Bid on dinner with the cast of Rent

Imagine a family dinner if your family was the cast of the musical Rent. Fun times, right? All of those struggling young artists singing and dancing on the table.

Well, you and three friends can dine with cast members from the touring production of Rent after the Sunday evening show at the Providence Performing Arts Center. The dinner is being auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

According to the description, "the Sunday 'Family Dinners' are a tradition with the company and their favorite way to bid adieu to each stop on the tour. No less than 10 members of the company will be there; a great evening will be had by the lucky winner of this auction."

The original Mark and Roger from Rent on Broadway, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, are part of the current tour. There's no indication they'll be at the dinner but hey, they've gotta eat sometime, right?

Even if they have other plans, it sounds like a fun evening. You'll probably hear lots of great stories about life on the road and you'll be helping a great cause. Who knows, you may even be breaking bread with a future Broadway star.

The auction ends on Friday afternoon and so far, the high bid is $117.50. If you miss out on that one or you don't live near Providence, here's a list of some other Broadway Cares auctions.

Also, if you're at the theatre over the next month - either on Broadway or a touring production - it's quite likely a cast member will step out of character at the end of the show, explain the work of BC/EFA and ask for your support. Please consider making a donation.

Since its founding in 1988, Broadway Cares has raised over $140 million for critically needed services across the United States for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses.

And remember, some of the money you drop in those buckets will come right back to help people in your community.

This year, for example, Broadway Cares awarded $7.9 million in grants, including $5,000 apiece to AIDS Project Rhode Island, AIDS Care Ocean State and Family Resources Community Action, of Woonsocket.

My must-see fall shows, regional edition

Fall preview season is just the greatest time of year. Every tv series is a possible hit, every book a potential bestseller and there's no shortage of promising performances on stage and screen. I get kind of giddy anticipating it all.

When it comes to theatre, I want to see everything but sadly, unlike books, movies and tv shows, that's not practical. So here are the plays and musicals in my area that I don't want to miss and have a realistic chance of being able to see. This might not be everyone's list, but it's mine.

I already have my ticket for The Huntington Theatre Company's production of August Wilson's Fences. After loving Joe Turner's Come and Gone, I'm excited about seeing another chapter in Wilson's cycle chronicling African-American life in the 20th century, this one set in the 1950s. (Also, the Huntington has set up a great Web site for the play, with links to podcasts, articles, interviews and sketches for the set design. Every theatre company should do it this way.)

I'm also interested in Shooting Star at Trinity Repertory Company. The two-hander is by Steven Dietz, a new playwright for me. Plus, it's a "smart romantic comedy," one of my favorite genres. And it features Kurt Rhoads and Nance Williamson, husband and wife actors who've won praise for their work with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. It'll be nice to see some new faces at Trinity Rep.

I never had a chance to see Avenue Q on Broadway and it closes Sunday. But I've certainly heard a lot about this rather raunchy, supposedly hilarious puppet show over the years. I'm looking forward to catching up with the tour at the Providence Performing Arts Center, just to see what snatched the 2004 Best Musical Tony from my beloved Wicked.

On the other hand, Rent isn't new to me. I saw it at PPAC in 2008. But the tour is returning to Providence this fall with Broadway's original Mark and Roger - Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal. Rent was a groundbreaking musical in so many ways and to be able to see it with two of its original actors is a unique opportunity.

Speaking of Wicked, the musical returns to PPAC for a month in December. I saw the show on tour in 2007 and just fell in love with it. So you know I'll be there - and I hope you will, too.

Young Frankenstein tour is cast

A few developments since I wrote about the Providence Performing Arts Center's 2009-2010 season:

Roger Bart and Shuler Hensley will be reprising their Broadway roles for the national tour of the musical Young Frankenstein, which kicks off in Providence Sept. 29 and runs through Oct. 4.

I was kind of surprised by this announcement, since Broadway tours are normally recast. And normally, I'd be excited that a show is coming to Providence with part of its original cast. Sadly, not this time.

Bart, probably best known as the murderous pharmacist on Desperate Housewives, plays Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, who travels to Transylvania after inheriting the family castle. Hensley is the monster he brings to life.

Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of Young Frankenstein on Broadway or Bart's performance. I loved the 1974 Mel Brooks movie and the way it so cleverly spoofed the horror genre. But the musical was a disappointment. While it is a pretty faithful scene-by-scene, joke-by-joke retelling, I didn't find it nearly as clever or funny. Here's my review.

I'm more excited about a new addition to the schedule. Rent is returning to PPAC from Nov. 17-22. What's that you say, another Rent tour? Wasn't it just in Providence like a year ago? Yes, in January 2008, and here's my review.

But this time it features Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, who starred as Mark and Roger in the Broadway production. My friend and fellow blogger Chris Caggiano from Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals saw the show in Boston and you can read his review.

Finally, as previously announced, the musical Jersey Boys makes its Providence debut next spring, running from May 12 - June 6. The tour is currently in Boston and while I don't know whether it'll have the same cast in Providence, here's Chris' review.

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway

As a first blogoversary present to myself, yesterday I saw Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway. What a treat! Watching the musical unfold on the big screen brought back a lot of the same emotions that I felt when I saw the touring production in January.

Plus, the music is so great. I love what my fellow blogger Chris rightly refers to as the late Jonathan Larson's "kick-ass score." I'm not sure whether Chris would agree, but I think that with "La Vie Boheme" and "Seasons of Love" Rent has one of the best first act closings/second act openings I've ever seen. How can you beat that combination?

Sure, there are some big differences between seeing a musical live and at the movies, even if it's a movie of a live performance. You don't get quite the same adrenaline rush. My screening was only about one-third full and while there seemed to be a lot of Rentheads, the audience was very low key.

Another difference that struck me: When you're watching a show on stage, you decide where your eye goes. With a movie, the camera determines what you see to a great extent - in this case, lots of extreme close-ups.

I liked the jumpy camera work that made even the most energetic and frenetic parts of Rent seem even more energetic and frenetic. But some of the close-ups were a bit distracting - like wow, I can see that person's fillings! Also, for some reason, I was fixated on Roger's painted-black nails and tattooed fingers, which I probably wasn't close enough notice when I saw Rent live on stage.

Some of the relationships that didn't quite work for me last time really clicked this time. Eden Espinosa and Tracie Thoms were sizzling as the tempestuous lovers Maureen and Joanne. Maureen, the free-spirited artist, and Joanne, the button-down lawyer, wouldn't seem to have much in common. But wow, were they on fire together, especially during their duet, "Take Me or Leave Me."

I like Rent's story of struggling artists coping with a life of poverty and illness in a rundown New York City neighborhood. But I've always had a bit of a problem with the characters of Mark and Maureen. To me, they just seem like privileged suburban kids pretending to be something that they're not. But maybe I've mellowed, because I thought Adam Kantor was sweet as Mark. Even Maureen's performance art was funny rather than grating this time around.

Justin Johnston's drag queen Angel was absolutely endearing in a performance that moves from very comical to extremely heartbreaking. What struck me was the contrast. When he's dying of AIDS, his makeup and wig and costumes are gone and he's lying curled up in a ball in pair of thin white pajamas. He looks so small and young, especially when his lover, Michael McElroy's Tom Collins, is carrying him. I was in tears when Collins sings "I'll Cover You."

And I thought Will Chase's Roger and Renee Elise Goldsberry's Mimi, as two people coping with HIV, did a great job of conveying their characters' sense of vulnerability. Goldsberry's Mimi especially just seemed so fragile and spunky at the same time. I loved their flirtatiousness in "Light My Candle." The one thing that disappointed me a bit was "One Song Glory." I just remember it being more dramatic in the touring production, when Roger's shadow is projected larger-than-life on the brick wall behind him.

This movie documents the end of a landmark Broadway show. Rent began previews on April 16, 1996 and closed on Sept. 7, 2008, after 5,123 performances. It would have been nice if there'd been a bit more context, so that we knew we were watching the end of something special. Maybe we could have seen the actors getting ready for the last performance, or some interviews with fans or people associated with Rent, or even more shots of the audience - just to explain to the uninitiated why this was such a landmark musical. But hopefully it'll be released on dvd, and maybe there'll be some extra material.

At the end of the show, when everyone was singing "Seasons of Love," and some of the original cast members come on stage to join them, well that was the most emotional part for me. I doubt I was the only one crying.

All I could of was, before Rent, how many Broadway musicals had this kind of young multiracial, multiethnic cast? And not just as tokens or the butt of jokes or stereotypes, but as real people, completely integrated into the storyline. The same for gay and lesbian characters. Also, at a time when people didn't talk openly about AIDS, you watched people struggling with the disease, expressing fear that they would lose their dignity.

Just looking at all of those actors stage and thinking about their characters really brought home to me why Rent was such a landmark when it opened on Broadway in 1996. Maybe because I could see the actors' faces close up, this time, I just felt it more strongly.

Now, a few other points:

• The ticket cost $20, the most I've ever paid to see a movie by far. But once I got to my local multiplex, I realized that I could have bought a ticket to any movie - for the $7.50 bargain matinee price - and slipped into see Rent without anyone even noticing. Of course I would never do that because it would be wrong and I'd be too afraid of getting caught. But I wonder how many people did just that?

• The auditorium itself was only about a third full. I really don't understand why Sony didn't put a little more marketing punch behind this. Rent was included in the theatre's listings, although it was at the bottom. And there was no separate ad the way there was for other movies. Unless you read Playbill or another theatre site regularly you could easily have missed it.

• Finally, I cannot tell you how many people I saw taking pictures and shooting video with their cell phones. One person way down in the front appeared to record practically the entire second act. Is that even possible on a cell phone? I was tempted to get the management but I was too far away to see who exactly was doing it.

So, after the movie and touring production, this was my third Rent experience. The next Rent tour, with the original Mark and Roger, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, begins in January. When it stops in Boston next July, I definitely want to be there.

A Mamma Mia sing-along

A Mamma Mia! sing-along is coming to select theatres nationwide on Aug. 29. According to the Playbill article: The sing-along edition of the film will feature the lyrics to every musical number on the screen.

I know this type of thing has been done before with other movies, but I'm not usually interested in audience participation. I mean, the actors are getting paid plenty. Let them do all the work. My job is to sit back and enjoy. Plus, I just can't see myself going to a movie dressed up as a character from The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Sound of Music. I'd rather be in my own clothes, thank-you very much.

I do remember going to a showing of Casablanca once where people in the audience would shout out the dialog along with Humphrey Bogart. (It was usually part of a double feature with Play It Again Sam, a line that, of course, we all know Bogart never uttered). Casablanca is my favorite movie of all time, so it was awesome. My second-favorite movie is The Graduate, and it would probably work just as well for that.

Anyway, I totally want to do this. Only it would have to be in a very packed movie theatre where my voice would be obscured in the crowd, because I can't sing. Not a note. In fact, I think I'm probably tone deaf. But it sure sounds like fun. No word on whether we'll be able to get out of our seats and dance, but I would be up for that, too!

Another one to mark on my movie calendar: From Sept. 24-28, the stage version of Rent will be broadcast at theatres nationwide. The Aug. 20 performance at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre is being filmed, along with the musical's final performance, on Sept. 7. You can sign up at The Hot Ticket to be notified when more information becomes available.

Rent, which opened on April 29, 1996, is closing on Broadway after more than 5,000 performances. I'd only seen the movie, but in January, I had a chance to see the show on tour.

Despite the passage of 12 years, and the advances made in treating HIV and AIDS, the poignant stories of people falling in love and struggling with illness give Rent a timeless quality. I found it very life-affirming and I'm glad I had a chance to see it on stage. And I'm glad the live-on-stage version is being preserved on film.

My Tony thoughts

Whew, the Tony awards are over! Lots of observations:

Whoppi Goldberg is funny! I'm so happy for Rondi Reed! I love In the Heights! Lin-Manuel Miranda is one classy, talented guy! Patti LuPone is one fierce Mama Rose! Tracy Letts should have been given more time to talk! Paulo Szot is tall! During the musical number for Sunday in the Park with George, I think I saw Daniel Evans' tonsils! Stew has a weird sense of humor!

And a few questions:

What was Boeing Boeing's Mark Rylance talking about in his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Play? What does Anna Shapiro, who won for best director of a play for August: Osage County, have tattooed on her arm? Why didn't Stephen Sondheim show up to accept his lifetime achievement award? I understand why there's lots of love for musicals, and that was terrific, but couldn't there be a little more love for the plays?

In the Heights was my pick for Best Musical, so I'm ecstatic that it won, and I thought its musical number, "96,000,'' sounded great. I admired and respected Passing Strange but I loved In the Heights. It won my heart and made me want to dance, despite the sad fact that I was apparently born without a sense of rhythm. This is a musical that has a great message in its celebration of a Latino neighborhood at the top of Manhattan: we're a nation of immigrants, and we're better for it.

Plus, Lin-Manuel Miranda's acceptance speech in the form of a rap, when he won the Tony for Best Score for In the Heights, was terrific. And his reference to Stephen Sondheim was so sweet: “Look, Mr. Sondheim, I made a hat where there never was a hat and it’s a Latin hat at that.” Very nice. I hope Miranda stays in musical theatre. The funny thing is, I heard him during the red carpet interviews. He really doesn't talk like a rapper all the time.

Other highlights for me:

I'm thrilled that as expected, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of August: Osage County won for Best Play, Best Director, Best Actress in a Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play. And Todd Rosenthal, winning for Best Scenic Design of a Play, on the Tony preshow, started it all off. Seeing that big old three-story house was the first time I ever had an immediate, visceral reaction to a set on a stage. I was just fascinated by it, by the size and the clutter and the shabbiness, and I'm so happy Rosenthal won.

Rondi Reed winning for Best Featured Actress in a Play was the one I was really, really rooting for, because she's such a wonderful person as well as a great performer. Steve, Doug and I talked to her for at least half an hour after August: Osage County ended one night. She is a warm, funny, gracious, down-to-earth woman. And she is an absolute hoot in this play. (Unfortunately, Sunday was her last performance. She's headed back to Chicago).

The success of August: Osage County, a transplant from Chicago, is truly a testament to the great work being done on stages all over this country. Being on Broadway and winning a Tony must seem like a pipe dream to these actors who toil far from New York. August's Deanna Dunagan, who won for Best Actress in a Play, summed it up perfectly: "After 34 years in regional theater I never even thought about it. I watched it on tv like everyone else."

Hearing from the original cast from Rent was so moving, especially when they were talking about Jonathan Larson and how he came to write the musical at a time when so many people he knew were dying of AIDS, and then his own untimely death. It was cute to see Idina Menzel and her husband, Taye Diggs, who met while they were in Rent, right next to each other. And even though I saw The Lion King, with its incredible parade of animals, on Broadway a month ago, the giraffes are just as thrilling the second time around.

I loved Patti LuPone singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from Gypsy. Her standing ovation was well deserved. She is fierce. Laura Benanti and Boyd Gaines looked terrified! They also really deserved their Tonys for Best Featured Actress and Actor in a Musical. I've said before that Benanti gave one of the best performances I've ever seen as she transformed from a shy, awkward teenager into a glamorous, confident stripper.

And LuPone, the Best Actress in a Musical, did have a great acceptance speech: "It's been 29 years!" Let the woman talk! I also liked the way she thanked her husband and son right off the bat, instead of going through her list of agents, producers, etc. So many winners at these awards shows end up having to shout out the names of their loved ones just as the music starts up.

Also, I was glad to see The 39 Steps pick up a couple of Tonys: Mic Pool won for Best Sound Design of a Play, and Kevin Adams won for Best Lighting Design of a Play. It is such a fun, inspired 90 minutes of theatre, and I hope the awards give it a little bounce.

There were a few spots where I thought the Tony producers slipped up.

When Lincoln Center's Andre Bishop accepted the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical for South Pacific, the camera should have been ready to turn immediately to Rodgers & Hammerstein's daughters, who were sitting together in the audience, not 20 seconds after Bishop mentioned their names.

Playwright Tracy Letts should have been given a little more time to accept his Tony for writing August: Osage County. I mean, how often do we get a major new American play on the scale of this one? (Perhaps he should have gotten a little assertiveness training from Patti!)

And the segment where they had Daniel Breaker, James Snyder and Kerry Butler do the little spiel about all of the American Theater Wing's educational programs mentioned the Wing's radio shows but failed to mention that they're available as free downloads from its web site, or as podcasts from iTunes. In fact, why not flash the Web site on the screen? Duh! Missed opportunity!

And what's up with taking the Tony for best choreography out of the televised portion of the ceremony? How can the Tonys not recognize the winner of that category on national television? I mean, so much of Broadway is musicals and choreography is such an important part of why we love them. Anyway, I'm glad that Andy Blankenbuehler won for In the Heights.

Apparently, some of the nominees were surprised that their categories were in the preshow, too. Passing Strange's Stew, who won the Tony for Best Book of a Musical, said he was looking in his pocket for some M&Ms when his name was announced. His speech was lame, so maybe he's serious when he says he was unprepared. And Stew turned me off with the funny nose and glasses he wore when they showed the nominees for Best Actor in a Musical. Ugh.

Ok, I may have more to say later, but that's enough for now. Except that I'm glad some of my favorites: In the Heights, South Pacific, Gypsy and August: Osage County did so well and I'm thrilled I was able to see so many amazing Tony-winning performances. I hope I get to see as many next season.

Rent

I saw Rent on stage for the first time, with the touring production, several days after last week's announcement that the show would end its 12-year Broadway run on June 1.

Sitting in the audience in Providence on Sunday afternoon, I couldn't help but think of everything I'd read earlier in the week - things I hadn't really thought about when I watched the movie version in 2005.

I knew that Jonathan Larson, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, had died of an aneurysm the night before the show made its public debut, a tragedy that will always give Rent an added measure of poignancy. And I knew there were legions of "Rentheads," drawn to the story, taken from Puccini's opera La Boheme, of young, struggling artists in New York City's East Village. It was a groundbreaking work for its depiction of people suffering from AIDS, for its multiracial cast, for its gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual characters, for its vibrant rock 'n' roll score.

But I hadn't really understood what Rent had meant to so many people, and the depth of that feeling, until I read what my fellow bloggers wrote. Rent was an electrifying experience, the first show that their generation grabbed onto, the first time they cried in the theater and the storyline about AIDS in the late 1980s made them think of dozens of friends who had died.

Twelve years later, much has changed. AIDS has thankfully become a manageable disease, something that you can live with, rather than just die from. But reading those firsthand accounts of what it had been like to see Rent a decade earlier somehow made the show seem more immediate to me. And Rent on stage is still a pretty emotional, compelling experience.

First of all, I loved the music, and this touring production has singers with strong, powerful, soaring voices, including South African Idol winner Heinz Winckler as Roger, and former American Idol finalist Anwar Robinson as Tom Collins. With "La Vie Boheme" and "Seasons of Love" I think Rent has one of the best first-act closings/second-act openings that I've ever seen.

And the stories of people coping with AIDS are still powerful. That's what got to me the most. When Roger, an HIV-positive musician, sings "One Song Glory" as his shadow is projected larger than life on the brick wall behind him, it was first of several times that I felt myself getting choked up. Another time was when Tom Collins sings "I'll Cover You" to eulogize the drag queen Angel, played by Kristen Alexzander-Griffith, who has died of AIDS.

I just wish that Rent had spent more time with those very moving stories. I wish we could have gotten to know some of those characters better, where they came from, how they ended up in such dire circumstances. At times I felt like there was just too much going on, too many strands of plot that simply didn't have the same power and poignancy.

The tempestuous relationship between Maureen, a performance artist played by Christine Dwyer, and Joanne, played by Onyie Nwachukwu, simply didn't move me as much as the relationship between Roger and Mimi, the HIV-positive dancer and junkie, played by Jennifer Colby Talton. Although I did like the "Tango: Maureen" number between Joanne and Mark, Maureen's current and former lovers.

And a few things bugged me. I thought the character of Mark, the aspiring filmmaker played by Jed Resnick, was a little obnoxious. In some ways, I liked Mark. He's funny and cute. But he's not sick. He has a family that cares about him. His mother is always calling from Scarsdale. Maybe I'm turning into an old fart, but what gives him the right to think that he can squat in a building without paying rent?

Maybe I have this all wrong, but Mark and Maureen just seemed like middle class kids slumming in a poor neighborhood. It grated on me a little bit. (And there's a character of a bag lady who makes that exact point).

When Tom Collins, the philosophy professor and anarchist, boasts of breaking into an ATM and taking wads of cash, that made me pause. Whose money is he taking? He's taking the money of working people who have deposits in the bank, who'll probably have to pay higher fees to make up for the theft. Ok, maybe I'm thinking a little too hard about this.

One of the things I'd read about Rent before I saw it on stage was that it helped pave the way for rock-oriented shows like Spring Awakening. And when I saw the set: a brick wall, the microphones on stands and musicians on stage, I immediately thought of last year's Tony winner for best musical.

I can see why Rent is compared with Spring Awakening and, from an earlier generation, Hair. They're electrifying, exhilarating shows to watch. They all deal with pressing issues of their times - AIDS, homelessness, the draft and the war in Vietnam, teenage anxiety and sexuality. Perhaps Hair, being the most overtly political of the three, is the most dated.

The music of Rent, and its poignant, human stories of people falling in love and struggling with illness, gives the show a timeless quality. I found it very life-affirming and I'm glad I had a chance to see it on stage. Rent has had its season, and I'm sure, as seasons do, its time will come around again.