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With the release of "Rent" actor Anthony Rapp's new book, "Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Musical 'Rent' " (Simon and Schuster, $25), fans of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play have one more reason to weep this week.
In the tome, Rapp, one of the musical's earliest hires, writes that he had to endure nightly the play's emotional themes of AIDS and "AZT breaks" set in New York City's East Village in 1989.
Plus, there was the sudden death of "Rent" creator Jonathan Larson of an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm literally on the eve of the show's off-Broadway opening in 1996, and also an overwhelming personal life.
While Rapp was playing sold-out shows with VIPs like former President Bill Clinton, first lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea in the audience, his mother was in the final stages of terminal cancer, languishing in hospice care in Joliet, Ill., where he would fly on his one day off a week.
"I never had any doubt that I was going to be as honest as possible," Rapp told Buzz as he was leaving Manhattan for a national book tour. In exchange for that honesty, readers often get a glimpse of an exhausted, angry, imperfect son and a mother who, even riddled with cancer, still isn't comfortable discussing her son's homosexuality.
Rapp's memoir is often just as unblinking, unflinching and as unyielding as Larson's gritty Broadway Bohemia.
"It's rare in our culture when we have a clear-eyed relationship to death and dying," said Rapp. "In a lot of ways, Sept. 11 first gave many people an opportunity to grieve where the grieving process was actually up in people's faces. To me, that may have been the only positive thing to come out of it. We had to engage in that dialogue. I hope we can keep that door open."
With the two-disc DVD of "Rent" hitting stores this week, Rapp is also defending the film adaptation of the musical on his book tour. Rapp's anger rises when discussing some of the critical slams the film took on its theatrical release last December.
"It's unconscionable that some critics wrote that dealing with HIV and AIDS is now somehow a dated thing. You don't have to love the piece. But to say that [the themes of] friendship, family and people living with AIDS is somehow now passe is absolutely absurd."
Rapp also takes offense at critics who assert that the Broadway show only succeeded because of Larson's untimely demise.
"That's an insult not only to Jonathan and the truth and the relevance of 'Rent,' but also it's an insult to his parents and friends. 'Rent' is celebrating its 10th anniversary on Broadway this year. A show doesn't run for a decade based on that. At some point, the relevance of the work has to affect people." Sir Elton, Celine raise funds
Peachtree Road resident Elton John and his Las Vegas Caesars Palace theater mate Celine Dion sang together for the first time Monday night at a benefit to raise money for Harrah's Entertainment Inc. workers affected by last year's hurricanes.
The pair, who sang duets of "Sorry" and "Saturday Night" before a packed Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Monday night, also were joined by Jerry Seinfeld to raise $2.1 million for about 8,000 casino workers in the Gulf Coast region.
The money came on top of $4.5 million the world's largest casino operator already had collected for its staff, said Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman.
"I've played in Biloxi [Miss.] many times," John said. "I'm just glad we can do a little something for those people's lives that will never be the same again for many, many years. God bless them."
About 4,100 people paid $100 to $1,000 each to watch the trio take turns on the stage. Ray Charles' daughter helps, too
The daughter of Georgia native Ray Charles says she hopes a recent performance in Pascagoula, Miss., will help keep the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the public eye.
"One of the things that happens when you have such a huge natural disaster is it's big news for about a week," said Sheila Raye Charles."Then it's easier for people to rest and sleep at night, because they think once they don't see it on the news, that it's gone away. And it just sincerely hasn't."
Charles, 29, performed Sunday at the Pascagoula High School gym. The event was sponsored by the Minnesota-based nonprofit groups Max Respect Foundation and Agape Food for Peace Missions.
"I'm here to bring some joy and happiness, and hopefully, even for the moment, try to bring people to a different mind-set than where they're at in their life," she said. Celebrity birthdays
Announcer Don Pardo is 88. Director Jonathan Demme is 62. Actress Julie Walters ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Billy Elliot") is 56. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 47. Naturalist Steve Irwin ("The Crocodile Hunter") is 44. Comedian Rachel Dratch ("Saturday Night Live") is 40. Actress Jeri Ryan ("Boston Public," "Star Trek: Voyager") is 38. Actor Thomas Jane ("The Sweetest Thing") is 37. Actress Drew Barrymore is 31.
Contributing: news services. If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
