RENT’S Adam Pascal Takes the Show on the Road
Adam Pascal was a rock ‘n’ roll musician who had no theatrical credits when he landed the role of Roger in RENT—a show that would garner him a Tony nomination and forever change the sound of Broadway. Now, Pascal shares his journey through the shows he’s performed along the way: Aida, Cabaret, Memphis, Chicago, and more. His solo acoustic concert, “So Far,” is coming to the Arthur Pryor Bandshell in Asbury Park on July 28 and BellWorks in Holmdel on July 29 as part of Axelrod Performing Arts Center’s Vogel Summer Concert Series.
Pascal chats with host Maddie Orton about:
2:13: Creating “So Far”
6:38: How Adam Pascal landed the role of Roger in RENT
7:46: How Roger got bleached hair and a leather jacket
13:09: Taking over some of Broadway’s biggest roles
17:45: Adam’s dream roles (and our dream roles for him)
25:37: The legacy of rent 25 years later
LINKS:
“So Far” presented by Axelrod Performing Arts Center
Adam Pascal sings “Phantom” with Seth Rudetsky
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Maddie Orton: This is my like high school dream come true.
Adam Pascal: I appreciate that. You can age me right off the bat. Thank you so much. I'm just joking. I appreciate it. Honestly.
Maddie Orton: I'm Maddie Orton and you're listening to the Jersey Arts Podcast. Adam Pascal made a name for himself is Roger and the original Broadway cast of RENT, going from rock and roll musician who had no theatrical credits to Tony-nominated toast of the town, all in the musical that forever changed the sound of Broadway. Adam went on to originate the roles of Ramiz and Aida and Chad in Disaster, as well as join the casts of several other big name beloved shows, you might also know him from the movies School of Rock, SLC punk, and of course, the film adaptation of RENT. Adam will be performing his solo show called so far on the Jersey Shore later this month. So we chatted about the show, and Adam gave me some very cool insight into the original production of RENT, how he created his solo concert, and what some of his dream roles may or may not be, take a listen.
So, you're going to be playing a couple shows coming up part of your so far solo concert and you're going to be at the Arthur Pryor bandshell in Asbury Park, then you're going to be at BellWorks in Holmdel through Axelrod Performing Arts Center as part of their Vogel Summer Concert series on the 28th and the 29th of July, respectively.
Tell me a little bit about the show.
Adam Pascal: Yes, well, I'm very excited to be coming to New Jersey. It's been a really long time since I've played there. Actually, you know what, it's... I'm hoping to recreate and get some better memories. The last time, I think, I played in Jersey was in the... on the RENT national tour in 2009, and I had a neck injury. And I was out of the show and I was stuck in a in a — I don't know why this happened — but I was in this really horrible hotel like on the side of the highway in Jersey, and I was stuck there. And I was out of the show. And I was... I couldn't leave this room because I couldn't move. Anway, I am so excited to come back and form some new memories of my old friend New Jersey. This will definitely get better than that.
Maddie Orton: Yes, I definitely will be.
Adam Pascal: So my show is... it's an acoustic retrospective of my career on Broadway so far. And so there, you know, the name is "So Far." And, and it starts with my story of how I ended up getting cast in RENT, which was my first show and my, you know, my first job. And how that turned me into a, you know, Broadway star, for lack of a better term, you know, and, and then, and then what my career has been like since then. So I talk about all the shows that I've been in, and I play a song from all of those shows, not always necessarily a song that I sang in that show,
Maddie Orton: Okay.
Adam Pascal: there's a couple that I that I that I played a different song, but you know, I'm I'm, I'm a very open person. The show is very uncensored and I try and tell the stories of how things happened to me and in the best ways that I remember them. And you know, and, and I hopefully am entertaining and funny. And I have had an amazing time rearranging the songs in an acoustic, a solo acoustic way of accompanying myself. And I have this little fun fun little toy that sings with me too, which is, which is cool.
Maddie Orton: What does that mean? A fun little toy that sings with you?
Adam Pascal: Well, it's this it's this little, it's like a it's like a, an effects device that my guitar and my my microphone go through. And I use my my little tootsie here, my foot, to turn it on and off, and and it's got different effects on it. And it's got real time vocal harmonies,
Maddie Orton: Oh, wow.
Adam Pascal: that you can turn on and off and change to high harmonies or low harmonies, whatever. And so I've started I've been playing around with this thing and it's, it's amazing. And so it just, you know, it adds this just a whole other element to just a voice and a guitar. You know, it just brings a you know, another element into the mix.
Maddie Orton: I want that for, like, my shower or like my car for my own personal use of hearing myself, yourself. Yeah. That would be great. That's fantastic. You told me one of the songs that you're going to be doing is your audition song for RENT. Is that right?
Adam Pascal: Yeah, you know, it's part of the story of... other than the songs that I play that are from the shows that I've been in, a couple of other, two other, songs that I play are my my first two shows... the first two audition songs I had for my for my first few shows, which were RENT and then Aida. Since then, I've never auditioned for anything with anything other than the song from the show. I was auditioning for
Maddie Orton: Sure.
Adam Pascal: I don't have any other audition songs past that. Um, but so but I butI play those two and, and and it just, you know, it just so happens, luckily, they both serve themselves to this acoustic way in which I'm presenting it. You know, not everything always does, you know. Like, I had to figure out, do the songs that I sang in that show work acoustically and if they don't, let me pick something else, and what will that be? Generally, that thing kind of comes to me pretty quickly, I'll get like, sort of a spark of an idea.
Maddie Orton: I love that
Adam Pascal: I play, I play "Funny Honey" from “Chicago,” which is always a surprise to people. And, cause I, cause I love that song, and it just, like, clicked right away that this would be a great acoustically. You know, it's Kander and Ebb, and actually is so similar to "Maybe This Time," which I play from "Cabaret," which is another song from a show that I was in that I didn't sing. So I do, actually, I play both of those songs. I don't do them back to back, because the show is in order.
Maddie Orton: Oh, that's fun.
Adam Pascal: So the show starts with “RENT” and goes to “Aida,” yea, so. That's kind of another thing that's fun for me. Traditionally, in my live performing, I would close or encore with something from “RENT”
Maddie Orton: Sure
Adam Pascal: But now I open with something from “RENT.”
Maddie Orton: Which is... can we say?
Adam Pascal: Oh, yea. Which is "One Song Glory." Which is, actually, that's a lie. I don't open the show with that. That is the first song from a show, but, actually, the first song that I sing is, um, I play a piece of the U2 song, "Red Hill Mining Town," which is the song I auditioned for. So I play some of that first, and it's sort of worked into the way that I tell the story.
Maddie Orton: This sounds like such a fun concert! Okay, so tell me, a lot of people have heard this story, but for anybody who hasn't heard this story, because I do think this is actually one of the most insane casting stories I've ever heard: Speaking of the U2 song, how did you get cast in RENT?
Adam Pascal: Well, I grew up in New York City and Long Island. And right down the street from me, literally right down the street from me, was Idina Menzel, big Broadway star, Idina Menzel,
Maddie Orton: That's wild.
Adam Pascal: Yeah. And I've so I've known her and literally rode the bus to school with her since third, since third grade all the way through high school. Yeah. And anyway, I played in rock bands, you know, I never did theater growing up, I was in rock bands. And she was in bands too. But she also did theater, like, you know, but I just exclusively played in rock bands. I never thought about doing theater. Anyway, cut to, you know, 1995. And I get a call from her. And she's like, "Hey, you know, I'm doing this off-Broadway musical. And it's a rock musical. And they're... there's an open casting call for this role and I thought of you and I don't know if you would ever do anything like this or be interested. But do you want to audition?" And I had, like, just broken up with the band that I had been with all those years. I just cut off all of my Bon Jovi hair, you know, like... I did, I, like, I cut it all. That's why Rogers hair looks the way it looks like the original, like the way I looked like the way Roger, the original look of what Roger looked like, is because I had just cut off all of that hair and bleached it white. You know, so it was like, yeah, and so that's why he looks that way. Had I looked another way, he might have looked another way. You know,
Maddie Orton: I mean, what's funny is like one decision that you made in 1995, has changed the course of like, costume design history for “REN” for the next 25...
Adam Pascal: Yeah, I mean, well, yeah, that that's actually a much larger, a much larger situation, because -- in a good way, I don't mean to make it sound like a situation in a bad way. But like, we all wore our own stuff, like, you know, we all
Maddie Orton: Really
Adam Pascal: so much of the costuming and the way that those characters looked was was like we would come in and Angela, our costume designer, would would see something on one of us and go, "That's great, what you're wearing right now, can we use that?" and she would then incorporate it into so so much of the... Another example is, so Roger has a motorcycle jacket that he wears in the second act.
Maddie Orton: Sure.
Adam Pascal: And there's a painting on the back and it says "Only the good die young." Most people probably don't know that because you don't really ever see his back for long enough with that jacket on the audience would ever know that. Anyway, long story short, that was my jacket. And I wore to rehearsal. And she was like, "you got to wear that in the show." And so that became the jacket. You know what I mean? And the painting the painting that was on there, it said "only the good die young" was a painting that I had put on there, which was from a concert a Billy Joel concert tshirt,
Maddie Orton: Of course, a good Long Island kid. Of course, it's Billy Joel.
Adam Pascal: Exactly, exactly. So the kufi that Collins wears was Jesse's kufi, just, he wore one every day and, and, you know, Daph's... this I can't remember. Certainly, there was something of Daphne's, I can't remember what it was. It might be like the long leopard coat that she wears in the second act. But there was something major that she wears that was hers like all of us have some stuff like that.
Maddie Orton: Well, you were, I mean, you were in your early 20s, right?
Adam Pascal: I was in my, yes, I was in my mid-20s. I was 25.
Maddie Orton: Yeah, that's... I mean, you're very young in your career at that point, and you'd never done theater before, which I think is absolutely insane.
Adam Pascal: That is, if that is true, that's 90% true. And the 10%, what that's not true, is that in 19... I'm guessing it was either 1977 or 78. And I was the young and I was the youngest kid, I went to Stagedoor Manor, which is a really popular, famous performing arts camp. I went there for two weeks. So I can't say that I've never I had never done anything. When I was seven, I went to Stagedoor Manor for two weeks.
Maddie Orton: Okay, so you went to Stagedoor Manor for two weeks, I studied theater for nine years. But that's fine. Let's...<laughs> What I think is amazing about that, is that, you know, there are people like me, or probably most people in the industry, who are doing repetition exercise and all these things for years and years, so that they don't get on stage and think like, "Oh, my gosh, what do I do with my hands normally?" And you were so amazing and comfortable that you got a Tony nomination. I mean, did you have to go through this crazy learning curve in a short period of time? Or did it just come naturally to you?
Adam Pascal: I would say yes and no is the... I mean, are you like, I mean, I had to learn a lot. But what I didn't have to learn, and I would imagine is a really hard thing to learn, is to be comfortable and natural. You know what I mean? To teach some... you know, it's like, it's one of those things that you kind of get it or you don't, you know what I mean? It's just you either feel, you know, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that. So I don't want to make any...
Maddie Orton: No, I think that sounds right.
Adam Pascal: But here's the here's the interesting thing. From the first time I ever walked out on stage in “RENT,” if any, it started in rehearsals in front of the people in the room, like I felt a level of comfortability. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that word right. Comfortability? <laughs> Well, how do you pronounce that?
Maddie Orton: “Is it just comfort? Comfort?”
Adam Pascal: A level...? Okay, that's better.
Maddie Orton: I don't know. I'm going to Google it later...
Adam Pascal: No, no, that's better. Yes, of course, I need to stop saying that other word. All right. I'm eliminating it from my vocabulary. And it's gone. I felt the level of comfort going out in a musical, in that environment, that I never felt as the singer of a rock band. You know, and I think part of it had to do with the fact that I was never fully comfortable being the singer of a rock band, because I didn't know how to put on a persona. And I wasn't comfortable with my own persona.
Maddie Orton: Sure.
Adam Pascal: So and so and so. So there was always just a level of uncomfortability. <BLEEP>
Maddie Orton: <laughs>
Adam Pascal: I need an exorcism. It's taken up until, like, now and it's and it's always a growth process to be comfortable as yourself on stage.
Maddie Orton: Sure.
Adam Pascal: Doing your own thing, playing music, being yourself, talking to the audience as yourself and not playing a character.
Maddie Orton: So you've taken on a lot of these very iconic roles. You originated Roger, you originated Radames.
Adam Pascal: Yes.
Maddie Orton: And then you were in the replacement cast for several just enormous shows. You know, "Pretty Woman," "Chicago," "Something Rotten," which I saw you in and you were awesome.
Adam Pascal: "Cabaret,"
Maddie Orton: "Cabaret."
Adam Pascal: and "Memphis"
Maddie Orton: and "Memphis." What is it like to be in a put-in rehearsal, where you're not originating the role, and you only have two weeks to get everything in your bones?
Adam Pascal: Well, I can only, obviously, speak from my own personal experience. And my first time doing it was in was "Cabaret," and "Cabaret" was my, and "Cabaret" was my third show. And "Cabaret" changed my life in oh so many ways. But I worked so hard to learn that part because everything about doing that roll was new to me. I you know, every number was a fully choreographed number, and I had never done anything like that before.
Maddie Orton: When for anybody who doesn't know, you were the Emcee, which is
Adam Pascal: Correct.
Maddie Orton: I, I would argue just one of the hardest parts in the Broadway
Adam Pascal: To learn, yes, but once I knew it, it was the most fun I ever had, you know what I mean? It was like, and especially in that production,
Maddie Orton: Yeah.
Adam Pascal: on that stage, you know, with all of those other you know, brilliant actors and, and I was the last emcee, you know, I was I was hired to close it. So I was like, God, the pressure was great, great. But, um, but it was it was again, it changed my life because it It taught me that I could do it, and nothing would ever be this hard, you know, in terms of like learning apart would know And nothing has been, but it taught me how to do it, I taught myself how to do it, what the, the, that's the things that I needed to do in in those two weeks to learn the lead role for a musical and to and to be able to like get on stage in two weeks, like I figured out what my personal process is,
Maddie Orton: So what is it?
Adam Pascal: It's like, I know how to do it. One of the things that really I just figured out that really works well for me is I do I make an audio recording of the, the actual an actual performance of the production. So I have a full audio recording, at least the stuff that I'm my character's in, you know, I don't do it for the whole thing if I'm notin it. But like so, but I make a full, you know, audio recording of the production. And then and then I go back and I edit out my part. So I have the actors, the existing actors responding to the lines that I am to be giving them, you know what I mean?
Maddie Orton: Sure.
Adam Pascal: I've learned the blocking in, you know, during the day in the rehearsal room. So now I have I have the blocking in my head, you know, and so I can go home. So I've just spent, you know, nine hours in a rehearsal rehearsal room, you know, with the, you know, other, you know, the base it basically you get, you get, like, maybe like the dance captain and, and the assistant director and an accompanist. And this poor dance Captain has, and they have to put me in and she, he or she has to do every part, you know what I mean?
Maddie Orton: Oh my gosh.
Adam Pascal: And so, yeah, but I've always had really great people. I've never, you know what I mean? Everyone has always taught me so well how to how to get into these shows. They've, they've all been amazing. But anyway, so then after the day, after the day in the rehearsal studio, I go home, and I have this recording now that I can, in my brain, literally start doing the performance in my living room. You know what I mean?
Maddie Orton: That's fantastic. Yeah, I think for people who don't realize, you know, because you think about all the effort that goes into originating a role, but just the crazy amount of effort that goes into these put-in rehearsals, for anybody who doesn't realize, it's just I mean, it is really, really impressive.
Adam Pascal: Yeah, it's, it's a lot. It's, it's a lot. But you know, I mean, I feel like I'm built for this kind of thing. You know what I mean? I just, I am. Like, I, you know, I have a lot of people, a lot of peers of mine who were like, bemoaning they're like, I don't know, if I want to do how much longer I want to do the eight shows a week, and all of a sudden, I was just like, I love doing eight shows a week. You know, I mean, I mean, look, I don't love doing eight shows a week, I love working three hours a day.
Maddie Orton: <laughs>
Adam Pascal: I mean, I'll take doing eight shows a week to work, you know, three hours a day, and you know, twice on Sunday.
Maddie Orton: So you've done all these iconic roles.
Adam Pascal: Yeah,
Maddie Orton: You recently did an interview though, with Seth Rudetsky, where he had you sing, the role of Phantom and "Phantom of the Opera," and he said, this is, this is one of your dream roles. And you were hedging a little bit. You were like, it's one of my dream roles. But I wouldn't say it's my dream role. Do you have like a dream role, dream role that...
Adam Pascal: I don't have a dream role, dream role. And and Phantom is certainly... Look, this goes back to what I was saying before, who doesn't want to dress up like a ghoul and run around on a stage in the dark and "ooOOOOooo," and sing these songs. That sounds like fun to me.
Maddie Orton: Yeah,
Adam Pascal: You know? Like... and so so I was like, when I always I'm always looking for like roles to play, what do I want to do? And, and, and the songs are beautiful. And I love to sing them. And, and so I was like pursuing the part and I pursued it for years. You know, what's great about that part is like, I can keep pursuing it. It's like, I'll never age out of it. You know what I mean? But anyway, I pursued it for years. And I had lots of auditions and "da da dat da da" over the course of years, and I finally got onstage in front of Cameron Mackintosh and Hal Prince. And they just, they just, they weren't feeling it, you know what I mean? And so it was
Maddie Orton: Cameron! Alright...
Adam Pascal: but whatever. You know, look, but that doesn't mean that I still wouldn't want to do it. You know what I mean? Like,
Maddie Orton: Yeah.
Adam Pascal: it would, for the reasons I just described. But, you know, again, I don't have dream roles. I have just parts that I love to sing that I think that I would be good in that I would really like to do. Jean Valjean, from Les Mis, is certainly, probably the top of my list. And I have no doubt that I'll get to play that somewhere at some point, you know, maybe not on Broadway, but it doesn't have to be on Broadway. I just want to play it in a good production somewhere. And there are really great productions. You know, I just, I just played Harold Hill, I just did "The Music Man," you know, a couple of years ago, in California at Thousand Oaks and it was like, an amazing production. I had the best time and I wouldn't get to play that part anywhere else. You know what I mean? But I got to do it in this with these great actors in this great theater. It was just awesome.
Maddie Orton: Oh my gosh. Actually, I'm gonna tell you Harold Hill is actually one of my dream rolls. That's never gonna happen. But so you should know that on this YouTube video with you and Seth, there are other people who are chiming in with their dream roles for you, which then got me thinking, what are my dream roles for you? So what I wanted to do
Adam Pascal: Oh, wonderful
Maddie Orton: is play a little game where we do like a gladiator-style, thumbs up, thumbs down.
Adam Pascal: Yay or nay. Yep.
Maddie Orton: Okay.
Adam Pascal: Okay.
Maddie Orton: So, there is a commenter from YouTube who says Judas and "Jesus Christ Superstar." Yay or nay?
Adam Pascal: Well, I'd have to give a middle on that one because I'm like,
Maddie Orton: That's like a halfway.
Adam Pascal: Yes, I love the part. And I love to sing it. I would do it once. But I, but I would never want to play that part eight shows a week. I've actually recently been offered that part. And I don't want to I it's just, it's, it's hard. And it's a lot of hard, heavy, high singing, and I'm at a place in my career where I don't want to do that eight times a week.
Maddie Orton: That's fair.
Adam Pascal: You know, as much as I want to do a show eight times a week, I don't want to kill myself like that anymore. I've done that already. So
Maddie Orton: That is a vocally....
Adam Pascal: Let's, let's give it the nay. Let's give it the nay.
Maddie Orton: Oh. You just crushed a lot of dreams.
Adam Pascal: I love it. But know that I love it. But but it has to be nay.
Maddie Orton: That is a nay. Jesus is...
Adam Pascal: I'll never do it. Go ahead... Jesus? No, same reason.
Maddie Orton: Okay, so no Judas. No, Jesus. No, no JCS. No "Jesus Christ Superstar."
Adam Pascal: Well, okay, I can't believe I, I didn't say this right off the bat. Let me back up. At the beginning of the lockdown, okay, right as the lockdown was happening, I was joining the national tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar" as Pontius Pilate. Now that's the part I was so excited to play, you know what I mean? And so I was literally, I was joining the tour for, like, six months. And I was... I flew to Cleveland, and I would they were gonna put me in the show in Cleveland. I get off the plane in Cleveland and I have a a, an email from the producer, producer saying, "I hope you get this email before you get on the plane. But we're locking down; don't do it."
Maddie Orton: Aww. So is that going to pick up do you think? Or?
Adam Pascal: It is. I'm I'm not doing it, but the tour is going back out.
Maddie Orton: Okay, so Pontius Pilate on the table.
Adam Pascal: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that's... for a 50-year-old guy like me. Absolutely. Love it. It's about 15 minutes of stage time.
Maddie Orton: And it's a great part. Another youtuber says Stacee Jaxx in "Rock of Ages."
Adam Pascal: No, no, I'm too old. I'm too old. You know, people, I appreciate that people see me like that in certain ways. And certainly, vocally, I understand why people would want to hear me do that. But that's not... doing that, that's not interesting to me. I, you know, the rock 'n' roll stuff is very tricky with me. You know, it's how my career started. And I became I very quickly became known. And still, to a certain extent am thought of as like, the rock 'n' roll Broadway guy, you know what I mean? Like, there's that So, and as much as I appreciate that connection, and am honored to be connected with this thing that I love so much, which is rock 'n' roll music, I always felt that if I if I if I if I stayed too much in that thing, I would be stuck there. You know what I mean? And so, so, like, I don't want to do too much rock. At least that kind of rock stuff. You know what I mean? Like
Maddie Orton: I think that's fair.
Adam Pascal: the traditional, the traditional, you know, "Jesus Christ Superstar" or rock-style musicals. I am very picky and choosey if I'm going to do that kind of thing.
Maddie Orton: Okay, so this one veers away from it. Another YouTuber wants you to do Fierro in "Wicked."
Adam Pascal: Okay, I'm too old. But yes, sure. And and, and I have a story about Fierro. And I'm telling the story only because I'm just such an open book. But, you know, when I came back from, from shooting the movie of "RENT," I was offered the role of Fierro on Broadway and I stupidly turned it down. I was I thought I was going to be a <bleep> movie star.
Maddie Orton: <exasperated noise>
Adam Pascal: And, and in turning down that role, I won't get into details. But by turning down that role, it it it created a cascading effect, that some things that were not so good could have been much better had I just taken that amazing offer that I've should have taken
Maddie Orton: Was this the original Broadway cast?
Adam Pascal: So I don't think it was the original cast , no. Or again, maybe some people were there. But but anyway, so Fierro, sure, if I if I was back, you know, 15 years ago. Yeah, that'd be great. But I'm too old for that.
Maddie Orton: I'm gonna give you my personal list now. Okay, ready? Umm, Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror.
Adam Pascal: Sure, again, I have been offered that several times in my career. It's one of my all-time favorite movie. Tim Curry's performance. The problem, the biggest problem with me and never having accepted that role is that Tim Curry's performance was so impactful on me in my life growing up. So iconic. And so... that I don't know what to do with that.
Maddie Orton: Hmm.
Adam Pascal: So, I love singing those songs. I love that show. I love everything about it. It has, I have such a history with it. But I just don't know what to do. That doesn't mean that if I worked with the right director and choreographer, choreographer, I couldn't figure out how to bring him out of me. That wasn't just me imitating Tim Curry, you know what I mean? Like, so I would have to say, again, that, you know.
Maddie Orton: Okay, sideways thumb
Adam Pascal: Sorry. Well, that's right. We're podcasting as well. That was a sideways thumbs, folks. I'm sorry, I forgot
Maddie Orton: One more "RENT" question and then, I promise, I'll let you go. So "RENT" turned 25 this year, it's the 25th anniversary of "RENT," which is crazy. I think I mentioned to you that I was given a burned CD of "RENT." Sorry, you didn't get my <laughs> you didn't get the proceeds from my my copy of "RENT" when I got in high school. But I got
Adam Pascal: Hold on a second. Wait a minute, hold on. I'm writing this down.
Maddie Orton: I got a burned CD of "RENT" from a friend of mine that I was doing summer theater with. And they were like, you know, "Well, you listen to 'RENT,' right?" And I was like, "Actually, I've never heard it; I've heard of it." And they burn me a CD and they gave it to me and my mind was just blown. And later on when I, you know, was in my early 20s, I was hanging out with a couple friends of mine, and we went, "Oh, my God, we're in the East Village, we have to go to the Life Cafe." And we went and we were there right before like, a couple weeks before, it closed, probably. Before it closed permanently. And they were having a private party for, like, staff. And we knocked on the door of the Life Cafe and we said, "Can we just... Can we just go inside for a second? We know you're doing your own thing. Like, we won't bother you." And it was me and two other theater nerds from Rutgers. And they were like, "Yes, come in." Because they must get this all the time. There are a couple little pieces of "RENT" memorabilia. And they were like, "You know what? Sit down. Do you want a drink? We'll give you a drink." They gave us a free drink. We talked about RENT,
Adam Pascal: How nice.
Maddie Orton: We talked about the East Village.
Adam Pascal: <laughs> That's great.
Maddie Orton: And then we left and we were all just elated that we'd had this personal experience with the Life Cafe
Adam Pascal: At the Life Cafe. That's so wonderful. I'm so... that's so nice to hear. What a great story.
Maddie Orton: It was so cool. But what it made me wonder what this whole experience that I have my own relationship with "RENT" entirely... How does it feel to have been a part of something where 25 years later people are dissecting every piece of it, and have their own relationship with this show that it's just meant so much to so many people?
Adam Pascal: I mean, it's… you know, it's hard to articulate what that feels like, because it feels like so many things, you know. But the most ironic part of the situation is that I... you know, I'm connected to this show in which I play this character who is his only desire--or so he thinks--is to just create one song, one, you know, write one song that people will remember him by and, you know, now as the clock is ticking, right. And I had that same desire, you know what I mean? That my I... growing up, I was that same guy who had that same desire. I, you know, for my own reasons, you know what I mean? But I wanted to be a rock star, just like Roger did, you know. And I, in a way, became one in the show playing this guy who wanted to become this rock star. And it's being played by a guy who wanted to become a rock star, but now, in a way became one in this weird way. In a in a musical, like, it's just, it's just, it's just like a weird sort of, like, you know, set of circumstances. But but the the larger thing is that to be associated with something that brings so much happiness to people, I mean, that's really what is the most dumbfounding thing about this. That I that I that, that a Moe like me, like is part of something so wonderful. And that means so much to so many people. Like I'm just like, amazed at that, you know.
Maddie Orton: That is so cool. I could I could literally talk to you about musical theater for the next three hours and I don't have the podcasting space to do that. So
Adam Pascal: <laughs> Another time.
Maddie Orton: I just want to say thank you so much for your time. We'll put it for people who want to check out so far your upcoming concert it's at the Arthur Pryor Bandshell in Asbury Park and at BellWorks in Holmdel through Axelrod Performing Arts Center, as part of their Vogel summer concert series at the end of July, July 28 and 29th. It was great talking to you, Adam, Pascal, thank you so much.
Adam Pascal: It was my pleasure. Lovely to speak to you.
Maddie Orton: For more information on how to see Adam Pascal in concert, visit AxelrodArtCenter.com. And to learn more about all things arts in New Jersey, or to help fund more stories like this one, visit JerseyArts.com. If you liked this episode, be sure to give us a review, subscribe and tell your friends. The Jersey Arts Podcast is presented by ArtPride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. This show is created in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and receives additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This episode was hosted, produced and edited by yours truly, Maddie Orton. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Koren Rife. Special thanks to Adam Pascal and the Axelrod Performing Arts Center. I'm Maddie Orton for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.
