November 6, 2025 • 43 mins
'Roger Davis' from the original Broadway and big-screen version of "Rent" is on the pod!
Faithful listeners know that "Rent" is Jenna's favorite musical of all time, so you can't blame her for gushing over Adam Pascal! The stage icon opens up about the musicals that shaped him, how "Rent" came to him, the audition process, and his hilarious first reaction to the show's music! Plus, he shares some behind-the-scenes stories about the big-screen version, including the collaborative process with director Chris Columbus, his thoughts on the changes made for the screen, and the scene he wishes had not been cut!
For fun, exclusive content, and behind-the-scenes scoop, be sure to follow us on Instagram @andthatswhatyoureallymissedpod & TikTok @thatswhatyoureallymissed.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to and that's what you're in this podcast. It's
Jenna without Kevin.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Boohoo.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
We're missing Kevin right now. He's actually deep in tech
at spelling Bees. So I took this one. I actually
stole this one from him because we have one of
my childhood heroes, Adam Pascal is here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
We one and only Roger from Wren.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Also, one of my other favorite musicals he started was Aida,
and then he also was in Chess at the Royal
Albert Hall, which ironically out now Liah is in New York,
so full Star called there and we have a really
lovely conversation. He's a wonderful human being and I'm just
(00:51):
so please.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That I got to meet him and interview him by myself. Sorry, Kevin,
enjoy the interview, Saudi. How are you great?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm good? Thank you, thank you so much for joining me.
I'm sorry Kevin couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Be here, but he sends his thanks. And we just
watched the movie yesterday, so.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh you did? OK?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Think I've seen it literally since I went to the premiere.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Oh my gosh, Wow, that's a long time ago. Well,
I'm so excited for you to be here. I have
to say, if you told like fourteen year old Jenna
that she'd be talking to Adam Pascal, I think I
would have probably like thrown a shoe at myself or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So that's very sweet if you think you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Are just an icon in the Broadway history books, and
thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
We are just wildly talented and just so I was
like yesterday I was.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Saying you, you and Wren and all the pieces that
you were a part of like really raised me.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's so very exciting to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I appreciate that. And I can tell you that from
my own experience, I had a very similar upbringing with
the movies of Hair and the Rocky Horror Pictures Show.
So both of those movies for me were you know,
And it's really it's great because it's such a full
circle moment for me because because I had that experience
(02:25):
with those shows, and specifically we're talking about the movie.
So I've never seen Hair on stage. I've seen the
movie about one hundred and fifty times, but I've never
seen it on stage. And Rocky Horror, same thing. I've
only ever seen the movie, but seen it so many times,
and both of those movies had such a visceral effect
on me as a kid growing up, yeah, and having
(02:48):
never seen them on stage. And so then cut to
the movie, the Rent movie. So the Rent we had
a very similar well I'll backtrack, So a lot of
kids coming up to me who have only ever seen
the movie and they've never seen on stage, and they
are affected by the film in the way that I
was affected by Hair.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Right, So there's like a touch point there, something that
you can understand what they're yeah, holding on to.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And both of those movies had a very similar trajectory
in that they were both widely popular on Broadway. Then
they were transferred to film and had sort of moderate
success and divided the fans of like, you know, some
people loved it, some people hated it. Same with critics
and all the stuff. So it was a very similar,
very similar reaction by the fan base that Hairhead.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, I we'll definitely get into more of the Rent movie,
but I just wanted to backtrack a little bit. I
see you're from Woodbury. I am also from Long Island
as well. So hell, yeah, I'm from East Meadow, of course. Yeah,
And I went to Holy Trinity High School, which had
a wonderful theater department at the time, and it was
just like we did a million shows a year, and
(03:59):
I just yeah, Long Islander, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, And I've been back there a lot. I'm actually
I've been teaching at Long Island University and directing the
show at Long Island University and so wow, my sister
still lives at Huntington. I was just there, yeah to go,
So yeah, love them funny.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So you started out more as a music artist versus
like a stage actor, is that right?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? Yeah. So I grew up on Long Island at
in New York City, and I grew up playing in
rock bands. Wow, yeah, I was. I spent you know,
my my high school years, my college years playing in bands,
playing all the all the clubs in the city, and
you know, doing that whole circuit and trying to get
a record deal and trying to become a rock star.
(04:44):
You know. That was that was what I was focused
on in those years, and and theater was not something
that I had ever considered as a career path because
quite frankly, for people like me at the time, it
wasn't a career path right back in the mid nineties,
you know, there wasn't a plethora of people that kind
of came out of nowhere and didn't have any training
and all of a sudden they're on Broadway, Like I
(05:05):
might have been the first one. So you know, like
so it just never occurred that that that would be
something I could pursue. And until it happened that I realized,
oh wow, this is but but you know, it's it's
it became so it became such a logical extension to
(05:26):
who I was, you know, and and and and it
and also the way that I sing. I used to
get from guys and bands all the time they're like,
stop singing with amos vibrato, Like I'm sorry, man, that's
how I sing, you know, I think you know, I
always had you know, it was always that kind of
(05:46):
rock but sort of you know, I don't want to
say Broadway sounding, but you know, sort of a bigger
sounding voice, you know, because those are the guys that
I was attracted to as growing up as as as singers.
You know, all of these you know, high tenor and
I'm not a high tenor but all of these you
know high tenor Freddy Likedy exactly for Mercury and Steve
(06:07):
Perry and and you know Lou Graham and all of
these guys that were my heroes, you know, and I
just I just screamed my head off for hours a
day for years, you know, trying to sound like them.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
What a perfect departure, I guess or transition into Rent, though, yes,
you know, what a perfect score and like what music
to sing? So how did how did Rent come to you?
And what was that whole journey?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Like? So, Idina Menzielle and I grew up down the
street from each other. She is also a ssiasid High
school graduate, Right.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I forgot about that?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yes, so so I. Dina and her boyfriend at the time, Glenn,
she had been cast in the show and they and
and so she knew that they were having trouble h
casting the role of Roger, and so they thought of
me and they were like, he's a rock singer whatever.
They called me up. They were like, a, Dina's doing
the show. It's gonna run like four weeks off Broadway,
(07:09):
and is it something you'd never be interested in auditioning for?
And I was like, well, I've never auditioned for anything before.
What do I do? They They're like, I think you
just go down with your guitar and sing a song.
And I was like, all right, sure. You know, I
had just broken up with the band that I'd been
with all of those years, and I was like looking
for my next thing. I certainly never thought that, you know,
I always thought my next thing would just be another band.
(07:29):
But that's you know, but this opportunity came along and
it just, you know, one thing just led to another
and and it all of you know, I have four
auditions in that week, and then by the end of
the week, you know, they had given me the part.
And you know, I often get asked like, oh my god,
what what was your reaction when you got cast? Is
Roger and Rent And I have to remind people that, like,
(07:51):
it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Later exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
My reaction was how am I going to keep my job?
How many go to rehearsals and keep this job?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
You know?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So right, yeah, I mean there's something to that, right,
Like people always ask us like did you know it
was special?
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Or like, what was it like getting cast in the show?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
And you know, you can only hope that something special
happens with it, but that's not really what you're hoping for.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You're hoping for a really.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Good time and to have a great job and you know,
to do good work.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And lots of experiences are very special. They don't necessarily
go on to be huge successes, but they're still there.
They can be equally memorable as memorable and special, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Now I'm curious, though, like, because you you were there
from the beginning and the inception of this thing that
is now rent, Like, what was it like hearing that
music for the first time and needing Jonathan, and like
who was he at this point to you? Like, because
so few people get to talk about him and experience him,
(08:50):
because you know, it was so tragic.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
But my, my, I, as you can imagine, I get
asked this often and my answer is usually disappointing to people,
which is that I didn't know Jonathan that well. I
knew John I was cast in the show in you know,
the December of ninety five, so at the end, and
Jonathan passed away in January, right six, so I only
(09:16):
knew him for like four weeks, you know, and during
most of that time we were in rehearsal and we
were working, so there wasn't a lot of socializing going on.
So I unfortunately, like everybody else, right out on his presence,
you know, in my in all of our lives, and
(09:36):
so you know, the few times I sat with him
and talked with him were great, and he was a
lovely guy. I wish I knew him better, you know, Yeah,
like everybody else wish they knew you know.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And yeah, no, that makes total sense.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I mean, I'm I'm curious though, like because he became
so he became so infamous after for his his work
and his art, and you guys got to keep that alive, right,
and you got to almost see him as the figure
that he never got to see himself as. What was
(10:10):
like that journey like after and the successive rent after
you guys opened and you went a Broadway and you
know that kind of like momentum went right, I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
It was, it was. It was so much bittersweet irony,
you know, like like exactly, like especially with my character
in particular, because my character was the musician and you know,
and my character was the character who's you know, one
desire in the show, in the story was to create
some something wonderful. He wanted to write a song that
people would remember after he was gone, you know, yeah,
(10:43):
and that was what he was striving for. That's what
kept him, That's what kept him motivated, and that's what
kept Jonathan motivated. And it was it was the show
that Jonathan wrote. And then he ended up in many
ways living that well or not living through that experience,
you know, by but but but he but he achieved
(11:04):
what he wanted to achieve. He just didn't see it,
you know. But but but again, if you think about
the character, the whole thing was what to achieve it
after I'm gone, you know what I mean? He literally
did that. And then for me personally, you know, I
always wanted to be a songwriter and an artist and
(11:24):
a singer and all of those things. And I, through
that character and that song, also achieved the things that
I was striving for by by now being connected so
closely with that show and that music and specifically again
that song about what he's saying. So it's it's there's
(11:45):
so much sort of intercellular connection between the show, me, Jonathan's,
that song, all of that stuff. It's it's it's it's
been I've thought about it a lot over the year.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
And then even like the the tic tic boom of
it all, where you get to see that journey, but
we didn't get to see him in that time. Like
it's just it's really, I don't know, it's very it's
beautiful and tragic and special in all the ways. And
you were just so deeply connected with it, so so fascinating.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
But you asked before when I thought about the music,
you know, when I first heard the music, I have
to be honest, I was so the first thing I
heard was so I went and auditioned, and and and
after my first audition, they gave me, Bernie Telsey gave
me a cassette copy of one song, Glory to go
home and learn. And it was it was Jonathan Larson
singing it, you know, and on his little t and
(12:38):
Jonathan was not a great singer, and so and I was.
I was kind of underwhelmed. I was like, this is
a rock musical, quite so, and I and and and
then I remember, of course, and then it grew on me,
and once I started to sing it, it started to
make sense to me, you know. So yeah, on an
emotional and musical level. But and then I remember starting rehearsals.
(13:00):
The first song we learned together was Seasons of Love,
and I was like, these are the weirdest lyrics, all
these numbers and all this stuff like it was so
it was so weird to me.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And then you heard love you whatever You're like.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I was like, what is all this stuff? They literally
gave us like a you know, an information sheet so
that we would know who all of these people that
we were talking about.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
That's funny. Yeah, the dramaturgy of it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Oh yeah, I didn't have these references, you know, I
didn't know what they were. And so, yes, the music
it was it was interesting. Look, I came from a
world of you know, certainly at that time, this is
mid nineties, I was I was head over into Sound
Garden and Pearl Jam and you know, yeah chains and
all of that stuff like that was the rock music
(13:46):
that I was listening to at the time. So when
I heard rock musical, of course, I was expecting to
hear something along those lines. And clearly that's not the
case now.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But there's just so the show is so beautifully dynamic
and newtin from the sung dialogue, you know of the
the opera of it all, but then there's these like
beautifully melodic songs and you know, like what you own
and you know, I'll cover you all. It's just it's
absolutely brilliant and obviously everybody you know, that's why it's
such a massive hit that lives on forever. But you
(14:18):
guys really did like reinvent what Broadway could be for
a lot of artists and a lot of producers and
creatives to say, like, oh wow, like Broadway doesn't have
to be Rogers and Hammerstein, it doesn't have to be
you know, these insanely classical, you know, traditional music. So
I'm curious, like that must have been very exciting for
(14:39):
you as a rock artist and a rock fan, and
but what would do you remember what that was like
in the time when when you guys were around and
when it started to really like some momentum started to hit.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, I mean it's only in hindsight that you can
see the effect that it happened on the art form
and everything that came after us. At the time, it was,
you know, there was so much going on so fast,
all at once. You know, I'm sure you can ask
any of any of the kids that were in Hamilton,
you know, and like it's just there's so much happening
(15:12):
every night, every night, you know what I mean. And
then on top of that, of course, you know, Jonathan
died and so like you know, am envious of all
those kids in Hamilton is that they didn't have this
looming black cloud over their experience in the same way
that we, you know, and the maybe self inflicted burden
of need to feel to carry that weight and that
(15:36):
message and Jonathan and what he was trying to do
and all of that stuff. You know, like we internally
that we really felt like we were the champions of that.
And you know, and I tell you know, I work
with so many students and so many kids, especially working
on that show, and I always say to them, look,
it is not your responsibility to carry any burden, to
to to put forth any message. It's your job to
(15:57):
have fun and tell a story. If an audience going
to get a message from it, great, but it's not
your job to cram it down their throat or feel
like it's your responsibility to carry that because it's not
for actors. And you know, and I wish I could
have told the old me that thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Wow. Wow, that's profound fun fact.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I was actually opening on Broadway the same year you
guys open event.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I was doing The King and I Danille Simon in six.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Okay, So okay, I'm gonna tell you a funny story.
Then you'll appreciate this. It's not my story, it's Anthony Repp, Okay,
but it's one of my favorite stories, and I always
make him tell it. So when Anthony was a little kid,
he he was in The King and I on the
national tour. I think it was like one of his
first jobs. So now I don't I'm not familiar with
the show. So I'm going to explain something to you,
and you're gonna know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
At the end of the show, the King is laid
out and I and I dying or he's dead or
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, he's died.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yes, And a little kid comes comes and says something
like mother, the ship is something like this. Some kid
says something right, So that was yes, right, yeah, So
he comes out to deliver his line and he goes
mother and you'l Brenner is on the tour. J'l Brenner,
who's lying dead goes Louder.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Ah, oh my, that is brilliant.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's really good. That's really good. Thank you for that. Wow.
He was the son of Yeah, that's right. Oh how exciting.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Okay, So the movie, I'm curious, Uh, this was a
long time after the rise of the show and everything,
and I'm curious, like, what your thoughts, what, how did
the movie? How was it presented to you guys, And
what was the process of like revisiting that in the
(18:07):
screen form and just the experience overall and the movie
just like yeah, so as.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You can imagine, very quickly, as soon as the show
became popular, talk of a movie became a subject. You know,
the movie, the movie. Is there gonna be a movie?
Is there gonna be a movie? At some point early on,
and it was in the late nineties, somebody had written
a script and Spike Lee had it, and Spike Lee
(18:35):
was going to direct it. Wow, But he didn't want
any of us in it, and so it was gonna
be some other version. And I always heard rumors that
there was gonna be like justin Timberlake, is gonna play
Roger and Christine everywhere? Is gonna play Beaming Like I
don't know, if any it usually happened. That's actually true,
but those, of course were the rumors at the time.
But anyway, that whole thing just disappeared and went away.
(18:57):
And and you know, literally cut to two thousand and
five or four or whenever it was, and I get
a call from my agent saying, the Rent movie is happening.
Chris Columbus is directing it, and he's very interested in
having you know, as many of the original cast as
he can go meet, yeah, you know, and I was like, okay,
(19:17):
So I went and went and met with him, and
he was just lovely and just the biggest Rent fan
and super excited, and he hired me, you know, and
and I mean it was it was really exciting. It
was so much fun to be able to bring it
to the screen, you know. Anyway, it was you know,
of course we missed some of the original cast members
that weren't there. Daphne wasn't there or whatever, but they
(19:39):
they did a wonderful job of, you know, bringing on
Rosario and Tracy Toms and it felt very comfortable and
natural and doing those scenes. Doing all of those scenes
on screen was very similar to what we all did
on stage. You know, I I would venture to say
(20:01):
I did pretty much the same performance on screen as
I did on stage. You know, you make adjustments for
camera and lighting, and you know, make technical adjustments, but
the performance was essentially the same.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It really was.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And it was so nice to see most of you guys,
a majority of the cast there, because I feel like
a lot of the time when they do Hollywood, you know,
a movie from a stage production, they often do recast
it and you're hearing and sometimes I can be very
refreshing and you can hear new voices and a new
(20:33):
take on the character. But for Ren, because it was
so iconic, I guess, you know, there was something about
it that I was like, I don't think I want
to hear anybody else do this in this rendition, which
is so nice that you guys were able to do.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That was I'm curious about.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Like the the removal of the opera and the obviously
you know, the dialogue and bringing that dialogue to life
without singing.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It was that weird for you guys.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Did you have any part of say, And I'm just
curious because on one hand, I was like, I think
the part of the magic is the opera right of it,
and then on the other hand, like, yeah, you have
to make adjustments for screen and that I just I.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Think, you know, I have my feelings about the movie,
but that I think worked great. You know, like I
I don't think that that was an issue. I think
it was the right choice.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, and you know I.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Think that that. Yeah, I think it was the right choice.
And it wasn't. It didn't feel strange at all because
we because the numbers were still the numbers, you know
what I mean, And so there was these added scenes
and there was a lot of added dialogue and stuff,
and look, you know, it was it was an experiment
from from from the top. Like Chris didn't go in
there going Okay, I know exactly what I'm doing. Really
(21:56):
every day it was like we would have them, not
every day, but like often we would have meetings with
Chris and he would say to us, and I think
that the reason, one of the reasons he wanted us
is because he wanted our input in terms in terms
of how race because he either you know, yea. So
we would sit down a lot and talk about how
we were going to shoot the scene and you know
(22:17):
what we you know, and it was a very collaborative process.
He was so wonderful in in how he incorporated our thoughts,
you know, into his decision making. You know, of course
he was the final decider on everything that happened, but
he wanted to know what we thought, you know, and
that was really that was really great, you know, and
(22:37):
and and we all very much appreciated that consideration.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, no, definitely.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's just it's reminiscent of working on a TV show
where you have guest directors weekly that come in and
out of your house, and you know, these characters back
front for you know, inside out, and they're coming in saying,
you know, let me guide the ship, but also be respectful.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Of the people who have been in this house forever.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
So there, I think there's a level that it's similar
because you guys have done this before for a very
long time and helped kind of the genesis of it,
so that that definitely makes sense.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
There was a big dramatic scene that had a lot
of dialogue and he ended up cutting it out of
the movie, and I was like, oh man, that was
the best scene. They might cut that.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Out, but the second part of Goodbye Lhybe that's what Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
That's exactly right. And also, look and Christmas Bells, you know,
like Christmas Bells is my favorite number in the show.
It's my favorite. It's my favorite number. And it's not
in the movie. But quite frankly, like I didn't know
what to do, Like, like the reason it's not in
the movie is not because we shot it and then
it was like, oh, this isn't working, let me cut
(23:46):
it out. We never shot it. Nobody had any idea
of what to do and had to shoot that number,
and so it was like, it's not going to be
in the movie. Yeah, And look, sometimes sometimes big changes
happen in these things. I remember, you know, we were
talking about Hair. The original ending of Hair was not
how it ends in the movie. You know, Burger dies
at the end of the movie. Claude dies at the
(24:07):
end of the show, right, I got to be honest
with you, I thought the movie was so much more
effective in that ending, in the way they did that.
I just thought I was like, oh my god, Burger,
Like I just like, you know, I to that hit hard?
So that hits so hard? It's hard?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
It does it does? What about Seasons of Love?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Like, why did you guys move Seasons of Love to
the top of the movie.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I think's decision was because as it works great as
an opening of the second act, but it's very theatrical,
it's very of the stage, and it would have broken
up the pace of the movie to all of a sudden,
have this, this this performance on a stage of all
of these you know, it just didn't have a place
in the movie. The only place that really had was
(24:56):
either at the beginning of the end the.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
End, right, Okay, no, no, I'm that makes sense. That's
very enlightening.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And you and Anthony have had a long journey together
and now are performing shows together at like fifty four
below and beyond. Can you talk a little bit about like, yeah,
you know, you guys have worked together.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, you know, very soon after we stopped doing Rent together,
one of the things I started doing was going out
and performing you know, gigs and stuff on my own
and whatever. And I would always I would get asked
often like, hey, you and Anthony ever do anything together?
You and Anthony. Now, Anthony had put out a solo record.
He wasn't out gigging, but he had a solo record
out that was great. Yeah, And I think I just
(25:36):
went literally went to him one day and was like, hey,
you want to do some gigs together. You know, I
have some people that are interested. And he was like, yeah, sure,
and like honestly, that's how it started. And we've done
so many different kinds of shows together over the years,
like you know, different types of performances. For a long time,
we would do acoustic performances where I would do a
set and he would do a set, and then we
would do like, you know, maybe fifteen minutes together. What
(25:59):
we hear past couple of years was, you know, we
put a full band together and we decided, you know,
let's just both be on stage the whole time like
a rock It's not me, it's us the whole time.
And that's been the most successful. All people want to
see us together and.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Here are right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
So it's been so much fun for us to to
be able to do that and and and you know
sort of present our arrangements of it. There's a lot
of pop and rock stuff like it's it's not you know,
it's not. As a matter of fact, I would say
that theater stuff is the least of what we do.
And you know it's a surprise to people, but the
audiences end up loving it, you know, like we we
we interweave things together so it all makes a cohesive evening.
(26:43):
You know. It's not like we're just playing sort of
random rock songs, you know what I mean, Like they
all have like a reason. Yeah, and then they and
that and that they connect in ways to Rent and
things like that, so we try and tie it all in.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
That's exciting. I mean, I would want to see you guys.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh you should come. We'll be back yeah January.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Good, Okay, all right, we'll definitely come back. You've done
a lot aita, I mean, jazz, It's crazy. Is Rent
your favorite?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Or do you have a favorite project that you've worked on?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Rent is not my favorite? And only because it's the
first thing I ever did, you know. Yeah, And you
know I've had so many wonderful experiences since then. I
wouldn't say it's any less than anything else, you know
what I mean. It's such it was such a unique experience,
and that I could really everything I've done since Rent
(27:44):
I could sort of compare against each other. But I
don't really compare Rent to any of those things, because
it's just such a unique inexperience and of course became
so enormously successful. Right So, but you know, over the years,
I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh,
and I've really you know, I love doing the musical
comedy stuff, you know, Disaster and something Rotten. And getting
(28:08):
to do things like that, you know, have been so
much even I just did Drag off Broadway, like, you know,
getting to do these things, to me, that's what's been
the most fun and the most exciting. And getting to
learn from, you know, my whole career, I've gotten to
learn from so many amazing artists who are better at
what they do than I am, you know, and so
(28:29):
to watch them and you know, maybe not the singing part,
but all the other stuff, you know. And so you know,
I very much you know, absorbed what everybody was offering
just by being around it, you know, like and I
continue to do that in my life wherever whatever I
venture into, if it's something new, I don't want to
(28:49):
do it alone. I want to do it with somebody
who's already done it and is really good.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
At you know, right right right right, you know, sure
did you always have a really good voice or did
it take a lot of training or like where did
the voice come from?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Where was the voice? Discovering?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It happened, you know, I discovered, you know, at an
early age. The earliest things I can remember singing were
like Barry Manilow songs in the seventies as a little kid,
you know, I was six seven years old. And then
I remember I remember discovering like Elton John and Billy
Joel like those songs when I was little and singing
(29:25):
along to them, Simon and Garfunkel. I remember very specific
things from when I was very young, and ironically enough,
the cast album of a chorus line, you know, things
that my parents would play in the car, you know
what I mean, that absorb and to this day, that's
my favorite cast album. I've never seen, you know, but
I can. I can sing every song I know everywhere.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
It is great.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, and so so I just started singing and realized
that it felt good, and I thought it sounded pretty good,
you know. And then when I was like ten or
eleven years old and MTV debuted and sort of that
wave of like heavy metal bands that came along in
the early eighties, Like I was completely entranced by all
(30:07):
that stuff, and I started to sing along to those songs.
You know, these rock bands like Iron Maiden and a
guy named Ronnie James Dio and you know, all of
these like powerhouse hard rock singers that I just you
know that those were the guys I wanted to be.
Those were my heroes, and I spent you know, I
didn't have any formal training, but I would say I
practiced as much as anybody ever practice, because I would
(30:30):
sit up in my room for hours and hours a
day singing onto those records, you know, not as much
practice as anything else, you know. And and it's because
those guys, because they sounded the way they sounded, you know.
Dickinson from Iron Maiden is probably the single biggest influence
on my voice, I think, certainly, very those very formative
(30:52):
early teenage years, you know. And he has a very
strong operatic sound, and I wanted to do with sound
like him, and so that's where I developed. I think
a lot of that sound. And and it's only by
sheer luck. I think that my voice developed in a
in a healthy way, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that, because you're
screaming a lot of the time, but you can't be
actually screaming, right, You're healthily screaming.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Right, I've developed you know what I couldn't. I couldn't
describe it to you. I couldn't tell you what proper
technique is, only to tell you that I know I
have it because because I've never lost my voice and
I've never had any vocal problems.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
That is crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
And as I you know, as my career had gone
has gone on, I've certainly learned by being on stage
and doing theater how to take care voice in a
way that works for me, you know, you know, And
I work with the little vocal trainer, which I love,
that little thing that you know, like you blow into
I'm into it. That thing has changed my life. But
(31:58):
you know, I've I've been very lucky in that in
that I know how to do what I do.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Unreal, unreal. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It's like, I don't know, your placement must be just perfect,
you just must have instinctally found that placement for yourself.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Well. Also, I do a lot of experimenting with my
voice and with trying to figure out how to make
certain sounds and hit certain notes and hit them in
certain ways. You know, that's important for singers to do,
is to go in a room by yourself and make
crazy sounds and make crazy noises, and try and do
crazy things with your voice, and see what what you're
(32:38):
capable of, See what hurts, what doesn't hurt? See you
know what I mean? And so that's how I have
figured out how to do a lot of this stuff
is just by playing around with my voice like a
like an instrument. You know what, what am I capable
of doing? You know what? What can what can I achieve?
How can I continue to push it? You know? My
upper and my lower you know what I mean? So
(33:00):
much of my formative years trying to push the upper
that I ignored the you know, the lower, my lower register,
and and and it's only in the last ten or
so years that I'm like.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
I like to stay lower now kind it yeah and
so but but but it's it's been, it's been, and
it always is a process of experimentation with me with
my voice.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, I mean, I love that you're just still experimenting
and still learning as an artist, you know, even after
your incredible like career and all the things that you're doing.
And it sounds like you're teaching a lot and so
you're imparting a lot of this like learning wisdom on
younger aspiring actors, Like what has that been like for you?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I mean, I think that that's that's the best thing
I can offer is my wisdom at this point in
having done this for you know, for decades. At this point,
you know, I'm not a trained singer and I'm not
a trained actor, and so I can't I can't teach
somebody technique. You know, I'm not a vocal technician. I
can't I can't make somebody a good singer. I can't
(34:06):
tell them what to do. And because I don't know,
I've never done it right. So that's not my thing.
So and and there's a lot of people that are
really good at that and by all means do that.
I think what I offer as a teacher is just
is just knowledge wisdom of the of the life and
the world that a lot of these kids are striving for.
(34:27):
I think what I can offer them is to the
truth about what that is, the truth about what that
has been and what it is now and where it's going.
You know, it's very important for kids to who are
getting into show business. I have two sons and you know,
in their early twenties and they're both in show business
in one per or the other, you know, And it's
(34:49):
it's super important to see that what has all had,
what's come before us, is not what's in front of us.
And you can't you can't go about things in the
way that it's always been done. The way it's always
been done is over, and we are all collectively now
figuring out how it's going to continue to be done,
(35:09):
you know. And I think that it's very important for
people to realize that and to prepare for that, and
to know again, know what the realities of a life
in theater is like, you know. And I assure you
it's it's it's not glamorous because and look, you know,
I mean it's you know, you're an artist, you're an actor,
you know what it's like. My perspective has always been,
(35:31):
my job is not to be a singer or an actor.
My job is to not quit this horrible business. That's
my job. The payoff is what I get to work,
is when I actually get a job and I get
to make some money and I get to do this
thing that I love to do. That's not the job,
you know what I mean. The job is not quitting
(35:53):
to me. That's why I always felt That's the way
I always sort of looked at it, is like, that's
that's the job, and it's a hard job, and you.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Know that, and so no, it's so hard, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So and I think it's I think it's important for
for for young artists to internalize that, you know, and
that most of your time is going to be fighting.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yourself, knows, constant, fighting your.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Ego, fighting your you know, your all of the it's
that that's going to be what you're spending most of
the time doing, you know. Yeah, and as an actor,
the most frustrating thing as an actor. And I'm so
grateful that I that I play an instrument and that
I sing. You know, I encourage actors who don't sing
and don't play an instrument to do something where you
(36:42):
can practice your creativity in your art by yourself. The
thing about acting is that you can't do it in
a vacuum like you can do any other art form.
You know, you can sculpt, you can paint, you can
write music, you can sing, you can play an instrument.
You can do all of these things by yourself and
get for them. You can dance, right, you can't do
(37:03):
that with acting, you need an audience. It doesn't work
in a va. It doesn't work alone, you know what
I mean. You can't stand there and look at yourself
monologuing in a mirror and get any sense of satisfaction
out of that, you know, like it just so, it's
it's it's a very difficult profession to be and when
that's the only thing you do because you very rarely
(37:25):
get a sense of completion.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah yeah, and then once you do, you're chasing the
next one. So it's tough. I think that's why it
lends to like what you were talking about in the
future of this business and how you can create and
teach these young people to create on their own, to
get people together, to do things that fuel them, that
(37:48):
keep them going, and don't get bitter and don't lose
the love because in this business, after all these years,
it's very difficult to find the joy in it because
it is so difficult and challenge.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
And we're only again as actors specifically, the only validation
you ever get is from other people, you know, like
we're constantly chasing somebody else's validation of our art, where again,
these other art forms you can go you know, what.
I'm a good singer, I know it. I don't need
anyone to tell me. Or I'm a great guitar player.
(38:21):
I'm a great I don't need other people to tell
me that, because I know I could sit in a
room and do it and do it really well. You
can't do that act and you need that response you
need And so I tell people, like listen, forget about
instruments and that stuff, that that's not something you're interested
in doing. Do a puzzle, Go mow the lawn. Do
things that you can do to completion where you finish it,
(38:43):
you know it's done, you know, and you know, and
you know you've done a good job, and you don't
need somebody else's validation to tell you that. I think
it's very important in life to have that. And as actors,
you never get that, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
You never get you know, Wow, what do you do
to you?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
I mowed the lawn. I wish I could turn this
somewhereund and show you my enormous law that I'm mow
you know, and especially now I'm not kidding satisfying forward
to mowing the lawn. It keeps me off my stupid phone.
It keeps me off of social media. Yes, and it
gives me these things that you know, So I do
things like that, I do outdoor things, I chop would
I mow the lawn? I yes, I do the laundry,
(39:21):
I cook all my meal. I do these things because
they make me feel accomplished. And I don't need anyone
else to say, good, good boy, you did a good job.
You're talented, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, or waiting around for them to let you.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Yeah, in that life that I need that, I needed
other people to pat me on the head. I just
I can't stand that.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Yeah, it's a challenging part of it to find that
and to for people to be waiting around for you,
to wait around for other people to let you do
your job exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
That's like it's so difficult. But luckily we've.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Both had very fruitful careers where we have been able
to do that a lot and had a lot of
time to fill as well with mowing the lawn or
organizing your closet.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
So, but finish, that's.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
The that's the key. You have to finish the task.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yes, yes, must complete finished.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
That is what we're talking.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
That's the Yeah, it's counterintuitive here we always ask all
of our guests who have come on the show, who
were affiliated with Glee and we're a part of it,
what is the feeling that Glee leaves you with? So
I've got to ask you what is the feeling that
Rent leaves you with, given that is was such a massive,
(40:36):
massive part of your life.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Gratitude, I mean, just gratitude at everything that it gave me,
everything that it continues to give me. Uh and and
and gratitude at being associated with something that is so
beautiful and that has moved so many people and continues
to and continues to affect and influence people. I mean,
(41:00):
I couldn't have more gratitude for being connected to something
like that. It's just the most incredible feeling. You know,
like people could be connected to a lot of different things,
you know in show business as well, you know, but
you know, and enormous hits, enormous successes, enormous things. But
the combination of such an enormous success and what it
(41:23):
is and content of what it is and the effect
that it has on people.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
No, I mean, you guys were are a part of
something so much bigger than I think anything you could
probably ever grasping your lifetime, but you can grasp most
of it right, you know, but it was really impactful
for me.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
And so many of the people that I grew up with.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
It shaped my career, shaped the inspiration for how I
went about my career. It was really just really important
and just as small, you know, just a window into
some of the impact you guys have had.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
So of course it's my pleasure, you know. I it's funny.
I have friends who you know, my age, who were
did study theater and were at you know, graduate excuse me,
graduating from my Carnegie Mellon at the time or whatever
it was when Red came out, And now they tell
me what their reaction to it was and how like
(42:20):
it was everything and it was everywhere and all everyone
wanted to do, was like and that's it's so funny
to me to hear that, because I didn't know any
that was going on at the time, you know what
I mean, Like, yeah, you hear all that stuff, and
it's like, for sure, Wow, that's really cool, you.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Know, no, really really really amazing. Well, thank you so
much for coming taking the time to chat with me.
It was really such a pleasure to meet you. And yeah,
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Of course, anytime.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
All right, see it.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
What a nice, nice grounded man. They say not to
meet your heroes, but here I am meeting a hero.
Adam Pascal was such an iconic voice and an amazing
actor singer, and he's just just such a like you
(43:09):
could turn on any album, any cast recording and he
would start singing and you'd be like, oh, that's Adam,
you know. So it's just very distinctive. And Rent was
so important to me. So that's such a special interview
and I'm so excited that I got to chat with him.
And I hope you guys enjoyed the episode and that's
what you really missed.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and
that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
See you next time.
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to and that's what you're in this podcast. It's
Jenna without Kevin.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Boohoo.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
We're missing Kevin right now. He's actually deep in tech
at spelling Bees. So I took this one. I actually
stole this one from him because we have one of
my childhood heroes, Adam Pascal is here.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
We one and only Roger from Wren.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Also, one of my other favorite musicals he started was Aida,
and then he also was in Chess at the Royal
Albert Hall, which ironically out now Liah is in New York,
so full Star called there and we have a really
lovely conversation. He's a wonderful human being and I'm just
(00:51):
so please.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
That I got to meet him and interview him by myself. Sorry, Kevin,
enjoy the interview, Saudi. How are you great?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm good? Thank you, thank you so much for joining me.
I'm sorry Kevin couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Be here, but he sends his thanks. And we just
watched the movie yesterday, so.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh you did? OK?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Think I've seen it literally since I went to the premiere.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Oh my gosh, Wow, that's a long time ago. Well,
I'm so excited for you to be here. I have
to say, if you told like fourteen year old Jenna
that she'd be talking to Adam Pascal, I think I
would have probably like thrown a shoe at myself or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So that's very sweet if you think you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Are just an icon in the Broadway history books, and
thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
We are just wildly talented and just so I was
like yesterday I was.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Saying you, you and Wren and all the pieces that
you were a part of like really raised me.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's so very exciting to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I appreciate that. And I can tell you that from
my own experience, I had a very similar upbringing with
the movies of Hair and the Rocky Horror Pictures Show.
So both of those movies for me were you know,
And it's really it's great because it's such a full
circle moment for me because because I had that experience
(02:25):
with those shows, and specifically we're talking about the movie.
So I've never seen Hair on stage. I've seen the
movie about one hundred and fifty times, but I've never
seen it on stage. And Rocky Horror, same thing. I've
only ever seen the movie, but seen it so many times,
and both of those movies had such a visceral effect
on me as a kid growing up, yeah, and having
(02:48):
never seen them on stage. And so then cut to
the movie, the Rent movie. So the Rent we had
a very similar well I'll backtrack, So a lot of
kids coming up to me who have only ever seen
the movie and they've never seen on stage, and they
are affected by the film in the way that I
was affected by Hair.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Right, So there's like a touch point there, something that
you can understand what they're yeah, holding on to.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
And both of those movies had a very similar trajectory
in that they were both widely popular on Broadway. Then
they were transferred to film and had sort of moderate
success and divided the fans of like, you know, some
people loved it, some people hated it. Same with critics
and all the stuff. So it was a very similar,
very similar reaction by the fan base that Hairhead.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, I we'll definitely get into more of the Rent movie,
but I just wanted to backtrack a little bit. I
see you're from Woodbury. I am also from Long Island
as well. So hell, yeah, I'm from East Meadow, of course. Yeah,
And I went to Holy Trinity High School, which had
a wonderful theater department at the time, and it was
just like we did a million shows a year, and
(03:59):
I just yeah, Long Islander, you know.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, And I've been back there a lot. I'm actually
I've been teaching at Long Island University and directing the
show at Long Island University and so wow, my sister
still lives at Huntington. I was just there, yeah to go,
So yeah, love them funny.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So you started out more as a music artist versus
like a stage actor, is that right?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? Yeah. So I grew up on Long Island at
in New York City, and I grew up playing in
rock bands. Wow, yeah, I was. I spent you know,
my my high school years, my college years playing in bands,
playing all the all the clubs in the city, and
you know, doing that whole circuit and trying to get
a record deal and trying to become a rock star.
(04:44):
You know. That was that was what I was focused
on in those years, and and theater was not something
that I had ever considered as a career path because
quite frankly, for people like me at the time, it
wasn't a career path right back in the mid nineties,
you know, there wasn't a plethora of people that kind
of came out of nowhere and didn't have any training
and all of a sudden they're on Broadway, Like I
(05:05):
might have been the first one. So you know, like
so it just never occurred that that that would be
something I could pursue. And until it happened that I realized,
oh wow, this is but but you know, it's it's
it became so it became such a logical extension to
(05:26):
who I was, you know, and and and and it
and also the way that I sing. I used to
get from guys and bands all the time they're like,
stop singing with amos vibrato, Like I'm sorry, man, that's
how I sing, you know, I think you know, I
always had you know, it was always that kind of
(05:46):
rock but sort of you know, I don't want to
say Broadway sounding, but you know, sort of a bigger
sounding voice, you know, because those are the guys that
I was attracted to as growing up as as as singers.
You know, all of these you know, high tenor and
I'm not a high tenor but all of these you
know high tenor Freddy Likedy exactly for Mercury and Steve
(06:07):
Perry and and you know Lou Graham and all of
these guys that were my heroes, you know, and I
just I just screamed my head off for hours a
day for years, you know, trying to sound like them.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
What a perfect departure, I guess or transition into Rent, though, yes,
you know, what a perfect score and like what music
to sing? So how did how did Rent come to you?
And what was that whole journey?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Like? So, Idina Menzielle and I grew up down the
street from each other. She is also a ssiasid High
school graduate, Right.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I forgot about that?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yes, so so I. Dina and her boyfriend at the time, Glenn,
she had been cast in the show and they and
and so she knew that they were having trouble h
casting the role of Roger, and so they thought of
me and they were like, he's a rock singer whatever.
They called me up. They were like, a, Dina's doing
the show. It's gonna run like four weeks off Broadway,
(07:09):
and is it something you'd never be interested in auditioning for?
And I was like, well, I've never auditioned for anything before.
What do I do? They They're like, I think you
just go down with your guitar and sing a song.
And I was like, all right, sure. You know, I
had just broken up with the band that I'd been
with all of those years, and I was like looking
for my next thing. I certainly never thought that, you know,
I always thought my next thing would just be another band.
(07:29):
But that's you know, but this opportunity came along and
it just, you know, one thing just led to another
and and it all of you know, I have four
auditions in that week, and then by the end of
the week, you know, they had given me the part.
And you know, I often get asked like, oh my god,
what what was your reaction when you got cast? Is
Roger and Rent And I have to remind people that, like,
(07:51):
it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Later exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
My reaction was how am I going to keep my job?
How many go to rehearsals and keep this job?
Speaker 4 (08:00):
You know?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So right, yeah, I mean there's something to that, right,
Like people always ask us like did you know it
was special?
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Or like, what was it like getting cast in the show?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
And you know, you can only hope that something special
happens with it, but that's not really what you're hoping for.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
You're hoping for a really.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Good time and to have a great job and you know,
to do good work.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And lots of experiences are very special. They don't necessarily
go on to be huge successes, but they're still there.
They can be equally memorable as memorable and special, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Now I'm curious, though, like, because you you were there
from the beginning and the inception of this thing that
is now rent, Like, what was it like hearing that
music for the first time and needing Jonathan, and like
who was he at this point to you? Like, because
so few people get to talk about him and experience him,
(08:50):
because you know, it was so tragic.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
But my, my, I, as you can imagine, I get
asked this often and my answer is usually disappointing to people,
which is that I didn't know Jonathan that well. I
knew John I was cast in the show in you know,
the December of ninety five, so at the end, and
Jonathan passed away in January, right six, so I only
(09:16):
knew him for like four weeks, you know, and during
most of that time we were in rehearsal and we
were working, so there wasn't a lot of socializing going on.
So I unfortunately, like everybody else, right out on his presence,
you know, in my in all of our lives, and
(09:36):
so you know, the few times I sat with him
and talked with him were great, and he was a
lovely guy. I wish I knew him better, you know, Yeah,
like everybody else wish they knew you know.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And yeah, no, that makes total sense.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
I mean, I'm I'm curious though, like because he became
so he became so infamous after for his his work
and his art, and you guys got to keep that alive, right,
and you got to almost see him as the figure
that he never got to see himself as. What was
(10:10):
like that journey like after and the successive rent after
you guys opened and you went a Broadway and you
know that kind of like momentum went right, I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
It was, it was. It was so much bittersweet irony,
you know, like like exactly, like especially with my character
in particular, because my character was the musician and you know,
and my character was the character who's you know, one
desire in the show, in the story was to create
some something wonderful. He wanted to write a song that
people would remember after he was gone, you know, yeah,
(10:43):
and that was what he was striving for. That's what
kept him, That's what kept him motivated, and that's what
kept Jonathan motivated. And it was it was the show
that Jonathan wrote. And then he ended up in many
ways living that well or not living through that experience,
you know, by but but but he but he achieved
(11:04):
what he wanted to achieve. He just didn't see it,
you know. But but but again, if you think about
the character, the whole thing was what to achieve it
after I'm gone, you know what I mean? He literally
did that. And then for me personally, you know, I
always wanted to be a songwriter and an artist and
(11:24):
a singer and all of those things. And I, through
that character and that song, also achieved the things that
I was striving for by by now being connected so
closely with that show and that music and specifically again
that song about what he's saying. So it's it's there's
(11:45):
so much sort of intercellular connection between the show, me, Jonathan's,
that song, all of that stuff. It's it's it's it's
been I've thought about it a lot over the year.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
And then even like the the tic tic boom of
it all, where you get to see that journey, but
we didn't get to see him in that time. Like
it's just it's really, I don't know, it's very it's
beautiful and tragic and special in all the ways. And
you were just so deeply connected with it, so so fascinating.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
But you asked before when I thought about the music,
you know, when I first heard the music, I have
to be honest, I was so the first thing I
heard was so I went and auditioned, and and and
after my first audition, they gave me, Bernie Telsey gave
me a cassette copy of one song, Glory to go
home and learn. And it was it was Jonathan Larson
singing it, you know, and on his little t and
(12:38):
Jonathan was not a great singer, and so and I was.
I was kind of underwhelmed. I was like, this is
a rock musical, quite so, and I and and and
then I remember, of course, and then it grew on me,
and once I started to sing it, it started to
make sense to me, you know. So yeah, on an
emotional and musical level. But and then I remember starting rehearsals.
(13:00):
The first song we learned together was Seasons of Love,
and I was like, these are the weirdest lyrics, all
these numbers and all this stuff like it was so
it was so weird to me.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And then you heard love you whatever You're like.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I was like, what is all this stuff? They literally
gave us like a you know, an information sheet so
that we would know who all of these people that
we were talking about.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
That's funny. Yeah, the dramaturgy of it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Oh yeah, I didn't have these references, you know, I
didn't know what they were. And so, yes, the music
it was it was interesting. Look, I came from a
world of you know, certainly at that time, this is
mid nineties, I was I was head over into Sound
Garden and Pearl Jam and you know, yeah chains and
all of that stuff like that was the rock music
(13:46):
that I was listening to at the time. So when
I heard rock musical, of course, I was expecting to
hear something along those lines. And clearly that's not the
case now.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
But there's just so the show is so beautifully dynamic
and newtin from the sung dialogue, you know of the
the opera of it all, but then there's these like
beautifully melodic songs and you know, like what you own
and you know, I'll cover you all. It's just it's
absolutely brilliant and obviously everybody you know, that's why it's
such a massive hit that lives on forever. But you
(14:18):
guys really did like reinvent what Broadway could be for
a lot of artists and a lot of producers and
creatives to say, like, oh wow, like Broadway doesn't have
to be Rogers and Hammerstein, it doesn't have to be
you know, these insanely classical, you know, traditional music. So
I'm curious, like that must have been very exciting for
(14:39):
you as a rock artist and a rock fan, and
but what would do you remember what that was like
in the time when when you guys were around and
when it started to really like some momentum started to hit.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, I mean it's only in hindsight that you can
see the effect that it happened on the art form
and everything that came after us. At the time, it was,
you know, there was so much going on so fast,
all at once. You know, I'm sure you can ask
any of any of the kids that were in Hamilton,
you know, and like it's just there's so much happening
(15:12):
every night, every night, you know what I mean. And
then on top of that, of course, you know, Jonathan
died and so like you know, am envious of all
those kids in Hamilton is that they didn't have this
looming black cloud over their experience in the same way
that we, you know, and the maybe self inflicted burden
of need to feel to carry that weight and that
(15:36):
message and Jonathan and what he was trying to do
and all of that stuff. You know, like we internally
that we really felt like we were the champions of that.
And you know, and I tell you know, I work
with so many students and so many kids, especially working
on that show, and I always say to them, look,
it is not your responsibility to carry any burden, to
to to put forth any message. It's your job to
(15:57):
have fun and tell a story. If an audience going
to get a message from it, great, but it's not
your job to cram it down their throat or feel
like it's your responsibility to carry that because it's not
for actors. And you know, and I wish I could
have told the old me that thirty years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Wow. Wow, that's profound fun fact.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I was actually opening on Broadway the same year you
guys open event.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I was doing The King and I Danille Simon in six.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Okay, So okay, I'm gonna tell you a funny story.
Then you'll appreciate this. It's not my story, it's Anthony Repp, Okay,
but it's one of my favorite stories, and I always
make him tell it. So when Anthony was a little kid,
he he was in The King and I on the
national tour. I think it was like one of his
first jobs. So now I don't I'm not familiar with
the show. So I'm going to explain something to you,
and you're gonna know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
At the end of the show, the King is laid
out and I and I dying or he's dead or
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yes, he's died.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Yes, And a little kid comes comes and says something
like mother, the ship is something like this. Some kid
says something right, So that was yes, right, yeah, So
he comes out to deliver his line and he goes
mother and you'l Brenner is on the tour. J'l Brenner,
who's lying dead goes Louder.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Ah, oh my, that is brilliant.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's really good. That's really good. Thank you for that. Wow.
He was the son of Yeah, that's right. Oh how exciting.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Okay, So the movie, I'm curious, Uh, this was a
long time after the rise of the show and everything,
and I'm curious, like, what your thoughts, what, how did
the movie? How was it presented to you guys, And
what was the process of like revisiting that in the
(18:07):
screen form and just the experience overall and the movie
just like yeah, so as.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You can imagine, very quickly, as soon as the show
became popular, talk of a movie became a subject. You know,
the movie, the movie. Is there gonna be a movie?
Is there gonna be a movie? At some point early on,
and it was in the late nineties, somebody had written
a script and Spike Lee had it, and Spike Lee
(18:35):
was going to direct it. Wow, But he didn't want
any of us in it, and so it was gonna
be some other version. And I always heard rumors that
there was gonna be like justin Timberlake, is gonna play
Roger and Christine everywhere? Is gonna play Beaming Like I
don't know, if any it usually happened. That's actually true,
but those, of course were the rumors at the time.
But anyway, that whole thing just disappeared and went away.
(18:57):
And and you know, literally cut to two thousand and
five or four or whenever it was, and I get
a call from my agent saying, the Rent movie is happening.
Chris Columbus is directing it, and he's very interested in
having you know, as many of the original cast as
he can go meet, yeah, you know, and I was like, okay,
(19:17):
So I went and went and met with him, and
he was just lovely and just the biggest Rent fan
and super excited, and he hired me, you know, and
and I mean it was it was really exciting. It
was so much fun to be able to bring it
to the screen, you know. Anyway, it was you know,
of course we missed some of the original cast members
that weren't there. Daphne wasn't there or whatever, but they
(19:39):
they did a wonderful job of, you know, bringing on
Rosario and Tracy Toms and it felt very comfortable and
natural and doing those scenes. Doing all of those scenes
on screen was very similar to what we all did
on stage. You know, I I would venture to say
(20:01):
I did pretty much the same performance on screen as
I did on stage. You know, you make adjustments for
camera and lighting, and you know, make technical adjustments, but
the performance was essentially the same.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It really was.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
And it was so nice to see most of you guys,
a majority of the cast there, because I feel like
a lot of the time when they do Hollywood, you know,
a movie from a stage production, they often do recast
it and you're hearing and sometimes I can be very
refreshing and you can hear new voices and a new
(20:33):
take on the character. But for Ren, because it was
so iconic, I guess, you know, there was something about
it that I was like, I don't think I want
to hear anybody else do this in this rendition, which
is so nice that you guys were able to do.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That was I'm curious about.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Like the the removal of the opera and the obviously
you know, the dialogue and bringing that dialogue to life
without singing.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
It was that weird for you guys.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Did you have any part of say, And I'm just
curious because on one hand, I was like, I think
the part of the magic is the opera right of it,
and then on the other hand, like, yeah, you have
to make adjustments for screen and that I just I.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Think, you know, I have my feelings about the movie,
but that I think worked great. You know, like I
I don't think that that was an issue. I think
it was the right choice.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, and you know I.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Think that that. Yeah, I think it was the right choice.
And it wasn't. It didn't feel strange at all because
we because the numbers were still the numbers, you know
what I mean, And so there was these added scenes
and there was a lot of added dialogue and stuff,
and look, you know, it was it was an experiment
from from from the top. Like Chris didn't go in
there going Okay, I know exactly what I'm doing. Really
(21:56):
every day it was like we would have them, not
every day, but like often we would have meetings with
Chris and he would say to us, and I think
that the reason, one of the reasons he wanted us
is because he wanted our input in terms in terms
of how race because he either you know, yea. So
we would sit down a lot and talk about how
we were going to shoot the scene and you know
(22:17):
what we you know, and it was a very collaborative process.
He was so wonderful in in how he incorporated our thoughts,
you know, into his decision making. You know, of course
he was the final decider on everything that happened, but
he wanted to know what we thought, you know, and
that was really that was really great, you know, and
(22:37):
and and we all very much appreciated that consideration.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, no, definitely.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It's just it's reminiscent of working on a TV show
where you have guest directors weekly that come in and
out of your house, and you know, these characters back
front for you know, inside out, and they're coming in saying,
you know, let me guide the ship, but also be respectful.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Of the people who have been in this house forever.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
So there, I think there's a level that it's similar
because you guys have done this before for a very
long time and helped kind of the genesis of it,
so that that definitely makes sense.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
There was a big dramatic scene that had a lot
of dialogue and he ended up cutting it out of
the movie, and I was like, oh man, that was
the best scene. They might cut that.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Out, but the second part of Goodbye Lhybe that's what Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
That's exactly right. And also, look and Christmas Bells, you know,
like Christmas Bells is my favorite number in the show.
It's my favorite. It's my favorite number. And it's not
in the movie. But quite frankly, like I didn't know
what to do, Like, like the reason it's not in
the movie is not because we shot it and then
it was like, oh, this isn't working, let me cut
(23:46):
it out. We never shot it. Nobody had any idea
of what to do and had to shoot that number,
and so it was like, it's not going to be
in the movie. Yeah, And look, sometimes sometimes big changes
happen in these things. I remember, you know, we were
talking about Hair. The original ending of Hair was not
how it ends in the movie. You know, Burger dies
at the end of the movie. Claude dies at the
(24:07):
end of the show, right, I got to be honest
with you, I thought the movie was so much more
effective in that ending, in the way they did that.
I just thought I was like, oh my god, Burger,
Like I just like, you know, I to that hit hard?
So that hits so hard? It's hard?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
It does it does? What about Seasons of Love?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Like, why did you guys move Seasons of Love to
the top of the movie.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I think's decision was because as it works great as
an opening of the second act, but it's very theatrical,
it's very of the stage, and it would have broken
up the pace of the movie to all of a sudden,
have this, this this performance on a stage of all
of these you know, it just didn't have a place
in the movie. The only place that really had was
(24:56):
either at the beginning of the end the.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
End, right, Okay, no, no, I'm that makes sense. That's
very enlightening.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And you and Anthony have had a long journey together
and now are performing shows together at like fifty four
below and beyond. Can you talk a little bit about like, yeah,
you know, you guys have worked together.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, you know, very soon after we stopped doing Rent together,
one of the things I started doing was going out
and performing you know, gigs and stuff on my own
and whatever. And I would always I would get asked
often like, hey, you and Anthony ever do anything together?
You and Anthony. Now, Anthony had put out a solo record.
He wasn't out gigging, but he had a solo record
out that was great. Yeah, And I think I just
(25:36):
went literally went to him one day and was like, hey,
you want to do some gigs together. You know, I
have some people that are interested. And he was like, yeah, sure,
and like honestly, that's how it started. And we've done
so many different kinds of shows together over the years,
like you know, different types of performances. For a long time,
we would do acoustic performances where I would do a
set and he would do a set, and then we
would do like, you know, maybe fifteen minutes together. What
(25:59):
we hear past couple of years was, you know, we
put a full band together and we decided, you know,
let's just both be on stage the whole time like
a rock It's not me, it's us the whole time.
And that's been the most successful. All people want to
see us together and.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Here are right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
So it's been so much fun for us to to
be able to do that and and and you know
sort of present our arrangements of it. There's a lot
of pop and rock stuff like it's it's not you know,
it's not. As a matter of fact, I would say
that theater stuff is the least of what we do.
And you know it's a surprise to people, but the
audiences end up loving it, you know, like we we
we interweave things together so it all makes a cohesive evening.
(26:43):
You know. It's not like we're just playing sort of
random rock songs, you know what I mean, Like they
all have like a reason. Yeah, and then they and
that and that they connect in ways to Rent and
things like that, so we try and tie it all in.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
That's exciting. I mean, I would want to see you guys.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh you should come. We'll be back yeah January.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Good, Okay, all right, we'll definitely come back. You've done
a lot aita, I mean, jazz, It's crazy. Is Rent
your favorite?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Or do you have a favorite project that you've worked on?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Rent is not my favorite? And only because it's the
first thing I ever did, you know. Yeah, And you
know I've had so many wonderful experiences since then. I
wouldn't say it's any less than anything else, you know
what I mean. It's such it was such a unique experience,
and that I could really everything I've done since Rent
(27:44):
I could sort of compare against each other. But I
don't really compare Rent to any of those things, because
it's just such a unique inexperience and of course became
so enormously successful. Right So, but you know, over the years,
I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh,
and I've really you know, I love doing the musical
comedy stuff, you know, Disaster and something Rotten. And getting
(28:08):
to do things like that, you know, have been so
much even I just did Drag off Broadway, like, you know,
getting to do these things, to me, that's what's been
the most fun and the most exciting. And getting to
learn from, you know, my whole career, I've gotten to
learn from so many amazing artists who are better at
what they do than I am, you know, and so
(28:29):
to watch them and you know, maybe not the singing part,
but all the other stuff, you know. And so you know,
I very much you know, absorbed what everybody was offering
just by being around it, you know, like and I
continue to do that in my life wherever whatever I
venture into, if it's something new, I don't want to
(28:49):
do it alone. I want to do it with somebody
who's already done it and is really good.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
At you know, right right right right, you know, sure
did you always have a really good voice or did
it take a lot of training or like where did
the voice come from?
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Where was the voice? Discovering?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It happened, you know, I discovered, you know, at an
early age. The earliest things I can remember singing were
like Barry Manilow songs in the seventies as a little kid,
you know, I was six seven years old. And then
I remember I remember discovering like Elton John and Billy
Joel like those songs when I was little and singing
(29:25):
along to them, Simon and Garfunkel. I remember very specific
things from when I was very young, and ironically enough,
the cast album of a chorus line, you know, things
that my parents would play in the car, you know
what I mean, that absorb and to this day, that's
my favorite cast album. I've never seen, you know, but
I can. I can sing every song I know everywhere.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
It is great.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, and so so I just started singing and realized
that it felt good, and I thought it sounded pretty good,
you know. And then when I was like ten or
eleven years old and MTV debuted and sort of that
wave of like heavy metal bands that came along in
the early eighties, Like I was completely entranced by all
(30:07):
that stuff, and I started to sing along to those songs.
You know, these rock bands like Iron Maiden and a
guy named Ronnie James Dio and you know, all of
these like powerhouse hard rock singers that I just you
know that those were the guys I wanted to be.
Those were my heroes, and I spent you know, I
didn't have any formal training, but I would say I
practiced as much as anybody ever practice, because I would
(30:30):
sit up in my room for hours and hours a
day singing onto those records, you know, not as much
practice as anything else, you know. And and it's because
those guys, because they sounded the way they sounded, you know.
Dickinson from Iron Maiden is probably the single biggest influence
on my voice, I think, certainly, very those very formative
(30:52):
early teenage years, you know. And he has a very
strong operatic sound, and I wanted to do with sound
like him, and so that's where I developed. I think
a lot of that sound. And and it's only by
sheer luck. I think that my voice developed in a
in a healthy way, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that, because you're
screaming a lot of the time, but you can't be
actually screaming, right, You're healthily screaming.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Right, I've developed you know what I couldn't. I couldn't
describe it to you. I couldn't tell you what proper
technique is, only to tell you that I know I
have it because because I've never lost my voice and
I've never had any vocal problems.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
That is crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
And as I you know, as my career had gone
has gone on, I've certainly learned by being on stage
and doing theater how to take care voice in a
way that works for me, you know, you know, And
I work with the little vocal trainer, which I love,
that little thing that you know, like you blow into
I'm into it. That thing has changed my life. But
(31:58):
you know, I've I've been very lucky in that in
that I know how to do what I do.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Unreal, unreal. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It's like, I don't know, your placement must be just perfect,
you just must have instinctally found that placement for yourself.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Well. Also, I do a lot of experimenting with my
voice and with trying to figure out how to make
certain sounds and hit certain notes and hit them in
certain ways. You know, that's important for singers to do,
is to go in a room by yourself and make
crazy sounds and make crazy noises, and try and do
crazy things with your voice, and see what what you're
(32:38):
capable of, See what hurts, what doesn't hurt? See you
know what I mean? And so that's how I have
figured out how to do a lot of this stuff
is just by playing around with my voice like a
like an instrument. You know what, what am I capable
of doing? You know what? What can what can I achieve?
How can I continue to push it? You know? My
upper and my lower you know what I mean? So
(33:00):
much of my formative years trying to push the upper
that I ignored the you know, the lower, my lower register,
and and and it's only in the last ten or
so years that I'm like.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
I like to stay lower now kind it yeah and
so but but but it's it's been, it's been, and
it always is a process of experimentation with me with
my voice.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, I mean, I love that you're just still experimenting
and still learning as an artist, you know, even after
your incredible like career and all the things that you're doing.
And it sounds like you're teaching a lot and so
you're imparting a lot of this like learning wisdom on
younger aspiring actors, Like what has that been like for you?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I mean, I think that that's that's the best thing
I can offer is my wisdom at this point in
having done this for you know, for decades. At this point,
you know, I'm not a trained singer and I'm not
a trained actor, and so I can't I can't teach
somebody technique. You know, I'm not a vocal technician. I
can't I can't make somebody a good singer. I can't
(34:06):
tell them what to do. And because I don't know,
I've never done it right. So that's not my thing.
So and and there's a lot of people that are
really good at that and by all means do that.
I think what I offer as a teacher is just
is just knowledge wisdom of the of the life and
the world that a lot of these kids are striving for.
(34:27):
I think what I can offer them is to the
truth about what that is, the truth about what that
has been and what it is now and where it's going.
You know, it's very important for kids to who are
getting into show business. I have two sons and you know,
in their early twenties and they're both in show business
in one per or the other, you know, And it's
(34:49):
it's super important to see that what has all had,
what's come before us, is not what's in front of us.
And you can't you can't go about things in the
way that it's always been done. The way it's always
been done is over, and we are all collectively now
figuring out how it's going to continue to be done,
(35:09):
you know. And I think that it's very important for
people to realize that and to prepare for that, and
to know again, know what the realities of a life
in theater is like, you know. And I assure you
it's it's it's not glamorous because and look, you know,
I mean it's you know, you're an artist, you're an actor,
you know what it's like. My perspective has always been,
(35:31):
my job is not to be a singer or an actor.
My job is to not quit this horrible business. That's
my job. The payoff is what I get to work,
is when I actually get a job and I get
to make some money and I get to do this
thing that I love to do. That's not the job,
you know what I mean. The job is not quitting
(35:53):
to me. That's why I always felt That's the way
I always sort of looked at it, is like, that's
that's the job, and it's a hard job, and you.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Know that, and so no, it's so hard, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
So and I think it's I think it's important for
for for young artists to internalize that, you know, and
that most of your time is going to be fighting.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yourself, knows, constant, fighting your.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Ego, fighting your you know, your all of the it's
that that's going to be what you're spending most of
the time doing, you know. Yeah, and as an actor,
the most frustrating thing as an actor. And I'm so
grateful that I that I play an instrument and that
I sing. You know, I encourage actors who don't sing
and don't play an instrument to do something where you
(36:42):
can practice your creativity in your art by yourself. The
thing about acting is that you can't do it in
a vacuum like you can do any other art form.
You know, you can sculpt, you can paint, you can
write music, you can sing, you can play an instrument.
You can do all of these things by yourself and
get for them. You can dance, right, you can't do
(37:03):
that with acting, you need an audience. It doesn't work
in a va. It doesn't work alone, you know what
I mean. You can't stand there and look at yourself
monologuing in a mirror and get any sense of satisfaction
out of that, you know, like it just so, it's
it's it's a very difficult profession to be and when
that's the only thing you do because you very rarely
(37:25):
get a sense of completion.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah yeah, and then once you do, you're chasing the
next one. So it's tough. I think that's why it
lends to like what you were talking about in the
future of this business and how you can create and
teach these young people to create on their own, to
get people together, to do things that fuel them, that
(37:48):
keep them going, and don't get bitter and don't lose
the love because in this business, after all these years,
it's very difficult to find the joy in it because
it is so difficult and challenge.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
And we're only again as actors specifically, the only validation
you ever get is from other people, you know, like
we're constantly chasing somebody else's validation of our art, where again,
these other art forms you can go you know, what.
I'm a good singer, I know it. I don't need
anyone to tell me. Or I'm a great guitar player.
(38:21):
I'm a great I don't need other people to tell
me that, because I know I could sit in a
room and do it and do it really well. You
can't do that act and you need that response you
need And so I tell people, like listen, forget about
instruments and that stuff, that that's not something you're interested
in doing. Do a puzzle, Go mow the lawn. Do
things that you can do to completion where you finish it,
(38:43):
you know it's done, you know, and you know, and
you know you've done a good job, and you don't
need somebody else's validation to tell you that. I think
it's very important in life to have that. And as actors,
you never get that, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
You never get you know, Wow, what do you do
to you?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
I mowed the lawn. I wish I could turn this
somewhereund and show you my enormous law that I'm mow
you know, and especially now I'm not kidding satisfying forward
to mowing the lawn. It keeps me off my stupid phone.
It keeps me off of social media. Yes, and it
gives me these things that you know, So I do
things like that, I do outdoor things, I chop would
I mow the lawn? I yes, I do the laundry,
(39:21):
I cook all my meal. I do these things because
they make me feel accomplished. And I don't need anyone
else to say, good, good boy, you did a good job.
You're talented, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, or waiting around for them to let you.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Yeah, in that life that I need that, I needed
other people to pat me on the head. I just
I can't stand that.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Yeah, it's a challenging part of it to find that
and to for people to be waiting around for you,
to wait around for other people to let you do
your job exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
That's like it's so difficult. But luckily we've.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Both had very fruitful careers where we have been able
to do that a lot and had a lot of
time to fill as well with mowing the lawn or
organizing your closet.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
So, but finish, that's.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
The that's the key. You have to finish the task.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yes, yes, must complete finished.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
That is what we're talking.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
That's the Yeah, it's counterintuitive here we always ask all
of our guests who have come on the show, who
were affiliated with Glee and we're a part of it,
what is the feeling that Glee leaves you with? So
I've got to ask you what is the feeling that
Rent leaves you with, given that is was such a massive,
(40:36):
massive part of your life.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Gratitude, I mean, just gratitude at everything that it gave me,
everything that it continues to give me. Uh and and
and gratitude at being associated with something that is so
beautiful and that has moved so many people and continues
to and continues to affect and influence people. I mean,
(41:00):
I couldn't have more gratitude for being connected to something
like that. It's just the most incredible feeling. You know,
like people could be connected to a lot of different things,
you know in show business as well, you know, but
you know, and enormous hits, enormous successes, enormous things. But
the combination of such an enormous success and what it
(41:23):
is and content of what it is and the effect
that it has on people.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
No, I mean, you guys were are a part of
something so much bigger than I think anything you could
probably ever grasping your lifetime, but you can grasp most
of it right, you know, but it was really impactful
for me.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
And so many of the people that I grew up with.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
It shaped my career, shaped the inspiration for how I
went about my career. It was really just really important
and just as small, you know, just a window into
some of the impact you guys have had.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
So of course it's my pleasure, you know. I it's funny.
I have friends who you know, my age, who were
did study theater and were at you know, graduate excuse me,
graduating from my Carnegie Mellon at the time or whatever
it was when Red came out, And now they tell
me what their reaction to it was and how like
(42:20):
it was everything and it was everywhere and all everyone
wanted to do, was like and that's it's so funny
to me to hear that, because I didn't know any
that was going on at the time, you know what
I mean, Like, yeah, you hear all that stuff, and
it's like, for sure, Wow, that's really cool, you.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Know, no, really really really amazing. Well, thank you so
much for coming taking the time to chat with me.
It was really such a pleasure to meet you. And yeah,
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Of course, anytime.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
All right, see it.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
What a nice, nice grounded man. They say not to
meet your heroes, but here I am meeting a hero.
Adam Pascal was such an iconic voice and an amazing
actor singer, and he's just just such a like you
(43:09):
could turn on any album, any cast recording and he
would start singing and you'd be like, oh, that's Adam,
you know. So it's just very distinctive. And Rent was
so important to me. So that's such a special interview
and I'm so excited that I got to chat with him.
And I hope you guys enjoyed the episode and that's
what you really missed.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and
that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
See you next time.
Host
Jenna Ushkowitz
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.