Anthony Rapp's WITHOUT YOU at New World Stages

I don't have anything planned for this month as well as next month. I might consider seeing this as I am a RENT fan! Not to mention, its Anthony Rapp!

If anyone sees discount codes for this, please post here!

95-100 minutes

no intermission

Alessio2 said: "Has anyone seen this yet?? Any insight on how it is or what to expect?"

I just saw it. I’m sorry to report it is a serious, serious fail. The writing is absolutely awful. It’s just like listening to a long lost relative with no storytelling skills whatsoever. The songs from Rent are great but they only accentuate how awful the original songs are. And let’s be honest…..he’s not a great singer, sorry to say. The section about Jonathan Larsen is moving but we were already moved by this story in Tick Tick Boom and other Larsen documentaries. There is nothing new revealed here.

I wanted to love this, particularly since I made the big mistake of paying full price, but the whole thing amounts as a masturbatory session when someone is using an audience to clap for their life choices, successes, etc.

Updated On: 1/18/23 at 08:54 PM

I read the book years ago. It wasn't great either. It seemed a little "woe is me", and I didn't care much about the story when I was done. I would think with songs it might fair better with Rapp's own voice telling it...guess not.

n2nbaby said: "Let us remember there is exactly one review in this thread. I’ve heard from a few other friends that it was lovely and the audience was sobbing.


It may stink, it may not. But no reason to totally write a show off over one opinion lol"

I was about to post the same thing. Don't just take my word for it. I'm just one person. However, the audience I was with was very quiet throughout - very lukewarm applause. Take that for whatever it is worth. I should also say that there were a lot of empty seats, especially in the mezz, which only had like 5 people in it, so it should be very easy to get the $35.00 rush tickets for this. Whatever you do, do not pay full price.

TotallyEffed said: "Y’all are so harsh. If you don’t like him or the show just live your life, jeez."

I mean... The poster is saying their genuine thoughts on the show. If they thought it was terrible, they're allowed to express that.

One hit?

I don't know how old you are, but Adventures in Babysitting was a pretty big deal when I was a kid.

And he just wrapped 55 episodes of Star Trek Discovery. People on those shows can sit pretty for the rest of their lives just doing convention signings.

I saw it back in 2012 in Toronto. I have no idea if it has been reworked since, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

As someone who was absolutely obsessed with Rent in it's prime, it still holds a very special place in my heart - so much so that I already have my tickets to see Rent again at Stratford Festival (Ontario, Canada) this summer. I say this to make it completely clear that I am very biased towards anything related to Rent. Consequently, I absolutely lapped this show up, and went back to see it again. I enjoyed hearing the behind-the-scenes stories of his first impressions of Rent and the original cast members, the early days of the show, and the shock of losing Larson, from someone who was actually there. To me, it was interesting to hear him retell his experiences of the joy of being part of an unprecedented theatrical phenomenon at the same time as going through a tragedy in his personal life across the country.

One of the other posters here commented that he's not a great singer. I felt the opposite when I saw this. He sang a snippet of One Song, Glory and I thought to myself that I never realized he was such a great singer. Thought I guess a lot could have changed 11 years and one pandemic later.

Some of the other commenters seemed to feel that it was self-indulgent "woe is me" tripe. I can totally see where people would get that from. It did seem a little self-indulgent that he thought he was important enough to write a memoir and a show about his experiences, but then I found out that he was approached and asked to write the book, and then to turn it into a show. Just something to keep in mind but I don't know if that changes things for anyone.

So anyway, in a nutshell, I'd say that it's worth it for Rent (or Rapp) fans and anyone who enjoyed the book, but general theatre-goers who don't fit into those categories may not care for it.

Won the lottery for this over the weekend - got row G, which is the last row of the orchestra with traditional theatre seating (there are two rows behind with free-standing chairs which were largely empty). It is a very small theatre, no bad seats. I didn't have high expectations, but I grew up on RENT and have a huge soft spot for it, so figured why not given the price.



There is some cool stuff here, but it's very brief and I didn't find it was worth sitting through the rest of the show. One of the original workshop demo tapes for the song Rent is played for less than a minute, some photos that Rapp took during NYTW rehearsals are fuzzily projected on the walls for maybe about a minute (the set is oddly angled so no one can see all of them), and he plays the beginnings of some voicemails that the original cast/crew left him after his mother died. I thought Rapp was a great singer, and enjoyed hearing him sing the show soundtrack/his REM audition song live. The rest of the music is, well...



Rapp portrays the rest of the characters (his mother, Larson, Adam Pascal, etc.) by imitating their voices and it doesn't go that well. The story about Rent is one that we've all heard before. I don't want to deny anyone their grief, but the rest just didn't really hold my attention. I remember his relationship with his mother being much more nuanced and interesting in the book than it is presented here.

inception said: "Oh well...I'm seeing the matinee next Thursday. How long is the run time? Thursday afternoon is pay-what-you-wish at Frick Madison so thought I might head over there afterwards.

"


85 minutes. No intermission.

I bought the book when it came out and read it and loved it. The person that panned the show earlier on this thread also said that the music from RENT was awful, which I totally disagree with. So remember that opinions are like assholes, everyone has one! I don't really feel like revisiting the show right now, but maybe later.



Also, for people feeling sorry that Anthony was in RENT and that was his biggest hit, like someone else said on the thread, he worked a ton and had plenty of gigs like Star Trek. And the people feeling sorry for him, haven't had a hit at all, so being part of RENT or any other hit, is a blessing for an actor's career and very profitable, so I'd channel that energy elsewhere.