I had the fortune of seeing Antony Rapp’s autobiographical one man show, Without You, at New World Stages this past weekend. This moving production was based on a New York Times bestselling book published in 2006 titled Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the musical Rent written by Broadway star Anthony Rapp, most famous for originating the role of Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical Rent. I have not yet read the original book, however, I had previously listened to a 2012 audio recording of the musical version of Without You, titled Without You (A Musical Memoir) on Spotify when I first became a huge fan of Rent several years ago. The songs “Visits To You” and “That Is Not You” remained at the forefront of my memory of the album. The story was so heart wrenching to listen to that I never revisited it until last weekend, when my mom and I were lucky enough to get reduced-price tickets to the show from the TKTS booth in Times Square.
On a technical note, before I get into the real meat of the show, I loved the usage of lights and projections on the wall as the show progressed. They enhanced the performance rather than distracting from it, as has been the case with other shows I have seen on Broadway recently. Whereas the complex projections coupled with loud music, an intricate set and a full cast immersed in a complex dance number can become overwhelming and confusing, this minimal production with only one actor, several musicians and bare brick walls was the perfect production for lighting and projections to show just what they are capable of when it comes to improving an already fantastic show.
Anthony Rapp’s performances in the original Broadway cast of Rent and in the 2005 film version of the musical are not exactly what would make you label him as a powerhouse performer. His performance is incredibly moving and raw, but not exactly forceful, to no fault of his own. That’s just not the way the part’s written (and what a magnificent part it is). In Without You, Anthony shows off just how much he is capable of, vocally and acting-wise. In a mere 90 minutes, he cycles through a copious amount of emotions that would leave anyone reeling if they experienced them all within a year. Yet, he moves from one to another fluidly, with sheer grace and talent, sometimes flipping from one to the other swiftly and other times fully submerging himself in one specific sensation to clearly communicate to the audience exactly what he was feeling in that very moment before moving on.
Not only does Anthony switch flawlessly from emotion to emotion, but also from voice to voice as he reenacts real conversations he had with others, from his mother to Jonathan Larson to director Michael Grief. Realizing what a fantastic voice actor he is and knowing what a fan he is of the sci-fi and fantasy genres in which animation is a particularly popular medium, I am thoroughly surprised that he has not voiced any major characters in any animated series or films. Casting directors, what are you waiting for?
Of all his talents, nothing stunned me more than Anthony’s vocals. These days, his rendition of “One Song Glory” outshines that of Adam Pascal, who I have seen perform it twice in the last several years. Quite a soft-spoken, gentle man in real life, the way Rapp portrays his own life story with such hard-hitting rock vocals and unforgiving lyrics is at once mesmerizing and unsettling, painting a portrait of how he and, by extension, all of us endure tragedy, loss and hardship as well as encounter joy, passion and love, and yet the amount of those feelings that are apparent to those we interact with is a miniscule sliver of all of the rage, sorrow and elation that lives within us.
Without You runs through June 11th and I encourage everyone reading this to go and see it. You won’t regret it. Buy tickets here.
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