RENT the Broadway Tour in Seattle

Approximately 14 years ago, my mom took me to see a new musical that had recently opened on Broadway. The show was RENT. My mom is very big into theater so over the years she has taken me to probably over 50 shows on Broadway (some of them I have seen 2 or 3 times). My mom instilled in me my own love of Broadway and one of the things that I hate about living away from New York is that I can't just hop on a train to see a show whenever I feel like it. When RENT first opened on Broadway it became an instant overnight success. Tickets were sold out for months in advance, so when my parents were finally able to get tickets, I was ecstatic.

Not only did we have tickets, but we had 3rd row seats, which is sort of the first row (The first 2 rows were only sold on the day of the show, so a third row ticket is the closest you can get when you buy ahead of time.) The day of the show my 2 friends, and my cousin met my mom and me at our house in the morning. I remember the events of the day so clearly. My dad was upstairs watching the news and right before we left, he came downstairs and we had a conversation that went like this:

Dad: "Say hi to Bill for me!"
Me, Mom, friends and cousin: "What?"
Dad: "Its Chelsea Clinton's birthday. The president is going to be in New York City today to celebrate her birthday!"

That was all. Just a simple conversation that we forgot about moments later. NYC is HUGE, so who really cared that the president was going to be there right? There was no way we'd ever see him.

Apparently, we were wrong with that way of thinking. We arrived at 41st Street where the Nederlander Theatre, home of RENT is, and the street was barricaded off so that no one could get on it. We were a little worried because we had tickets to see a show and the street looked like there was no chance in the world we were getting onto it. So my mom asked a police officer who was guarding the street what was going on. His response? "The President is going to see RENT." Now, maybe I'm just a huge nerd, but whether or not you like Bill Clinton, we thought that was pretty unbelievable. Especially since we kind of ignored my dad when he made the comment about the Clinton's being in the city that day. So needless to say, we were still allowed on the street, but only if we had tickets to the show, and only after we went through a series of metal detectors, purse searches and my mom had pepper spray taken away from her.

Once we got to our seats, the theatre was just abuzz with noise as everyone waited for the president to come in. We assumed that he would sit in a box seat, or at least be secluded from everyone somehow, but we were wrong again. We noticed that the 3 rows behind us were empty and we actually sat there talking amongst ourselves saying "There is NO way he's going to sit right behind us." But he did! 2 rows behind us. The row directly behind us was filled with secret service agents, the row behind them had Bill, Hillary, Chelsea and friends, and behind that was another row of secret service agents. I am going to have to dig out my pictures from that day, because we got some good ones!

So the show started and it was quite possibly the greatest show I had ever seen on Broadway. I had already memorized the soundtrack before seeing the show, and had already fallen in love with the characters of Mark and Roger. I was so determined to meet and get autographs from Anthony Rapp, who played Mark, and Adam Pascal, who played Roger. My mom and I always waited by the stage door after shows to get autographs and pictures of the cast. We have done it at every show so it was always assumed that we would do it for any future shows. When we headed into NYC that day, I was determined to get Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal's autograph. Well...that wasn't going to happen. Apparently, when the President of the United States is in the theatre, that means that every single patron is ushered off the street as fast as possible after the show and no one is allowed to wait by the stage door. During intermission of the show we were able to get up and shake the president's hand. We also had Hillary Clinton sign our RENT playbills. So after the show, when we were ushered off the street, my friends and I were soooo disappointed that we didn't get to meet the actors that we adored. We spent the rest of the day whining (we were only 14 or 15 years old), saying things like "I can't believe I couldn't meet Adam Pascal." To which my mom would respond: "Girls...you met the president! Quit whining!"

For the next several years I whined and complained about how I didn't get to meet 2 of my favorite actors. It killed me because so many of my friends from school had gone to seen the play and had met them. So I admit...I was horribly jealous. Then Adam Pascal reappeared on Broadway in the musical AIDA. When AIDA opened, my mom gave me tickets for my birthday. I remember the card because it said something like "I don't know what this play is about, but Adam Pascal is in it, so maybe now you can quit whining!" It was the best birthday present ever :-). I did get to meet Adam Pascal FINALLY after going to see AIDA. A few months later I also got a "job" working for Adam Pascal. He has a few CDs out that are produced through an online only record company. Their website was looking for volunteers to hand out postcards advertising the albums after AIDA let out each day. So I volunteered. I spent about 4 weekends handing out postcards (I think this was in 2000), which also earned me the right to be personally introduced to Adam Pascal in the process. I also saw AIDA 2 more times before he left the show. So I have several nice pictures of Adam Pascal, some with me in them, one is autographed and others are just him. For the moment, I was appeased because I got to meet one of my favorite actors.

That still didn't completely stop my whining though. I still wanted to meet Anthony Rapp. RENT was still playing on Broadway but the cast had changed several times since the original cast left. It figures that once I moved to Corpus Christi, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal revived their roles in the play for a few months. It just wasn't possible for me to get home during that time, so I whined about it. Then the movie version of RENT came out which I cheerfully went to see, but then I spent a few days whining afterwards because the movie stared the original cast, and once again, I was annoyed that I had never met Anthony Rapp.

So fast forward to this past weekend. RENT had a 12 year run on Broadway but it is officially closed now. The Broadway tour is still running though and it came to Seattle this past weekend. The big hype about the Broadway tour? Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp came back to revive their original roles again. I was soooo excited when I heard this. This is apparently a huge deal that they are back too because the show is being advertised as "Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp in RENT the Broadway Tour". The original show never had any "stars". No one person was advertised in the advertisements for it, so I was pretty excited to see their names on the marquee.

We went to the 2:00 matinee showing this past Saturday and I had a blast! I felt like a little kid because I was so excited to see my favorite actors live on stage again! I also realized that it has been 14 years since I first saw the play on Broadway! I didn't realize it had been that long, but I do feel kind of pathetic that I have been whining for 14 years about not being able to meet Anthony Rapp. So of course, when the show was over, I raced out of the theatre to find the stage door. My friends followed but I am convinced that they think I'm crazy. I was shocked at the huge crowd that gathered at the stage door. I just wasn't expecting 2 Broadway stars to have such a huge fan base on the West Coast (although they were in the movie version), but everyone waiting out there was waiting to see them.

So now I can finally say, that after 14 years, I finally got the autographs that I wanted! Not only did I finally get an autograph from Anthony Rapp, but I added another Adam Pascal one to my collection too. Even that one was exciting to me because I became his fan because of RENT and now I finally had his autograph on a RENT playbill.

I don't think my friends were as excited as me and I don't think they really understand WHY I was and still am so excited! But I am thankful that they humored me though, and one of them even took pictures for me. All in all...it was a great day. Now I can say that I met the President AND Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal :-)!

(Yay for Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp getting their names on the marquee!)

(Adam Pascal signing my playbill...thats the back of my head and I look really far away in this picture but I was only about a foot away from him.)

(Adam Pascal)

(Adam Pascal)

(Adam Pascal)

(Anthony Rapp signing my playbill - FINALLY! :-))

(Anthony Rapp)

(Anthony Rapp)

Long Awaited Daniel Radcliffe Pictures

I'm really bad about writing things in order as they happen, and about remembering to write about things in general. If you remember reading a few weeks ago that I was able to meet Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) and get his autograph,after seeing him on Broadway in Equus, then you also remember that I promised pictures! So for your viewing pleasure, here are a few of the best pictures that I have:

(walking out of the stage door of the Broadhurst Theatre)


(that's my hair in the right side of the picture)

(This is actually him signing my Playbill. Not the best picture, but it was hard with so many people and so much security. You can see his hat though, as he was looking down and signing it for me :-).)

(high fiving one of the super obnoxious high school girls next to us)

(Richard Griffiths - aka Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter movies)

So I have to admit that I'm still a little starstruck about meeting him. Is it ok to be starstruck about a guy who's about 9 years younger than me?

Harry Potter Take 2

Today is going to be a busy day so I will make this quick, and then post more details when I get back to Washington in a week. Tomorrow we leave for Louisiana where the only internet access I'll have will be via my cell phone. It has a full keyboard but its still annoying to type on so I doubt I'll update this much, if at all.

Soooo...Yesterday we went back to New York, back to the TKTS booth, and purchased half price tickets to see Equus again. We knew the routine with the autograph session this time around, so the second the play ended, we bolted out the door to be one of the first people allowed into the baricade outside. This time around was a little annoying because it seemed like every high school girl in the world was there last night. I guess on Thursday night we saw a more adult crowd, but this time around, on a Saturday night, all the children were out. So we made it to the baricade, showed our tickets, had them signed off by the security guard and then planted ourselves right at the front of the baricade. I was impressed with my own ability to push back on the people who were trying to push to get to the front of the crowd. Even with ice on the ground, I managed to plant my feet steadily and ignore every screaming high school girl around me, while holding onto the baricade for dear life.

First out of the stage door was Richard Griffiths who played the psychologist in Equus. He may also be known to you as Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter movies. We were able to get his autograph on Thursday night but I didn't realize who he was until we looked him up once getting home. His bio in the Equus playbill says that he was also in all of the Harry Potter movies, and now that I know he was Uncle Vernon, I feel stupid for not realizing that in the first place since he looks just like him! Anyway, we got his autograph again and took some pictures and then he was whisked away into his waiting car.

Next out of the stage door - Daniel Radcliffe!!! The security guards outside kept yelling warnings to the crowd at the baricade. They told us that the second people start pushing hard, the baricade will be removed, Daniel will be thrown into the waiting car, and no one would get autographs. Based on the insanity of the people at the show last night, I am surprised that we managed to get autographs because no one seemed to want to listen to the "no pushing" rule. Thanks to myself and a few others at the front of the baricade, we managed to steady it each time it lurched forward. No one was trampled, and I got my Daniel Radcliffe autograph, plus a short conversation consisting of:
me: "Thank you so much!" (after he signed my Playbill)
him: "Oh you're welcome!"

Yes, I may not be a screaming insane high school girl, but I do still manage to get starstruck and lose the ability to speak whenever I meet someone famous.

Mr. V did better with the conversation part. His conversation went something like:
Mr. V: "We really love the play."
D.R. "Oh thank you so much!"
Mr. V: "Yeah this is the second time we've seen it."
D.R. "Oh? Wow thats great! Thanks!"
Mr. "Yep we were here 2 nights ago and you did an amazing job."
D.R. "Well thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!"

Then he went off to the screaming girls next to us who proceded to converse with him in what I find to be the most annoying way: "Oh. My. Gawd. I like, LOVE you! OH MY GOD, can I give you a high 5?" (Daniel gives her a high 5) and she shrieks "EEEEEE You're awesome!"

I give him major props for walking out of that stage door with a smile on his face every night. We were able to see him and take pictures the first time we were there, but since we were at the front of the crowd this time, I was very surprised and happy to see that he does talk to everyone out there and he seems genuinely happy that people want to see him. He didn't say a whole lot (mainly a bunch of "thank yous"), but he did respond to everything people said to him and I think thats pretty nice of him, considering the attitude of some famous actors out there.

I really want to post pictures, but once again, I'm at my dad's house and I'm trying to not be irritated about the fact that his computer is ancient and I can't plug my memory card into it, and I forgot the camera connection wire in Washington. I promise that when I get back to Washington in a week, I'll post pictures. I'll also post the 2 second video that we accidently took of him. Mr. V pressed the wrong button on the camera, and the result was a short video. After seeing that, I wished we had taken more video because you can really see him interacting with people in it. At least we have 2 seconds though :-).

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season!! I'll post more in a little over a week!

Harry Potter, Horses, and Snow

Yesterday was a very exciting day. I grew up going to Broadway shows all the time. I used to see at least one show every 2 months or so. Since leaving New Jersey, my Broadway trips have been few and far between, so when I do come back home I always make a point of going to see a show in New York City.

A little over a year ago (or maybe more) I heard that Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter, was starring in the London revival of Equus. Equus is a strange play. I encourage you to click on the link to find out more about it, but in short, the play is about a disturbed 17 year old boy, who has sexual fantasies about horses (and acts some of them out), which leads him to blind 7 horses with a pick, which causes him to end up in a mental hospital. Disturbing? Yes. Good? Amazing! I took a Contemporary Theatre class during my first year of college and we had read Equus in the class. So I was pretty darn excited when I found out over the summer that Equus would be leaving London, and opening on Broadway here in New York. Daniel Radcliffe would be coming here with the production to continue his role as Alan Strang.

When Mr. V and I heard that Daniel Radcliffe would be on Broadway in New York, we decided to see the show if we had a chance to. So yesterday we headed off to NYC, stopped at the TKTS booth where we bought half price tickets to the show, then sat in the 10th row (amazing seats!) and watched the play.

Both of us are huge Harry Potter fans, and while I understand that Daniel was preforming in this role to show that he can be someone other than Harry Potter, it still excited me to see "Harry Potter" live on stage. He is an amazing actor and even though I love the way he acts in the Harry Potter movies, I was still surprised to see how well he portrayed this disturbed young man in the play. The show has gotten very good reviews in both London and New York, and I have to agree with those reviews.

This play is definitely NOT for people looking to see Harry Potter. There is nothing cute about the play. Its a deeply disturbing story, which ends with a 10 minute scene of a naked Daniel Radcliffe. And yes, I have to admit I was very excited to see that part of the play. I realize I'm 27 years old and he is 19 (or is he 20 now?), but I still think he's pretty hot, so disturbing or not, seeing "Harry Potter" naked on stage was something not many people can say they have seen :-).

After the show we went outside to see if we could get an autograph and a picture. Thankfully, I insisted on racing out of the theatre to be at the stage door before the large crowd appeared. I have never in my life seen so much security for an actor on Broadway. I've stood at many stage doors and gotten many autographs and nothing even comes close to the security for the young Harry Potter star. A security guard outside checked ticket stubs to make sure we had seen the play on that very day and time. Then he checked off the stubs, and ushered us into a small barricaded area. Unfortunately, the area was small, so not everyone was able to get into it, and a small force of security guards and police officers ordered everyone else off of the street. We managed to get into the barricaded area, so we were there when he came outside to sign autographs. We got a few decent pictures of him, but were unable to get an autograph. He was ushered through the crowd into a car that was conveniently blocking any access to the stage door within minutes. He did sign autographs for the people he could reach, before his security team whisked him away.If we had been standing at the front of the barricade we would have easily gotten an autograph but we were blocked by a few people and couldn't reach through. However, the pictures we got make up for that. (Don't even get me started on the people who came to watch the play, then had Harry Potter books and pictures for him to sign. I personally found that rude since he was trying to break out of the Harry Potter role. I know a lot of people saw him because of Harry Potter, but to me it seemed insulting to have him autograph something for a show that he wasn't currently in. I would think he would want praise and excitement about Equus right now, not Harry Potter.)

Since I am clearly a pathetic obsessed fan, Mr. V and I are going to go back to New York tomorrow to buy cheap tickets for the show again. Now that we know how the barricade/autograph session works, we are convinced that we can get outside in time to get to the front of the barricade, and I think the price is worth it.

I am currently at my dad's house in New Jersey and his computer doesn't have a spot where I can plug in my camera's memory card, and we didn't bring the connection wire with us to do it, so pictures are going to have to wait until we get back to Washington in a little over a week.

Meanwhile, I keep getting emails and phone calls from friends that are still in Washington about all the snow that is there! I can't believe I'm home in a state where it does snow, and all I am seeing is rain. Yet in Oak Harbor, where it rarely snows, the street leading to my house is closed off, 8 inches of snow is in the yard and my petsitter took a bus to my house, then got stranded at my house overnight when the Whidbey busses stopped running.

I have to admit that I am pretty disappointed that I'm missing all of that snow. Mr. V is even more upset and has been following the Oak Harbor news since we've left. He's pretty upset to know that even more snow is supposed to be coming in the next few days, but by the time we get back it should all be melted.

In my opinion, seeing Daniel Radcliffe naked is 10 times better than seeing snow, but I do hope that some people who are still in Oak Harbor are taking pictures so I can see what it looks like! Apparently, the small amount of snow that I was excited about a few days before we left is nothing compared to whats there now.

On a completely random side note, while watching Equus last night it occurred to me that Mr. V will be deployed when the new Harry Potter movie comes out. Anyone feel like seeing it with me? :-)

Catawba on Broadway

Shortly after learning that I would be moving to Washington, I got a message from an old college classmate of mine. It turns out that she lives in Anacortes, which is just north of where I live in Oak Harbor. In fact, its so close that Navy people stationed here live in both towns. I was quite excited about this information because 1. It was totally random - a girl from Virginia who went to college in North Carolina, somehow ended up in the random town of Anacortes, Washington with no connection to the Navy. 2. I didn't know a single person up here and I was not happy about moving here so knowing that an old college friend was here made me feel a little better about the move. After arriving here I saw her within the first 2 weeks that I was here. We went to dinner at a great restaurant in Anacortes (I would post the name but I can't remember it offhand) and then watched Michael Phelps take another gold medal in the Olympics. We've kept in touch but both of our schedules have been busy so we hadn't seen each other again until last night.

To make things even more random, we found out that another college friend of ours was performing in the Broadway touring production of Hairspray , which was going to be coming to Vancouver, British Columbia. Catawba may have been a small college, but we had an amazing, large, successful Theatre program which has sent several graduates onto Broadway, TV and movies over the years. Anthony Johnson, a 2005 Catawba graduate was playing the role of IQ in Hairspray. My friend in Anacortes asked me to go see the show with her, so last night we were on the road to Vancouver, British Columbia to support and cheer for a fellow alumni :-).

I am someone who has been a huge Broadway fan for many, many years. I grew up very close to New York City and my mom has taken me to see over 25 shows over the years. I was always a person you could find standing outside of the stage door, collecting autographs and pictures of the cast. I always read the cast bios inside of the Playbill because I like to see where everyone has come from and how they ended up on Broadway in the first place. Imagine our excitment when my friend and I read Anthony's biography and saw that he wrote that he was a graduate of Catawba College. The school is so small, so I imagine that anyone reading that will either glance over it without a second thought, or they will wonder "where in the world is Catawba College?" However, for my friend and I, it was exciting to both of us to see our alma mater mentioned in a Broadway playbill.

Its hard to describe the excitement of seeing someone that I actually know, performing on a stage that to me always seemed so intangible. Granted, the stage was in Vancouver, not New York City, but a Broadway touring cast is still Broadway, even if its been taken out of NYC. My friend and I were both so excited and proud of Anthony. All night she kept saying "I am sooo proud of him" with a huge smile on her face. I shared that excitement with her. When the show was over, we went to the stage door to say "hi" to Anthony. It was the first time that I ever stood at that door, knowing that I was friends with the person who was about to walk out the door. While we waited for him to come out, we watched a crowd of people gathering autographs and it made my friend and I both giddy and excited that we weren't just fans. We were actually friends. It was an odd feeling to be somewhat starstruck with a person that we knew, but we were. When he came out, we were greeted with huge hugs and a kiss on the cheek and a grateful "thank you so much for coming!" He told us that it was exciting to be on the stage knowing that friends of his were out in the audience watching him. He also told us that we were his first friends to see him in this particular production. Between our excitement, giddyness, and being stupidly starstruck, we were equally happy to know that we were the first to see him in this role, and that he seemed genuinely happy to see us there.

Unfortunately, we didn't get much time with him, since we had to get back on the road to Washington, and he had to head off with the rest of the cast. The show is moving onto several other places in Canada, and many cities across the United States. I strongly urge anyone who has even a slight interest in musical theatre to go out and support Anthony, and say hi to him at the end of the show at the stage door. His role in the show may be small, but he is a talented, down to earth young man who I truly believe will go far in his acting career. When he's big and famous one day, I will be able to say "I went to college with him. I knew him back then."

So to close, I just wanted to say to Anthony, "Congratulations! You were amazing!" once again. I'm sad to say that today is the last day of the show in Vancouver, because I would have loved to have seen it again. Meanwhile, please check out the tour website and Anthony's YouTube page and please show your support and encouragement to this talented person!
Anthony Johnson - You Tube
Hairspray on Tour