I'll spare y'all the details of my day, including my professor catching me reading Angels in America: Perestroika during his lecture instead of paying attention, and spending 3 hours chasing preschoolers around.
I got there earlier than I intended to because I didn't have time to go back to my dorm after work, so I figured I'd just chill in the student center. My friend that was supposed to come ditched me to study for an exam, so I was all alone, but no big deal. I got there at like 6:30 and there were already people lining up outside the entrance to the auditorium- and it didn't start until 7:30. What is it with Rentheads and lines? It's worse than Disney World.
The part you care about:
The University Union staff gave a lengthy speech introducing him, flubbed the lines a few times, then finally gave up and brought Anthony out onstage. The first thing he mentioned was that tonight was the 10th anniversary of Rent's opening night Off-Broadway, as well as the official publication day of his book. He also mentioned that he was here at SU a few years ago because Brian Gligor (he was the Rent tour as Mark in 2003-ish) was a friend of his and an undergrad at the time. I didn't know about that- I wasn't here yet, but it was cool. I just remember when the Rent tour came to Syracuse when Brian was in the cast.
Anyway, he read the Glory chapter, then talked a bit about the process of writing his book, and then they started with the questions. Pretty standard questions for the most part, mostly about the movie, but nothing too profoundly different than what has been discussed before. One person asked when he had made the decision to start acting. Anthony talked about playing the Cowardly Lion, the Artful Dodger and Snoopy (even better than Roger Bart, I'm sure) and everyone awed. Someone else asked if he would sing something and everyone started shouting out song suggestions (lots of people wanted Halloween but he said it's too hard to do acapella) and the girls that asked the question asked if he could do the beginning. He started singing Tune Up #1 and when he got to Roger's lines, the audience sang those parts. A sing-along is much better than Halloween.
There were a lot of questions about his portrayal of the character and how it's changed over the years, but, well, those went in one ear and out the other. Too many drama students there, apparently
. One person said the other girl had taken her question, so she asked if Anthony could be her Valentine. Hee.
Someone else asked about his opinion of casting popstars in Rent and I had to groan. Scary Spice. *headdesk* But Anthony gave a very nice answer about how they have the courage to take on the 8 show a week schedule and everything. He also asked if Anthony would ever go back to Rent and he said no, but mentioned the 10th anniversary concert and how the tickets would be $1000+ but there would be the traditional cheap lotto tickets. He said he doesn't know how that will be done. Suddenly the redundant questions on BWW and LJ all came back to me and I loudly blurted out that the lotto would be online. He heard me and I had to explain to him and everyone else that the lotto information would be on the NYTW website. It was just awkward; I didn't
mean to yell it out- I was trying to be helpful! *blushes*
Anyway, one young girl (she looked like 11) asked what the difference was between the movie and the stageshow, since she hadn't seen it onstage yet. Anthony described like the entire stage for her to explain.
Um, the rest of the questions kind of just blurred together at this point (or I'm just getting tired and can't remember now). Someone else commented that he was also a former Artful Dodger and Anthony quoted some line and the guy was just like "Um, yeah" and it was funny. Someone else asked if he would do the La Vie Boheme dance. He did the jerky hand motions sitting on the stool, then said "Insert coin- Pull lever" and did the dance again- very much like Doll on a Music Box.
The last question was someone who asked if he would sing Seasons of Love at the end, and someone joked "Do the whole show!" and Anthony sang in this high voice "Today 4 U!" with this weird dance move in the chair. Anthony as Angel would be...interesting.
But then he sang Seasons of Love to end it- and someone yelled out for him to sing the highnote.
The staff people came out again and told us to go around and form his line around the perimeter of the auditorium, and Anthony would be sitting in the back by the entrance at this table.
Kind of an overshare, but I had to go to the bathroom, so I went out to use it and once I got back,
everyone was already in line. I kind of just accepted that I was going to be the last person in line, so I didn't bother getting in line and just kind of wandered around the front of the auditorium for awhile. I called Emcee, then my sister, then my cell phone died and I still had to wait a few more minutes. The talk thing ended at like 9:20 and I didn't get up to him until like... 10:30ish (I don't know, my cell phone was dead- no clock).
I had already met Anthony very briefly at the Symphony Space screening of Rent, so I wasn't as jittery this time, I just babbled nervously. I said told him I was from BWW and he asked if I had met up with Mandi. Because of Mandi's computer issues, I said I hadn't been able to get in touch with her, but he said that if she had been there, she didn't "declare" herself. Hee. Hope you made it, Mandi!
I wasn't actually the LAST person in line, the staff from UU was there waiting to go after me and they started to inch forward behind me as I was talking, so I figured I'd stop holding up the line and left. It was freezing outside and I was starving and our campus isn't particularly safe at night, but I practically skipped the whole way back to my building.
So it was really fun. Sorry to all those that are waiting patiently for this! I swear I'm usually a much better writer than this, but the combination of lack of sleep and your IM harassments to rush aren't really helping, so this will have to do for now. I'll probably add more tomorrow when I remember it, but hope this holds you over until then.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never
knowing how
Updated On: 2/14/06 at 02:46 AM
