On Friday, June 3, 2016, the enthusiastic crowd of theater fans at Toms River, NJ’s Grunin Center of the Arts was treated to a unique 20th anniversary reunion concert featuring Adam Pascal and Daphne Rubin-Vega, the original “Roger” and “Mimi” from the revolutionary Broadway musical, Rent.
Created by Jonathan Larson, Rent, which originally premiered on Broadway on April 29, 1996, was based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera, La Boheme. The musical tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists who struggle to create a life in NYC’s East Village under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Larson’s intent with his groundbreaking script and songs was to create a rock opera that would bring live musical theater to the MTV generation.
From the moment of its inception, Rent featured two relative unknowns. Adam Pascal was a rock singer from Long Island who auditioned for the production on a whim after hearing about it from a high school friend. Panamian-born Daphne Rubin-Vega tried out for the show even though she was not a fan of musicals; her background was in theater and comedy. Both were chosen for their strong identifications with their characters; Pascal, with his authentic rock voice, was chosen to play the part of “Roger,” the struggling musician, and Rubin-Vega, with her Bohemian East Village persona, became “Mimi,” the free-spirited dancer.
This one-of-a-kind celebration at the Grunin Center of Rent’s 20th anniversary opened with Mr. Pascal performing a solo set of musical numbers. With electric guitar in hand and access to electronic bass and drum accompaniment at his feet, Pascal told stories and sang some of his best-loved Broadway songs.
Pascal’s 30-minute set consisted primarily of tunes that, as he explained, were songs he either performed on Broadway or listened to his “mainly female” colleagues sing while he was on stage in character in a variety of shows including Chicago, Aida, and Memphis. Certainly a brave venture for any Broadway vocalist to sing alone for a half hour on stage without an orchestra, Mr. Pascal’s chest voice and falcetto were clearly on display in this intimate concert setting. Overall, his voice was expressive, controlled, and well-nuanced; moreover, his guitar-playing skills were accomplished to the point of making his electronic rhythm section accompaniment superfluous. That said, during the set, Pascal continued on with such musical augmentation, even joking with the audience, “This is the first time you’ve heard ‘Maybe This Time’ from Cabaret with a drum machine.”
Many female fans in this enthusiastic audience of mainly 30-somethings responded to Pascal’s live performance like schoolgirls. And, in fact, some of the audience members did first experience Pascal live on Broadway as schoolgirls!
For instance, two lifelong friends in the audience — Krysten and Adrianna, both Jersey girls — first saw Pascal and Rubin-Vega star together in Rent when they were only 13 years old; according to the pair, during the first year of its production, the girls saw Rent “at least a dozen times,” transported to New York City by their parents from their homes in NJ. Ironically, 2o years later at the Grunin Center, the young women were also accompanied by a parent who grew to love the show and wanted to enjoy the experience again at this very special 20th anniversary commemorative performance.
Following Mr. Pascal’s set, Daphne Rubin-Vega took the stage running with a dynamic version of one of her signature songs from Rent, “Out Tonight,” complete with enthusiastic spontaneous singing from many in the audience on the songs’ ubiquitous “Ooouuuts.”
Along with her talented guitarist, David Malachowski, Rubin-Vega performed a variety of tunes including Led Zeppelin’s “Tangerine” and Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” in addition to several original compositions — “90 Miles,” which she wrote while shooting the 1998 film, Wild Things, with Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Murray, and “Broken,” an original song which she revealed was autobiographical in nature, singing, “Can’t get fixed until you’re broken/Can’t get fixed ’til you’re down and out…’til you’re broken like I’m broken.”
Throughout her entire 30-minute set, Ms. Rubin-Vega used her theatrical skills to truly “put on a show” for the enthusiastic crowd. But she also suggested to her legion of long-time fans that, for her, performing tends to be more about teaching audiences than simply entertaining them when she commented, “When we create art, we educate — if we’re artists.”
At the end of Rubin-Vega’s set, Mr. Pascal returned to the stage to perform one of his emblematic songs from Rent, The Police-like rocker, “One Song Glory,” after which he and Rubin-Vega joined each other on stage to perform several songs they made famous together. For example, the duo thrilled the crowd when they broke into their signature Rent duet, “Will You Light My Candle?”
They continued with other songs from Rent including the exciting “Another Day” and the poignant “No Day But Today,” some accompanied by Mr. Malachowski and some featuring both Pascal on electric guitar and Malachowski on acoustic guitar.
Watching Pascal and Rubin-Vega work made it abundantly clear to those in the audience that despite the passage of 20 years, this couple still loves to perform together. Like a hand in a glove, their duet performances fit together perfectly and sparkled with professionalism in terms of musicality, vocal blend, theatricality, energy, and pure fun!
To conclude the evening, the trio of Pascal, Rubin-Vega, and Malechowski started to perform a surprise tribute to Prince. The surprise, however, turned out to be on them as — with no prior knowledge of what was to take place — one of the other original cast members from Rent who had been quietly enjoying the show as a part of the audience — Freddi Walker-Brown, who originated the role of “Joanne,” the partner to Idina Menzel’s “Maureen” — arose out of the orchestra, strolled down the aisle singing, and joined the group on stage to perform “Purple Rain!”
All in all, it was a fitting conclusion to an enjoyable evening of music for Broadway fans who came to celebrate a milestone event in modern-day musical theater at NJ’s Grunin Center of the Arts.
For more information on Adam Pascal — including info about his upcoming performance with original Rent cast member, Anthony Rapp, and his latest music CD, Blinding Light, with his band, Me and Larry, also featuring Larry Edoff — please see Adam Pascal on Facebook. For more information on Daphne Rubin Vega, please see daphnerubin-vega.com. For info on future performances at The Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts, located on the campus of Ocean County College in Toms River, NJ, please see grunincenter.org.
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