No Day But Today: RENT Stars Reunite
Photo Credit: Michael Allan Galvez
Some rock ‘n’ roll stars are known for their constancy. Others stun with an ephemeral flare. Yet few in the world of musical theatre can outshine Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, the Roger Davis and Mark Cohen duo from the Original Broadway and London Casts of RENT. 360° of Opera attended a joyful reprise of their reunion at the Tony Award-winning 54 Below, dubbed “Broadway’s Supper Club,” on August 14, 2024. We report with great pleasure that, at the ages of 53 and 52 respectively, their voices sounded like fine instruments, ready to take on the growls and screams that their genre has to offer with poise and gusto.
Photo Credit: Michael Allan Galvez
Many actors have a love-hate relationship with their big-break role. They tiptoe around it, lest they get typecast. Pascal and Rapp, on the other hand, embrace it head-on. And doesn’t it feel nice to see and hear them add texture and new meaning every time they go at it. Of the 15 songs that made up the set, six came from RENT. Pascal, stepping into Roger’s shoes, carried himself with the flair of a “pretty-boy frontman,” who’s used to being the center of attention. But it was Rapp that pleasantly surprised, when he took up the part of Mimi Márquez in “Light My Candle” and “Another Day.” The youthful flirtation and yearning were palpable, but if Roger was acting wise for his years in the original musical, and thus a bit condescending to Mimi at times, two or three decades more of living made Pascal sound like he was simply sharing his wisdom from lived experience when he sang some of the darker, heavier lines. The two remembered that they were originally taken aback by the score of RENT, as it wasn’t what immediately came to mind when they thought of rock ‘n’ roll. But upon closer examination, the subject matter was definitely rebellious, with the genre’s signature mix of social critique and optimism. Pascal and Rapp illustrated this point through “What You Own,” whose reference to “Twilight Zone” and “isolating age” sounded eerily evocative of our present day. And with the other two songs from RENT, “One Song Glory” and “Seasons of Love,” the pair gave the crowd what they came for; the latter went wild in return.
Photo Credit: Michael Allan Galvez
But the evening wasn’t just a half-staged revival of RENT. Rather, the other nine songs offered us a rare peek into the soundscape surrounding the genesis of this masterpiece, both for the general public growing up in the 1960s and 70s, and our two friends in particular. Pascal and Rapp kicked off the night with Sheryl Crow’s somber reflection on fame and whatever it takes to get there, “If It Makes You Happy.” The duo stopped to give a few remarks, mentioning how they’d been putting shows like this together before working on RENT. What followed was “Starman” by David Bowie, perfectly danceable and seemingly light-hearted. For the less celebrated song, “Driveway to Driveway,” Pascal dialed his piercing tenor back a notch, backing his friend up with both his voice and a tambourine, even clapping with it in the end. As the two admitted, they have different tastes in music, with Pascal leaning towards Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, while Rapp maintained a soft spot for indie rock. But when they join forces, they complement each other with Rapp’s steadfast melody and Pascal’s thrilling embellishments.
As Rapp pointed out, one through line of the evening was that most of the artists they covered are no longer with us — hence the importance of inheriting this wealth of repertoire and riffing on it. Pascal recounted a life-changing experience, watching Bono from U2 play “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” on a jet bridge during the last concert at the original Yankee Stadium after a car accident on the way to the venue. Bono had the audience in the palm of his hand, and Pascal thought he was seeing a deity — one could not help but wonder how many young people have gazed upon Pascal and found the same faith in music, specifically rock ‘n’ roll in its defiant, almost fearless glory. “Under Pressure” was a real testament to the hard work these two singers put into maintaining their voice and putting on the greatest show: it’s hard to imagine a human doing the vocal gymnastics with playful grace several nights in a row, but Pascal made it look easy. The mournful Radiohead song, “Fake Plastic Trees,” came from Jonathan Larson’s playlist, when he was writing RENT. Rapp was the only one between the two that’d worked with Larson, and the nostalgia and connection he brought to his rendition offered a wistful lens into the otherwise mostly exuberant musical. The two paid tribute to Chris Cornell, who took his own life seven years ago, with “Say Hello 2 Heaven,” the song he wrote for his roommate Andrew Wood, when the latter died of a heroin overdose.
Photo Credit: Michael Allan Galvez
The “pit” onstage, behind the singers, was packed with heavyweights as well. At the piano, with keyboards on its lid, and playing the guitar, was the Associate Conductor for the original Broadway production of RENT, Daniel Weiss. Lee Moretti, Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music and Band Leader at The Furies, who’d previously accompanied Rapp on Without You, strummed away on her electric guitar with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. Paul Gil played the bass guitar, and Jerry Marotta, who played “Solsbury Hill” with Peter Gabriel, Rapp’s personal hero since the age of 14, was on percussion. Together, all six musicians captured not just the sound of that era, but also the zeitgeist. From social issues and counterculture, to Bohemian lifestyles and musical innovation, as long as these topics remain relevant to our society, artists will live on through their stories they tell and questions they pose, and vice versa.
-written by Chloe Yutong Yang