Tragedy permeated the Jonathan Larson musical Rent both onstage and off. So it makes sense that one of its original stars, Anthony Rapp, would make it the theme of his one-man musical evening which has landed at New World Stages after several previous incarnations. Based on his best-selling 2006 memoir, Without You offers both a fascinating insider’s perspective on the musical’s beginnings and a moving portrait of personal loss.
The show, for which Rapp is backed by a five-piece band, is not surprisingly bookended by renditions of the musical’s most famous number “Seasons of Love” (what, you were expecting “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning”?) and features other songs written by Larson, several originals, and such covers as R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” Why that song, you may ask? It’s because it was Rapp’s audition song for the workshop production of Rent, and it provides the opportunity for the performer to show off his still strong voice.
Rent fans (known as “Rentheads”) will lap up the anecdotes Rapp relates about his breakout role in the Off-Broadway stage production and Broadway transfer (wisely, he doesn’t say a word about the unfortunate film adaptation). One particularly funny episode involves a party before the show’s opening at which one of Rapp’s friends asked him, “What’s with that guy?” referring to the then-unknown Larson, who was also there. Apparently, when the friend asked Larson what he did for a living, the soon-to-be Pulitzer Prize-winning composer declared, “I’m the future of musical theater.”
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
And so Larson would have been, if he hadn’t died just prior to opening night, the victim of an aneurysm which was possibly preventable if his condition had been diagnosed correctly. It’s bracing to hear Rapp’s description of the shock and disbelief he and the rest of the cast and creative team felt upon hearing of Larson’s untimely passing. His descriptions of meeting Larson’s grief-numbed parents and the cast performing a non-staged run-through of the show just for the composer’s friends and family members are deeply touching.
Rapp — who at age 51 still possesses the boyish good looks to step into his role of videographer Mark Cohen in Larson’s rock updating of La Boheme — also deals with a more personal loss in the show, namely the death of his mother from cancer. That’s where Without You falters a bit, not because Rapp doesn’t deliver a moving account of their relationship, complete with dialogue scenes in which he adopts a faintly lilting voice to portray her, but rather because he hasn’t fully managed to provide the specificity and artfulness necessary to make his story feel other than generic.
Some of the song choices feel rather strange as well. There’s a good hard-rocking number, for instance, called “Wild Bill,” composed by Rapp and David Matos. But its impact is rather lessened by the fact that the song, which Rapp sings while wearing a cowboy hat, is inspired by the name Rapp’s mother gave to her cancerous tumor.
It’s an example of the sort of self-indulgence that prevents the 80-minute musical memoir from fully achieving its goal of transforming personal loss into art. Nevertheless, Without You should prove irresistible to fans of the performer and especially the show that jump-started his career.
Without You opened January 25, 2023, at New World Stages and runs through June 11. Tickets and information: telecharge.com
