“To being an us for once instead of a them – la vie boheme!”

“Oh, I’m not… I’m just here to… I don’t have… I’m here with… Mark! Mark! I’m Mark! Well, this is quite an operation…”

When Mark Cohen sings these words in the song “Life Support” from the Broadway musical Rent, the audience gets a sense that at that point in the show the aspiring filmmaker is almost painfully unsure of himself (fellow Rent-heads know that he grows out of this as the show goes on). That initial insecurity, however, is not something I felt when listening to the man who originated that role – Anthony Rapp.

Rapp spoke candidly at Southern Connecticut State University Wednesday night for a pretty packed house in the Michael J. Adanti Student Center Theatre. The actor/singer/writer has been touring the country over the past year and a half to promote his book “Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent” as well as the Broadway production and film adaptation. More than all that, though, he painted a moving scene of what it has been like to be a part of something that is almost as tragic as it is successful.

Back in 1994, Rapp was working at a Starbucks while trying to find work. He met with a new agent who immediately gave him a breakdown for an audition. It was for a workshop performance of a new rock opera called Rent. A skeptical Rapp auditioned with R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” and although he accidentally skipped a verse in the song, he was asked to come back. He went on to receive the role of Mark Cohen for that workshop and would maintain the role for the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of the musical, reprising it once again for the film adaptation.

Throughout the show’s evolution, Rapp befriended the show’s creator Jonathan Larson. The power of Larson’s lyrics resonated with the cast members and they poured themselves into Rent. On January 25, 1996, the evening of the final Off-Broadway dress rehearsal and the night before the show’s first preview, 35-year old Larson died of an aortic aneurism. It took everyone by surprise, and the cast (along with Larson’s family and friends) knew that they needed to make the show a great success to do justice to his creative genius.

Rent went on to win Tony awards and a Pulitzer Prize, and continues to enjoy great success as it nears the opening of its 11th season on Broadway. Rapp said that it is currently number seven in the top ten longest running Broadway musicals of all time. But of course, the show’s success comes at a cost.

“All of the elation of the show was tempered by the bittersweet knowledge that [Larson] wasn’t there,” Rapp told the SCSU audience.

He said that all of the original cast members (which include Daphne Rubin Vega, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin and Wilson Jermaine Heredia) know that they are forever changed as a result of their roles in the show.

“It’s continued to be this gift in all of our lives,” Rapp said. “The success of Rent has really validated everything I believe in.”

When asked how it feels to be a part of such a major piece of theater history and contemporary pop culture, Rapp answered humbly. “It’s an honor.”

*blog title taken from Rent's "La Vie Boheme"*