Without You

One of the original cast members of RENT, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical, tracks the production from beginning to end, with intimate details of his own life--loves, loss of friends to AIDS, and the death of his mother. Although Rapp spends too much time whining about his relationship with a cruel lover and depicting his vigil at his mother's bedside, he delves deeply, with real emotion, into the making of a blockbuster show, providing details that any show-biz buff will adore. No matter the flaws, the climax is an unabashed tearjerker. What's missing is the music. Rapp recites lyrics from RENT, but this audio experience would have been greatly enhanced by hearing the show's music. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

December 12, 2005
As Rent
hits the big screen, Rapp, who appeared in the film and the original cast of the Broadway hit, has written a sensitive, heartfelt memoir chronicling his life on and off stage. The actor who played video artist Mark Cohen pulls back the curtains to show the musical's genesis, which involved endless rehearsals and false starts. He lauds the genius of Jonathan Larsen, its creator, and the supportive New York Theatre Workshop, which lent its facilities to the exuberant troupe and director. Rapp writes most movingly of his friends who lost their battle with AIDS—including Larsen, who died before the April 1996 Broadway opening night of his Pulitzer-winning show—as well as the long, painful demise of his mother from cancer. While the book sometimes plunges too deeply into its twin themes of love and loss, Rapp recognizes the healing power of drama and theater, writing that acting is "an escape of sorts." Absorbing, warm and hopeful, the book celebrates a man, his work and a generation struggling with AIDS but determined to survive. Photos.