds of fun, from his misadventures trying to
reinvent himself in the city to every time he discusses his “bold choice” to do
something completely ill-advised in one role or another. There’s a lot of snap and personality in his
writing style, and I’m fond of the little affectations he throws in, like
lampshading his Into the Woods
references or occasionally addressing us as “dear reader” a la Jane Eyre.
But as much as Rannells leans into
the humorous memories, he also makes space for the painful ones. As I said, he doesn’t disguise the lower
feelings he gets about himself or the state of his career, and he’s frank in
admitting various mistakes – I appreciate the time he spends discussing his one
concession into gay minstrelsy playing an offensively-campy villain, and at one
point, he shares a time he was particularly unkind to his mother, admitting it
doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the chapter but still including it
because he feels the need to atone for it publicly. Additionally, he opens up about some deeply
personal struggles, like the death of his father and being taken advantage of
by two different priests in his Catholic high school.
All in all, an engrossing,
entertaining memoir. If you’ve
seen/read/listened to numerous interviews with Rannells like I have, you’ll
probably be familiar with a good handful of these stories, but his engaging
retellings are still worth a read and there’s plenty of new material in here as
well. I hope he one day writes a
follow-up covering the time around some of his bigger succeesses onstage and in
Hollywood.
Warnings
Sexual content (including sexual
assault,) language, drinking, and thematic elements.
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