#interview: cast

[ifthenslashers]

On The Scene at Opening Night | If/Then Musical [March 30th, 2014]

It’s about making the most of whatever your choices or fate gets you.  --- Michael Greif, director

[ifthenslashers]

[Archive] Backstage with Anthony Rapp of If/Then

by Christopher Henley, DC Theatre Scene [Nov 6, 2013]

On a recent evening, he was at the National Theatre. Along with the rest of the If/Then company, he was rehearsing that show’s finale. He told me about looking out into the audience, empty of patrons, and imagining the seats filled.

For some actors at certain times, the prospect of being pulled out of the cocoon of the rehearsal room and onto the stage in front of a ticket-buying audience is nerve-wracking, if not terrifying. Rapp, however, told me how anxious he is to see those seats filled. And audiences are anxious for the curtain to be pulled back on such an unusually mysterious project.

Rapp said that the If/Then team has been working “super hard” for two years on the piece, as it has gone through development and been work-shopped. Sure, they’ve gotten feedback from a lot of sources during that process. But now he is “supremely eager” to test the work before the “new eyes and ears” belonging to the folks who will be filing into the National to see that increasingly rare occurrence, the out-of-town tryout of a new Broadway musical. After all, he told me, no matter how confidant anyone is about the strength of the piece, you can’t really know what you have until an audience is experiencing and responding to the work.

Since it was announced that If/Then would play here on its way to New York, it’s been just about the most eagerly anticipated event of the DC theatre season. It marks the first return to Broadway of Idina Menzel since her Tony-winning turn in the mega-hit Wicked. It’s the follow-up project by composer Tom Kitt and writer Brian Yorkey, the team that scored a surprising triumph with Next to Normal. (Its path to Broadway success, of course, had an important Washington stop along the way, at Arena Stage, before going on to New York, a Tony, and a Pulitzer.) And it reunites Menzel not only with Michael Grieff, the director of Rent, the phenom which put them both on the map, but also with one of her co-stars from that legendary show, Anthony Rapp.

Unlike either Rent or Next to Normal, If/Then is not part of the current trend of sung-through musicals. Though a couple of songs weave in and out of scenes, the show is a more traditional book musical, with dialogue separating the musical numbers. That formal structure, Rapp said, is the extent to which the piece is traditional. In terms of subject matter and style, it’s not your typical Broadway musical. Like Next to Normal, and the plot secrecy notwithstanding, it seems clear that this musical is more character-driven than plot-driven, more focused on the challenges of contemporary urban life than on the sort of “Life’s a banquet” affirmation that marks many a hit musical.

Part of the fun of seeing a show before its Broadway opening is comparing what you are seeing to the eventual settled show that opens on Broadway and is recorded for the original cast album. I remember a number from Mack and Mabel during which Lisa Kirk and the company sang to Robert Preston something like “Get her back!”; that song was cut before the Broadway opening. Also, my memory of “Chrysanthemum Tea” from Pacific Overtures is that it was a very, very different song when it played the Kennedy Center than when it was recorded on the album.

So, is the show in a state of flux? Rapp said changes involving structure and story order are theoretically possible. However, and more importantly, the foundation of the piece, its core, is very much the same as it has been throughout development. Changes have been made to some of the staging and to small bits of dialogue or lyrics. Director Grieff, according to Rapp, keeps honing away, keeps experimenting, but what’s been going on at the National is closer to fine-tuning than to overhauling.

As I said, Anthony Rapp is ready. And he feels as if If/Then is ready.

“It’s incredible material. It’s not like anything else out there. It builds on the history of musical theatre, but, really, it’s its own creation. It’s working on levels not typical to a musical. I think it will connect to people in a meaningful way.”

Added to all of this excitement, there is, as I said, an unusual amount of mystery surrounding the piece. Details about the plot are being tightly held, reminding me of the Woody Allen movies whose titles and plot points can remain unknown until the last moment. We know that Menzel plays a woman moving back to NYC from Phoenix. We know that she reconnects with Lucas, a college friend, played by Rapp. He’s a housing activist who lives in Brooklyn. (After all, in the early part of this century, the geographic center of la vie Boheme has shifted from the East Village across the East River.) Beyond that? “I can’t comment on the plot,” Rapp told me, before relenting a bit and offering that Menzel’s character and his had a “romantic history in college.”

Rapp and I talked about the much-discussed dynamic of how Internet buzz can negatively frame attitudes toward developing projects, particularly musicals.  Describing the If/Then process as two years of being “hermetically sealed” and “keeping a lid on things,” Rapp stresses that it isn’t because they have anything to hide (although obviously there is an interest in retaining some surprise regarding plot points) or that they are ashamed of anything. However, he acknowledges that a certain amount of protectiveness of the process is a necessity as a project is being incubated. Calling that protective impulse a calculated risk (presumably because it could provoke speculation and assumption), he stresses again how much he and his colleagues believe in the piece.

Rapp has been on an out-of-town pre-Broadway tour before, but that show was a revival (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown), not an original piece. Although he says that substantial changes were made to it during a four-city tour, it’s not the same thing as taking an original piece to a close-by, classic tryout town. If/Then is his first experience of that.

Regarding his colleague Menzel, Rapp said that protagonist Elizabeth is a great role for her. She is on-stage for nearly the entire show. Menzel is “a force of nature” and her participation has engendered a great deal of interest in the project. Rapp, though, told me that, for his part, it’s a relief to have a good supporting role, and, presumably, not to have the stress of carrying the entire project on his shoulders. And he’s looking very much forward to the Broadway run. He’s been traveling a lot recently and is happily anticipating falling into the rhythm of doing eight shows a week during an open-ended run in the city he calls home. The cast have year-long contracts. (That’s five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, if you’re counting.) And this supporting role in a project that so genuinely engages him is also giving him a breather from a different project that has been simmering on another burner, his one-man show.

In 2006, Rapp published Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent. (The “loss” of the title refers to the death of his Mother.) Between roles and other performances (he famously does concert dates with another Rent alum, Adam Pascal), Rapp has developed a performance piece based on that book, and he is anxious for more productions of it, especially a run in NYC. In fact, he got close to that New York run earlier this year. However, the preferred venue ended up being unavailable, and then the dates for If/Then fell into place, so the NYC run of Without You is back-burnered for now.

It isn’t a surprise that Rapp has writing as well as performing skills, since his brother is the acclaimed playwright Adam Rapp. Anthony Rapp has had roles in both of Adam’s films. When I asked him why he is in both of the films, but hasn’t been in his brother’s plays, Anthony responded that some of that is schedule, some is because there aren’t always appropriate roles, but then points out that he did the West Coast premiere of Nocturne, Adam’s play about a young man who has accidentally killed his sister. (DC audiences may have seen the Studio 2ndStage production with Scott Fortier in 2002.) Anthony Rapp spoke enthusiastically about how much he admires his brother’s work, and “not just because he’s my brother.” He added that he is thrilled that so many others share that enthusiasm.

Rapp’s own musical tastes aren’t show-tune heavy. He told me that he likes the classics (and mentions West Side Story and A Chorus Line) and that he loves a great Broadway show. But as regards theatre music, what excites him are the shows since Rent and like Rent (and he mentions Once and Spring Awakening, in addition to Next to Normal) that work in a more modern idiom than the traditional hummable show tune-scored show. There will likely still be the adaptations of hit movies and the juke-box musicals, but what engages him are the projects that are more artistically forward looking than those safer prospects.

A friend told me that Rapp was in the Shakespeare Theatre Company lobby at the last performance of Measure for Measure and that he was rocking a beard. I asked if that was part of his calculus in taking the role of Lucas in If/Then. Perhaps, I thought, since he possesses such a youthful vibe and has an association with the show that might be called the Hair (or iconically youth-oriented hit) of the 90s, he was, as he entered his 40s, intending to cultivate an, um, more mature image. Rapp disabuses my Machiavellian insight. What appeals to him is a good role in a good show. He likes to work, he told me. Maybe he should be more “career savvy,” he said, and make calculations along those lines. But he doesn’t.

I asked Rapp, as he is in the trenches of the birthin’ of this new musical baby, to what extent eventual success is apparent at this point in a process. While noting that one never knows, he shared memories of the landmark and legendary works on which he was a collaborator. After all, he was in the original cast of the era-defining musical of the 1990s, as well as one of the few contemporary plays whose title concept has become a household phrase. He said that Six Degrees of Separation was close to perfection at the first read. Later, the audience at the invited dress rehearsal “went bananas.” It was similar with Rent. In the rehearsal room on day one, rehearsing “Seasons of Love,” he had the sense of something really extraordinary, a sense that “this was going to be an event.”

Rapp and I talked about how interesting it is that he has continued to collaborate with so many of the same people: Menzel and Grief here; Pascal during their tours; Rapp even assistant directing for Grief on Next to Normal during its initial NYC run at New York’s Second Stage. He spoke of how the trust, friendship, and intimacy among friends feeds collaborations like those, and how it inspires them to achieve their best work.

Rapp is thoughtful, articulate, and intelligent, and he makes a point of qualifying his remarks: “I can only speak for myself,” he will say; and, despite his palpable enthusiasm regarding If/Then, he stresses that you never know about the commercial prospects for a show.  You do know, though, how much he believes that, whatever the eventual reception of If/Then, it is artistically satisfying for the actor playing Lucas.

This run of If/Then will be the longest Rapp has stayed in DC. He hasn’t had much time to do anything else yet. During the couple of weeks of the run after its official opening, perhaps he’ll have the chance to explore the city more. Still, he has been impressed with it as a “sophisticated theatre city” and one that is “not unwilling to see something different.”

The other big story regarding If/Then is the return of the National Theatre as a tryout house. Rapp rhapsodizes about the theatre; about how close its back walls are to the stage, providing a much more intimate experience for the audience than they receive in some of the bigger Broadway houses.

A return to the Golden Age of the National?

All of this gets me nostalgic about my own theatre-going history at the National. I remember going to see the legendary Katherine Hepburn in A Matter of Gravity, only to realize, a few months later, that the unknown actor playing her nephew had become a movie star: Christopher Reeve. I remember sitting in the second balcony and seeing one man, one voice, fill the building more completely than a cast of dozens, watching James Earl Jones do his solo piece Paul Robeson. I remember seeing Helen Hayes sitting in a box during the awards ceremony that bears her name and her mentor Eva Le Gallienne giving a breathtakingly moving performance in the same building in The Royal Family a few years earlier.

A favorite tactic of mine was to buy cheap seats in the balcony, and then move down to empty orchestra seats. Yes, a settee blocked some of the action in Amadeus, but I remember watching Ian McKellen, during the very first U.S. preview, do those hairpin transitions from soliloquy to scene a mere few feet from me. Sometimes those orchestra seats were empty because they had views of the backstage. I remember seeing Eartha Kitt preparing for an entrance in Timbuktu. The contrast between her imperious character on-stage and the vulnerability, almost tentativeness, of her standing offstage will stay with me forever.

But enough about the past. If/Then is here, now, in the present and opened for previews last night.

[ifthenslashers]

Chatback with Jackie Burns 

Ivan Steele Presents [March 15, 2017] 

Broadway actor Jackie Burns is unstoppable. This hugely talented artist is lending her crystalline vocals to some of the most formidable roles on stage. Recently, Burns delighted audiences with her crowning performance as Queen Elsa at the Broadway Princess Party, which even garnered a mid-show standing ovation. Next month, she will be starring as Eva Peron in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita at Amarillo Opera. Besides her immense talent, Burns is also one of the most down to earth performers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She took time recently to discuss the rigors of being a member of Wicked’s “Green Girls Club” and the daunting task of replacing Idina Menzel at a moment’s notice with no rehearsal time at all.

I know that you’re working on several new different projects at the moment. What can you tell us about them?

I’m doing a concert for Frank Wildhorn this Saturday [March 17th] in UT. I’m also in the studio recording a new musical for composers, Sam Carner and Derek Gregor. And I’m doing Evita for Amarillo Opera.

Tell us more about Evita.

It’s my first time working for an opera company. I think I’m the only non-opera person doing it. It’s literally two weeks of rehearsals for three performances. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. But it’s a dream role. I’ve always wanted to play Evita but the timing has never worked out so now that I’m free – I was like “yes!” And I’ve never been to Amarillo, TX [laughs].

Your “Adele Dazeem Medley” at the Broadway Princess Party has become such a huge hit on YouTube. It was creative genius. How did the idea come about?

The creator and music director, Ben Rauhala asked me to play Elsa and perform “Let It Go.” But he also thought it would be fun to do a whole medley of the shows I’ve done. So he wrote it and it was amazing. He is the genius behind it. It was all him!

Let’s discuss If/Then the Musical. You were in the Broadway production and later replaced Idina Menzel on the national tour. What was that like?

It was so much fun! I feel honored to be one of two women to play that role. And what amazing company to be in. It was a dream for me to be able to takeover the role of Elizabeth, after being the standby on Broadway. Also, for the tour I got to work with the director, Michael Greif, whom I love and adore. Being able to work with him for three weeks on this character was incredible. I think it’s one of the best roles for a female in musical theatre.

Was it difficult to portray two different characters/personalities [Liz and Beth] on-stage?

Not really because you’re the same person but in a different environment. The character of Elizabeth is still the over-thinker regardless if she chooses career over love…or love over career. For example, I’d still be Jackie Burns if I were a pet groomer, insurance salesperson or actor. I would just dress and talk differently. But I have a terrible potty mouth so that probably wouldn’t fly in an 9 to 5 environment, where in theatre it does [laughs].

What activities did you enjoy while on tour?

I love eating [laughs]. Matt Hydzik, who played my husband [Josh] on the If/Then tour mapped out all these great restaurants to try. And I would also run. It was a great way to see the country!

And you spent 2 1/2 years performing in Wicked. What was that like?

Wicked was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Once you play Elphaba everything else is like a walk in the park. People don’t understand how hard it really is. It’s not just the singing and screaming but Elphaba never leaves the stage. Also, people are constantly touching up your makeup all throughout the show and during intermission. Then after the show you start the process of “de-greening” [laughs]. You never get a chance to chill.On two-show days would stay in full green makeup after the matinee?No, I have to wash my face off. I don’t wear a lot of makeup in real life anyway. I would even wash my face when I played Elizabeth [If/Then] and that’s just heightened street makeup [laughs]. I always re-do my makeup before every show. And it’s difficult with Elphaba because they make you look older by giving you a darker eye and lip and more defined cheekbones, as the show progresses so it’s harder to try to reverse the aging process then start over from the beginning.

Any funny stories to share from Wicked?

Geez…so many. Where to begin? [laughs] I dropped the broom during Defying Gravity. The whole reason Elphaba could fly was because of this broom! I thought I was going to get fired. I started doing a lot of crazy arm movements hoping no one would notice and nobody did really! Wicked is like a fine-tuned machine. I was waiting for the stage manager to say “you ruined it.” I thought to myself “if you could only hear my inner monologue the whole time.” Also, Richard Blake [Fiyero] and I were doing the lion cub scene, where she yells at him and doesn’t let him speak. His line was “Do you ever let anyone else talk?” And I totally forgot my line and just stared at him. It couldn’t have happened at a worst moment. He started laughing. I was mortified.How do you warm up before your performances?It was very regimented for Wicked. I would start an hour before with a physical warm up – 100 jumping jacks, stretching, shower and steam. If/Then wasn’t as difficult vocally, so I would warm up while I was getting my hair done. The poor hairdresser would hear my same 15-minute vocal warmup everyday [laughs]. And I would always sing the same 3 songs before I take the stage – “No One Mourns the Wicked” [Wicked], “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” [Sweeney Todd] and “What’s the Use of Wonderin” [Carousel].

Let’s go back to your first Broadway production. Please tell us about Hair.

Sheila was so much fun. It was my Broadway debut and I went on during previews. So I hadn’t had rehearsals yet. I learned everything an hour before the show. I literally didn’t have time to be nervous. Same thing with If/Then. I went on mid-show [to replace Idina, who fell ill] and hadn’t been to rehearsals yet, which was scheduled for the following week. The audience had no idea that the extent of my rehearsal was singing along to the songs karaoke style in my dressing room [laughs].

And hopefully people will read this interview and now know.

Yes, and now they’ll know [laughs].

[ifthenslashers]

[Archive] If/Then Tour Stars Look Back at Life on the Road and What’s Next

By Adam Hetrick, Playbill [Aug. 12, 2016]

If/Then stars Anthony Rapp and Jackie Burns reflect on their time on the road as the show’s national tour concludes its run August 14.

The national tour of If/Then, the original musical that reunited composer Tom Kitt, book writer/lyricist Brian Yorkey and director Michael Greif, the creative team behind the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal, ends its year-long, cross-country journey August 14 at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre.

The show launched with original Broadway stars Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, LaChanze and James Snyder last summer, with Rapp staying on as new stars Jackie Burns, Tamyra Gray and Matthew Hydzik stepped into the musical’s principal roles.

Playbill.com caught up with Burns, who also stood by for Menzel in the Broadway production of If/Then, and Rapp, who reflected on their time with the show and what the future holds for each of them.

What’s it like to take If/Then on the road and make the role of Liz/Beth your own after standing by for Idina on Broadway? Jackie Burns: Getting to re-rehearse the show was really amazing, and to get to find my own Elizabeth was amazing. Watching new cast members discover things was huge because I was able to discover new things with them.

It feels really good to be on the road. But it’s interesting. With Wicked, people were coming to see Wicked, not to see a certain witch. But on Broadway with If/Then, people were coming to see Idina Menzel in this role that was written for her. It was nerve-racking. It was like having a birthday party and nobody showing up, is how it felt. It was hard because I could feel that I had to win the audience over. And usually by the time I sang “What the Fuck,” I had them on my side, I could feel the shift.

How much does playing a part like this take its toll on you emotionally? JB: It’s exhausting and I’ve had to learn how to leave it when I’m done. You can have an emotional hangover. The five-show weekends are hard. I have headaches every night after two-show days. I always take a really long shower to just have a moment and decompress and finish feeling whatever I need to feel and then let it go. But this is also the most amazing role I’ve ever played. You get to feel every thing you can possibly feel as an actor.

What’s next for you? JB: I really want to originate something of my own. It’s hard to audition when you’re on the road. I also have a bunch of concerts coming up.

What has the experience of taking If/Then on the road been like for you? What will you miss? Anthony Rapp: It’s wonderful to be a part of a piece that resonates with real life. So when things have happened offstage in my personal life, the show has always been a place to work through stuff. I’m grateful for that. It’s a touchstone kind of show for me. It feels like a second skin. Lucas certainly does, and the piece itself works inside of themes and issues that are near and dear to my heart and that I really believe in. I’m going to miss all of that.

You’ve also had the chance to perform with Jackie Burns as Liz/Beth. AR: I got to do it with Jackie several times in New York. I’ve always enjoyed working with her, but it’s been great to do a consistent run with her. She’s a wonderful actress, and it’s been lovely to get to build our own version of this together.

What’s next for you? AR: I’m doing a bunch of concerts with Adam Pascal, including two weeks at Feinstein’s/54 Below. I love doing it because it’s a little looser than doing the eight-show-a-week grind and there’s more of a direct contact with the audience, which I’m really looking forward to.

Visit ifthenthemusical.com.

[ifthenslashers]

Theatre Legend Anthony Rapp Brings Broadway to Atlanta with IF/THEN!

By Marci Miller, CineMoms [Aug 2, 2016]

This August, Atlanta is lucky to have Broadway icon Anthony Rapp, an original cast member of RENT, take the stage at The Fox Theatre as he reprises his role of Lucas for the touring production of IF/THEN.  The show, which played on Broadway for one year, originally reunited Rapp with former RENT cast mate, Idina Menzel.  Menzel's role has now been taken over by Jackie Burns, but Anthony Rapp has stayed on and August 9 - 14, audiences will get to see his final performance of the tour and will discover what makes IF/THEN one of the most unique and special plays to come around in a long time. We recently spoke to Anthony Rapp to learn more about IF/THEN and also touched on his role in RENT:

Tell us about the premise of IF/THEN and the two paths that its main character may choose to take:

Elizabeth, played by Jackie Burns, is a woman getting out of an unhappy marriage.  The show follows her from the day she arrives back in New York City to try to start her life over again. I'm an old college friend Lucas and she gets reacquainted with me and also a new friend Kate.  And on her first day back, she has an unseemingly small decision to either go off with me or go off with Kate. And it turns out to be a decision that completely alters the course of her life.   So the show follows both paths that her life takes after that one decision.   And it explores the many, many ways we are all interconnected with one another in our decisions and circumstances and how the intersection of fate and choice shape our lives.

Can you relate to the premise of the show?  In your own life, did you ever have two paths to take?

I don't usually second guess too much but the most self-evident case of fate intervening in my life was when I was cast in the workshop of RENT.  It was a ten performance production.  There was no possible way to know it would completely and dramatically alter the nature of my life.  There were other jobs, other shows and films.  I don't even remember now what they were but they seemed important at the time.  Had I gotten cast, that would have made me unavailable to do this three week workshop of RENT, so that is one of those things I look back on.  It wasn't necessarily the same thing where I had a choice that I made.  It was just the way that circumstances transpired.

Tell us about working with Idina Menzel once again on IF/THEN:

It was a wonderful reunion.  I am still so proud of her success and was thrilled to get to be a part of a new project with her.  And our characters have so much history so it wasn't like we had to do any homework. It was just a total pleasure. She's such an authentic and incredible performer and person so I think her success is so deserved. She's always been a superstar even though it's just become in the last couple of years where she is a household name.

What made you stay on with the touring production of the show?

Well, I really believe in the piece and I believed in the opportunity of the tour to help give the show extra life, extra reputation.  The idea that we only ran for a year on Broadway and that we could have more people become acquainted with this wonderful show was very exciting to me.  And I also have a real, tremendous loyalty to the writers Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey.  I've known them for a long time along with producer David Stone and director Michael Greif. And I enjoy touring.  I wouldn't want to tour all the time, because it's hard but I've toured several times throughout the course of my career and it's nice to do especially with a good group of people and a good piece.   And my hope has been realized that the show has reached people that otherwise wouldn't have seen it.  And we've gotten a nice response from people all over the country who are happy to get to see something new and innovative.

So many shows that tour are classics, and IF/THEN is completely original....

For me, that's exciting.  That's the kind of theater that I like.  I like a good revival when it's well done.  The classics are "classic" for a reason but I'm always interested in seeing what's new and fresh so for sure, our audiences have been happy that there is something innovative that they can witness.  And I think it's important and vital to the art form to continue to be relevant and meaningful for people.  They can have a wide variety of experiences when they go to the theatre.

Some of the fans seem obsessed by the show...they've gone multiple times, they've traveled to different cities...have you felt that excitement?

Yeah and it's the kind of piece that it fares well to experience it multiple times because it's a rich, complex interwoven story.  There are many scenes musically and dramatically I think weather the repeated viewing well because there is a lot of reward in it.  So it doesn't surprise me when people respond to it that they want to see it more than once.

What are some of your favorite standout moments of the show?

I think "Starting Over" the big 11 o'clock number that Elizabeth has is a tremendously powerful, perfectly written song.   The solo I have "You Don't Need to Love Me" is also to me, a perfectly written song which is an unusual sentiment, but I've had a lot of people talk to me about how much is speaks to them and how much they identify with it.

Tell us about being an original cast member of RENT.  What was it like to be part of something that became a huge phenomenon?

It was amazing when I look back on it.  It filled a void, it filled a vacuum and when something like that happens it's just sort of physics.  There is just tremendous energy that comes around it.  It makes sense in retrospect, I never would have predicted it, but there was a hunger that no one knew for something like it.  So it made sense that the lightning struck so powerfully.   But only in retrospect.

And there was no real social media back then, can you imagine what it would have been like had it come out now?

There were early message boards on AOL..but there wasn't Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and all that stuff and I we are seeing the way that HAMILTON has taken off with social media. There was a very dedicated online community around RENT in those early days of such things but it would have been so explosive now.

What's up next after you finish touring?  Do you have another project in mind?

Well, Atlanta is the last stop of the tour so the next set of things that I'm doing is a bunch of concerts with Adam Pascal...we've done many of those over the last several years and it's been really fun so we have more including two weeks in New York.  So that will be a really nice change of pace from the eight show week grind.  I don't have a hard and fast project so I'm looking forward to a little bit of down time. 

[ifthenslashers]

[Archive] BWW Interview: IF/THEN's Anthony Rapp Talks Life-Changing Moments and More

Kristen Hirsch Montag, BWW Minneapolis [Mar. 8, 2016]

Anthony Rapp is best known for his role in RENT, but that's a show that could've happened without him if he had been offered and accepted another job.

In 1994, he was in a slow career period, feeling broke and a little scared. He was not getting cast but was close to several jobs. "I cannot tell you what they were now, but then they felt really important," said Rapp, who had taken his first "survival job" at Starbucks when he got the call to do a 12-week workshop that completely changed his career, and his life, in a profound way. "In every way possible," Rapp said.

That moment of "if (because) this happened, then that happened," could've just as easily sent Rapp down another road. Now, starring in the first national tour of IF/THEN, Rapp plays Lucas, an old college friend of leading character Elizabeth (Jackie Burns), who encounters her upon her return to New York City after a divorce and the beginnings of a new life in her old city. The contemporary new musical follows two parallel storylines in her life; one where she goes with Lucas and her life follows the path of "Beth," the name Lucas calls her, and the other follows "Liz," as she chooses a different friend's invitation and ends up in a completely different life. "Small decisions can completely alter the course of your life," Rapp said.

He said that this similarity is happenstance in a way, but the theme arose during a 20th anniversary panel discussion with cast and production team members from the original cast of RENT at January's inaugural BroadwayCon, a convention for theatre lovers that had its first successful run during NYC's late January blizzard. Rapp is one of the founders of BroadwayCon with his friend Melissa Anelli of Mischief Management, whom he met back during RENT's early days at the stage door. Another if/then moment -- had these two not formed a friendship, would someone have started BroadwayCon? We'll never know. The RENT panel members all discussed where they were when the opportunity for the show came about and how they almost chose not to take it. They were all glad they had, though none of them knew what it would become at that point in time. Most have gone on to huge career successes that may have happened anyway, but maybe not. The decision to take that job provided a life most could not have dreamed of.

Rapp actually has been acting professionally since age 9, and says he has been very picky but very fortunate to be able to work creating magical theatre like RENT, YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, PRECIOUS SONS and now IF/THEN. He also starred as Lucas in the Broadway production; in fact, the part was written for him by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. "It's a real honor," he said. "It's like having a custom fitted suit -- it just fits." Kitt and Yorkey were able to use Rapp's sensitivities and qualities as an actor and singer to fit the part over and over in the workshop and rehearsal process until it fitted perfectly. IF/THEN Director Michael Grief also directed the original production of RENT.

Touring with IF/THEN has given Rapp an opportunity to travel the country and have everything scheduled and taken care of for him, which he enjoys, but also to see friends in other cities and experience the slightly different flavor of audiences each city has.

New York City itself is seen by many as almost another character in IF/THEN. "Not that many other cities have so much going on in the streets," Rapp said. "Intersections of people and interactions" that lead to opportunities for things to happen. Having lived in NYC for a long time, even as large a city as it is with millions of people, Rapp says he still runs into people he knows all the time, like a small town in a big city.

IF/THEN presents ideas, but does not tell people what to think, he said. Whether following Liz or Beth's journey, it's about taking a step back and exploring moment to moment as her life unfolds. It's up to the viewer if choice or chance wins the day.

Rapp's choices going forward look pretty clear. He will explore doing more productions of his one-man show, WITHOUT YOU and taking advantage of some time off. And he will continue in his role as a founder and organizer for BroadwayCon 2017, which has not been announced officially but is guaranteed to return.

"I'm a part of the inner circle forever," he said. Rapp provided contacts and credibility of this new event in the community as Anelli and her team worked on all the details of the event. "I'm not a convention planner or anything."

BroadwayCon was tremendous, Rapp said. "Exactly the right kind of energy and tone was set." Despite the blizzard that shut the city down for the second day of the event, the show went on and he and the team were flexible and just rolled with it when they had people unable to get to town or found themselves with a hotel full of fans who couldn't attend Broadway shows that night.

For example, the main stage was the scene of what was dubbed the "Party Line," where organizers sat on stage dialing phone numbers of industry contacts and interviewing them with a microphone up to their cellphones. Not just any contacts -- the likes of Patti LuPone, Joel Grey, Idina Menzel and many more, including a Facetime conversation with Jeremy Jordan in Los Angeles. "It provided cool, meaningful moments with each of the artists for the audience, and (the artists) got to feel part of the flavor of the event in a small way," he said.

Rapp takes the stage in Minneapolis March 8 - 13, 2016.

[ifthenslashers]

What Happens When You Explore Life’s Many If/Thens?

Urban Moms [Apr. 18, 2016]

At some point in our life, we reflect back and wonder about the “what ifs.” What if we chose a different career path? What if we went to a different school? Every action we take opens to new roads of possibilities. It’s never a wrong path. Just different. This is the premise of IF/THEN The Musical now playing in Toronto until May 8th.

The musical is about a woman named Elizabeth aka “Beth” (Jackie Burns) who has returned to New York from living in Phoenix after separating from her husband. She’s ready to restart her life but there’s more than one story line here. As the title suggests, we are taken on a fascinating journey of two possibilities. There are no wrong or right paths taken here and the outcomes are equally complex and compelling.

Set in modern day New York, Beth now in her late 30s reconnects with old friends including Lucas (Anthony Rapp) who she kinda sorta had a “thing”. She finds work as a city planner and unexpectedly becomes pregnant. The show runs a parallel story with Beth as she meets Josh, an army major that has returned from his tour as a doctor. They get married and start a family.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Anthony Rapp who plays Lucas in IF/THEN. You may recognize Rapp from his role as Mark Cohen in the hit musical RENT on Broadway as well as the movie, but his acting career actual began when he was a tot and he hasn’t looked back. Now in his sweet and loveable role as Lucas we had to catch up on what’s going on.

The show take two different roads jumping back and forth, how is that for you as an actor?

AR: It’s interesting because the story is not about two different characters but about the same soul in very different circumstances. So that affects the characters and how they grow and change as well as their outlooks and experience. It’s very fulfilling to explore how life turns all these different corners and how it affects myself off stage. It certainly makes me reflect on my own and all the different things that come my way.

Do you find you’re more aware of life’s choices or are you more a “go-with-the-flow” type of person?

AR: I tend to go more with the flow but it certainly has made me reflect on the decades of my life. Some things that seemed important at that time wound up not being that important when I look back or vice versa. Even the ways in which they were important to me, you can’t always recognize it at that time.

The musical is very relatable for our generation and it may be labelled as something appealing to “millennials” but there were a few older people in the crowd the night I was there, what’s been their reaction?

AR: In New York, I remember seeing older people attending the shows. There was one person I remember who may have been in her 60s and she was very moved by the it. She was very stirred up by it. I’m not always sure about how people react to the show, it’s an unusual thing because it’s not always easy for people to articulate what’s really gotten them about it. But I think this show touches some people very deeply. Again, I really think it’s about reflecting on things that have happened in their lives.

You’ve had a chance to be in the audience to witness the reactions?

AR: Yes, I was off for 12 weeks after I had knee surgery so I got to see the show. I’ve been a part of the developmental reading so I knew it inside and out but to be able to watch it was amazing. What really hit me was that it’s so much about ripple effects – the ways in which we affect one another and how there’s a cumulative power that I think is surprising. It feels very truthful and alive. When the show really “gets” the audience it gets them deeply.

Yeah! I honestly didn’t expect that to happen but during the show I started reflecting on my own life’s journey and how I got here. All the “what ifs” started entering my mind.

AR: And it’s funny when we talk about different ages coming to the show. The younger audience members I really thought was just coming to see Idina (Menzel) when she was in the show on Broadway, but they seemed to be moved by it just as much as our generation. But the younger crowd gets excited and the difference is they share their opinions through tweets. They seem really into it and they were moved as well.

It’s been a highly successful musical on Broadway for a while and now that IF/THEN is on tour, have you noticed anything different?

AR: To me, it feels like there is a certain amount of gratitude in a sense because I know a lot of shows that go on tour are more well-known and more established so with this musical, there’s a nice surprise factor. A lot of people react with “that’s not what I had expected” in a positive way. They thank us for bringing this “thing” here (laughs).

Yes, you want to try and label it but you can’t really, it’s very different and not the kind of show where you just sit back but you feel a little more engaged or involved.

AR: It’s what we were hoping for. We were crossing our fingers when we decided to bring this on tour. It’s a little “stealth” and we wanted to take people by surprise.

So, tell me, IF you weren’t acting, THEN what would you be doing (see what I did there?)

AR: (laughs) it’s hard to say but I feel like I’d still be in the arts. I’ve taught and directed a bit. I really liked that. But I would only like to direct what I really, really love because it’s so hard to get a project on it’s feet, not that I’m afraid of that, but I would really want to work on something that I love. I’ve been acting professional for 35 years so I think I be more picky about what I want to work on.

Yes! You’ve earned it.

AR: Thank you. It’s been a long time since I’ve started acting and I love the work but I don’t want to hustle for work I don’t care about.

That seems to resonate with Lucas, the character you play here in this show! He’s also passionate about where and how he spends his energy. I think that’s an important stage we are at now. We all want to do something that matters to us and even to the world.

AR: Yeah, I think so. I think in the last ten years there’s a lot more awareness or at least talking about things on a public level that I don’t recall being discussed when I was growing up. I’d like to think that people are thinking more about how and what they want to do in life and what their priorities are.

IF/THEN is now on stage in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre. For more information visit www.ifthenthemusical.com and  www.mirvish.com