The Book of Rannells: Too Much is Not Enough (2019)

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.