Mimi & Roger: Another Time, Another Place

I might not like it, but it'd be fair to call me the very first Rent-head. After all, I was the first person in the first $20 ticket line on the morning of the show's first preview at the Nederlander Theatre back on April 16, 1996, excited to show a group of friends what I'd loved downtown at New York Theatre Workshop. But truth be told, I didn't earn the title, bestowed on those addicted fans that have seen Rent dozens of times and have the bootleg recordings to prove it. For me, what made Rent rock was that unbeatable original Broadway cast, which is why I found myself in Union, New Jersey last Sunday night.

There I sat in the darkened Wilkins Theatre of Kean University with a roomful of real so-called Rent-heads, who had all gathered to witness a rare onstage pairing of the show's original doomed lovers Mimi and Roger--Daphne Rubin-Vega and Adam Pascal. The sold-out crowd arrived early for 7:30pm show, filing into the auditorium's lobby, where Noah Cornman and Kurt Deutsch from Sh-K-Boom Records were selling Pascal's albums--Model Prisoner and the brand-new Civilian--as well as various recordings by Rubin-Vega. Kean student Joyce Belitsky got there especially early with friends Carrie Murey and Courtney Trevino, peering through the crack in the closed doors to the theater to get a peek of Pascal during his sound check. "I tried to bribe every usher to let me backstage to get a picture with him," she sighed.

Pascal and Rubin-Vega haven't sung together onstage since they recorded Rent's "What You Own" at the Hammerstein Ballroom in November 2001 for the Broadway's Best special on Bravo. "It's great," Pascal said of their pairing. "It's so familiar but in a strange way. We're not kids anymore, so it's weird. But it's great to be able to sing these songs again--and to just get to hang out again." In addition to solo sets, the twosome sang Rent hits "Light My Candle," "Another Day," "One Song Glory" and "Out Tonight" to the delight of the fans. Pascal adorably flubbed a few of his lyrics, causing the very-pregnant Rubin-Vega to tease that "somebody didn't do their homework!"

When asked about their first meeting, Rubin-Vega shared that the entire Rent cast met at late Jonathan Larson's Soho apartment. "It was on one of those Christmas peasant feasts, where everyone brings something," she remembered. "Of course, I burnt my dish. It was String Beans Almondine a la Mimi. It was completely charred on top, but it was delicious!" Rubin-Vega, who originated the role of Mimi in the workshop of Rent, was initially skeptical of her new leading man. "Adam was wearing overalls," she said. "And I remember thinking he was very cute, but the verdict was still out. Of course, once I heard him sing, he became my new best friend!" Pascal added: "Daphne had this wild hair, and I was so intrigued by her…I was intrigued by all of them."

The Kean gig marked Rubin-Vega's final performance before the birth of Luca Ariel, the son that will arrive in her and hubby Tommy Costanzo's life in late November (Rent co-star Jesse L. Martin will be the godfather). "It's a little bittersweet," she said of her final chance to rock out. The baby's name is a tribute to two special people in the married couple's lives that died recently--Costanzo's grandmother Lucia and Rubin-Vega's brother Ariel. "We were convinced that we were having a girl," Rubin-Vega said. "When they told us it was a boy, I was floored. I could have sworn up and down a stack of bibles that it was a girl! And the name Luca Ariel just came out of my mouth. It's like he named himself."

As Rubin-Vega--who has stopped smoking ("God came down and touched my lung and said, 'Enough of that!'") and takes to watching things like the live births on the Health Channel these days--gears up for motherhood, Pascal, the father of two, doesn't have much in way of advice: "It's hard to give advice cause she's a mom and I'm a dad. Nobody works harder than my wife--at her career, at being a mother, at being a wife. I couldn't really advise her cause I'm on the other side. Besides, any advice is null and void as soon as the baby comes. You don't remember what anybody told you. You just gotta go through it!" Rubin-Vega said she's heard an earful of advice. "I take what I need and I leave the rest," she laughed. "When the next batch of folks with babies come up, I'll have to bite my tongue!"

Even if she's giving birth just a handful of weeks from now, Rubin-Vega hasn't stopped working--she'll be seen on Monday, October 18, in a reading of Inés de Castro at Jean Cocteau Repertory. And Pascal, who recently closed Aida after appearing in a good chunk of its four year run on Broadway, will be showing off his new Sh-K-songs at a series of live dates, including a November 13 gig at Joe's Pub (And yes, he is still mulling an offer to play Fiyero in Wicked in January.) Can we bribe Pascal and Rubin-Vega to join forces again in the near future? A fan can dream, can't he?

PETER POPS THE QUESTION
Congratulations are in order for Peter Dinklage, best known for his award-worthy work as the loner dwarf of last year's indie film hit The Station Agent. Not only is the up-and-comer headlining the Public Theater's new production of Richard III, he's also newly engaged to girlfriend Erica Schmidt, who is best known for directing off-Broadway's Debbie Does Dallas, As You Like It and the current People Be Heard. When I mentioned the good news to Dinklage at Richard III's opening night soiree at Manhatta, he looked stunned: "Uh… Who said that?" When I informed him that word had leaked, he replied, "I like to keep that stuff private, but I'm happy." Congrats to downtown's couple du jour!

IN BOX
Dear Paul:
Will Michael McKean and Nancy Opel appear on the Hair benefit concert CD? What did you think of their performances at the benefit? I don't live in New York so I couldn't see the concert.
----Karen O'Shea
----Palatine, Illinois

Dear Karen:
The upcoming Ghostlight Records studio recording of Hair will feature all of the vocalists that appeared in the Actors' Fund of America concert at the New Amsterdam Theatre on September 20. Although there will be minor shifts in terms of who sings this line or that line, the songs will essentially be the same. Most of the cast went into the studio on October 1, with the remaining members (including my beloved Jennifer Hudson) set to finish up at the end of the month. Unfortunately, McKean and Opel will not be a part of the recording, having mostly served only as a lead-in for Adam Pascal's performance of "I Got Life." Their parts were minor--the kind of fun star cameos that make these events such a blast. Expect the full CD by March 2005.

That's it for now. Talk to you next time. Please e-mail me any of your questions, comments or critiques!

Paul Wontorek
Editor-in-Chief

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