Dreaminaret's Review of "WITHOUT YOU" (very few [if any] spoilers)- Page 5

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 1/31/06 at 8:30pm

Okay, tomorrow I'll write my review up. I know I said this yesterday, but I really need to finish my Calculus homeowork.

[EverythingIsRENT]

Posted: 1/31/06 at 8:48pm

how does one get a 'review copy'? I'm confused.

Was able to pick up a copy today ($25! wow!) i'm just about halfway done and just cannot stay up to finish lol but i'll be done tomorrow! I love it so far and the parts dealing with Jonathan made me cry!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/31/06 at 8:57pm

All that means is that they're copies that were released for critics in order to be reviewed. Strand is selling them for half price.

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 1/31/06 at 11:34pm

so THAT'S why they had all those 'review' books... now it makes more sense...

[starletta8]

Posted: 2/1/06 at 4:25pm

To the person who asked about Time Out- I just got my mail and haven't read the whole issue. Paging through it, however, there's not a review under the books section. They are doing a cover story on Broadway, though, with Amanda Peet on the cover. They appear to have done short pieces on different people associated with various productions.

There is, however, a blurb about Without You in the February Jane magazine.

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 2/1/06 at 5:44pm

Yeah I looked today... I'll ask him where he saw it.

[Racetrack]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 2:48pm

Haven't gotten the chance to read it yet, but I got it for my boyfriend for Valentines(don't ask me why) and maybe before Saturday I'll get a peak or two through the book.

[starletta8]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 3:55pm

After reading Time Out, there's no mention of the book.

Entertainment Weekly did review it though...

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 4:31pm

Was EW's a recent review? I didn't see it on their website... care to post it on this board?

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 5:11pm

http://community.livejournal.com/rent/1788961.html#cutid1

For those who can't make it out:

This “Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent” definitely demands an avid interest in the 1996 rock opera. But Rapp’s book is no roar-of-the-crowd, smell-of-the-greasepaint scrapbook; it’s a sprawling, tear-streaked life story and unabashedly sentimental ode to his mother (she died of adrenal cancer in 1997). Rapp’s personal and professional lives were like warped mirror images: As Rent went from workshop to Tony-winning theatrical sensation (Rapp played cynical filmmaker Mark), the actor watched his mother waste away. “I wanted desperately, selfishly, to be there…for her final moments. To live that dramatic deathbed scene from so many movies,” he writes. His prose can be clunky and overwrought, but his voice is unpretentious and unfailingly honest. A rare (and refreshing) occurrence in a showbiz memoir.

And they gave the book a B.

[JLSatUD]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 6:19pm

I just finished it. Check your local bookstore because my Barnes & Noble had it on the shelf already. It's fantastic.

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 2/5/06 at 7:40pm

Thanks fantabulous! I think that their review is pretty accurate though I wish they had written a bit more. A "B" is an honest score especially if you look at how they've graded other new fiction/non-fiction. I'm looking forward to seeing how other sources review the book and if it winds up getting a lot of media coverage. (Right now it's like 175-225 on the B&N bestsellers - and it hasn't even been released yet!)

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 2/6/06 at 8:27pm

Nice article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0602050398feb05,1,563206.story?ctrack=1&cset=true


Rapp adds author to his resume

By Web Behrens
Special to the Tribune
Published February 5, 2006


As Anthony Rapp's book hits store shelves this week, it carries an advantage lacked by most first-time authors: a built-in fan base.

You don't have to search long on the Internet to find conversations among people awaiting his book's release, or eagerly anticipating the chance to meet Rapp as he travels around the country. (The nine-city book tour brings him to Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park on Wednesday.)

How did the rookie author, a Chicago native, garner such a following? Partly because he had the great fortune, when still in his early 20s, to land a starring role in one of the biggest theatrical hits of the past decade. Stories about that experience form the backbone of his publishing debut, "Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent."

Tragic loss

At first glance, the book seems tailor-made for "Rentheads" -- boosters whose love for the revolutionary rock show borders on the obsessive. On the other hand, the tragic, compelling back story to "Rent" extends the book's appeal far beyond the show's fans. Who wouldn't be moved by the poetic fate of its composer, Jonathan Larson? Once a struggling artist, Larson worked for years developing "Rent" but died suddenly in January 1996. The aortic aneurysm struck a few days shy of his 36th birthday -- and just hours after a dress rehearsal that electrified the off-Broadway theater.

Of course, the memoir's title, borrowed from one of Larson's songs, alludes to that narrative. Yet "Without You" extensively explores a second, lesser-known but much deeper loss -- the death of Rapp's mother, to whom he dedicates the book. She succumbed to a long battle with cancer in 1997, but not before witnessing her son flourish in his defining role.

"She always had faith [in me]," recalls Rapp, by telephone from his home in New York City, where both he and his older brother, playwright and filmmaker Adam Rapp, make their home. "I think when you lose your parent, it requires you to have that much more faith in yourself. That's not always easy."

Rapp also writes about his pre-"Rent" understanding of HIV, largely informed by a friend, Ben, who died from AIDS. "Without You" also weaves in a number of other strands, including family stories, anecdotes about various acting gigs and Rapp's coming-out process (which involves an amusing adolescent game of "spin the bottle," also attended by Rapp's childhood friend, comedian Andy Dick).

Born in Chicago's Swedish Covenant Hospital in 1971, Rapp lived in a succession of suburbs but basically grew up in Joliet, where he moved with his mother and siblings after his parents divorced. His acting career began early, first in school productions and community theaters -- playing, for example, the title role in four different mountings of "Oliver!" Soon, people encouraged his mom to bring Anthony to auditions in Chicago. "We didn't know anything," he says. "We just sort of did it."

Mary Lee Rapp (nee Baird) was not a stereotypical stage mother. "It was quite the opposite. I was the one leading the way," Rapp says.

Rapp was in the first national tour of "Evita," he recalls: "That was how I got my Equity card. I was 9." He made his Broadway debut in 1981 in the title role of "The Little Prince," which never made it out of previews, though it led to other things.

"I had actually seen him as a child doing `The Little Prince'," says Robert Falls, artistic director of the Goodman Theatre.

Goodman role

A few years later, when Falls directed the Goodman's 1988 production of John Guare's "Landscape of the Body," he cast Rapp, then a senior in high school, in the pivotal role of the murdered son. "I don't even recall if I had auditions or not. I just think I found out that he was available and I knew his work, had seen his work, so I was just thrilled he could do it," Falls says. "He's obviously a really talented actor, and he was even then."

Even before "Landscape," Rapp had begun his film career, having landed a major role in the 1987 comedy "Adventures in Babysitting," which filmed in Toronto (and a few days in Chicago). Eventually, he performed in another Guare work, "Six Degrees of Separation," both on Broadway and on film; other movie roles ranged from the stoner comedy "Dazed and Confused" to the Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind." But to his many fans, he will always be most identified with the role of Mark Cohen, the struggling filmmaker and sort-of narrator in "Rent," which he re-created for the recent movie directed by Chris Columbus.

"Here's what's amazing about Anthony," recalls Columbus. "When he was 15, he was exactly the same way he was when I met him again for `Rent.' He was very shy, very reserved. But when he actually did a reading for us for `Adventures of Babysitting,' I was amazed at two things: his naturalistic acting ability, and his comic timing, which was superb."

A fan of the musical, Columbus made the refreshing but largely unheard-of choice to cast six of the original performers in the film adaptation. "I met a lot of [other] people for `Rent,' and once I made the decision to go for the original cast, I knew Anthony had to be the first person I got," Columbus says. "To me, he was the glue that held everyone else together."

It's a good time to be a Renthead: In addition to Rapp's book, the DVD comes out Feb. 21; extras include commentary from Columbus, Rapp and co-star Adam Pascal, plus a feature-length documentary about Larson and the musical that puts faces to many of the people Rapp writes about.

Jonathan's dream

"I have no doubt it's making a difference," Rapp says of the film. "I just started doing public events for my book, and I've gone to a couple of colleges and the response has been incredible. One of [Jonathan's] goals was ... to talk about issues and concerns that don't normally get talked about. For a major studio to finance a film that has eight characters, only three of whom are white, four of whom are gay or lesbian and four of whom are HIV-positive, that's amazing."

Looking into his future, Rapp has a number of projects in the works, including the 10th anniversary benefit performance of "Rent" on Broadway that will reunite the original cast for one night only in April. He will also appear in Andy Dick's first film ("It's very meta: I play myself playing him; it's very silly").

Meanwhile, now that he's successfully got one book under his belt, the actor/singer has discovered a new artistic love. Although working on "Without You" was "the hardest thing I've ever done in life, by far ... I'm teasing out a new idea for a novel," Rapp says. He adds with a chuckle, "It's going to be a little lighter in tone. I realized I needed to write something that wasn't quite so emotionally intense."

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Updated On: 2/6/06 at 08:27 PM

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:00am

Anthony gets some crazy confetti for the official release of Without You. Congrats!

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:00am

It's the OFFICIAL release day. Let's storm these boards like the 12 year olds stormed B&N during the Harry Potter release night.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:00am

5, 4, 3, open sesame!

Congratulations, Anthony!!!

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:02am

Props to Emcee for using a Rent quote so well out of context.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:03am

*Golf claps*

Heh.

[opiv]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:14am

YAY!

Congratulations!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 2:40am

Y'all are geeks and that's why I love ya!

[Katt]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 2:56am

I read his book tonight...and it was amazing.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 3:14am

*proudly adds to geekiness*

Here goes..

[jlc6314]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 12:32pm

Yay!

I can't wait to read it this weekend.

Congrats!

Posted: 2/7/06 at 1:40pm

I don't have much to add to the wonderful reviews already posted here; I finished the book last night and really enjoyed it. Maybe some of the initial reviews posted were from a critics copy and maybe the book had been rearranged a bit, but if not, I didn't mind the flow of the story. I felt the Rent stories along with his life and accounts of his mother weaved nicely together.
I found myself tearing up throughout and I was very impressed with his candor and honesty. A great read, and beyond the Rent stuff and his homosexuality, I found the most affecting parts to be about his mother. I just got off the phone with mine; it made me want to be a better son.
Wow, that was dramatic!!! But I realized that time is not always in our favor, so we need to make the most of it while we can.
Whether you're a fan of Rent or not, this is really a great book.
:)

[renthead2]

Posted: 2/7/06 at 2:01pm

I also don't have much to add. I pre-ordered my book so I got it a few days ago. lets just say that I finished it in two days! I loved it so much!