Fast & Furious with Anthony Rapp

Photos: Rae Votta

Anthony Rapp's founding role as Mark Cohen in Rent has spanned low-rent workshops to record-breaking Broadway runs to a major motion picture. He talked with Out.com about the next and final phase of the seminal musical, his potential career as a celebrity spokesmodel and his dream casting for a porn shoot.

Out.com: So I just read you're going to do a national tour of Rent?
Anthony Rapp: In January '09, so I've got a long time. We're going all over the country for 30 weeks, and Japan as well. It looks like I'll do an out of town production of my one-man show [Without You, about doing Rent for the first time during the illness and death of his mom], then do it in New York when I get off the [Rent] tour. When and where we're doing the one-man not definite yet -- it looks like in the fall.

So what was it like assistant-directing Rent director Michael Greif in the recent rock musical, Next to Normal?
Great. The show is walking and will have another life, though the critical response was a little bit frustrating. And technically, every time you make any change in a musical, the ripple effects are so huge, whereas in a play you can cut a line and do one little light cue differently.

Do you prefer acting or assistant-directing?
Ultimately I prefer the catharsis I get from acting, because after a while directing gets frustrating. You have to watch it over and over again, which is interesting, but you never get to have that release that you do as an actor. Watching a play over and over again is a little like blue balls. You can only do so much.

Do you have any sort of release?
In my life. [Laughs]

If you had to do a porn scene, who would you choose to do it with?
I'm not always huge into movie stars. When I was younger, it would've been River Phoenix. I always felt like we were peers, but he was also beautiful. I don't know if there's anyone like him for me anymore.

Mika?
I've seen pictures. I guess I wouldn't say no.

What would the setting be?
I'm not into porn that much. I'm very vanilla. One of the most beautiful places I've ever had sex was on a very remote beach in Kauai at sunset where you have to drive through sugar cane trees to get to and there's a huge granite wall of mountain right behind you. That would be pretty good.

You seeing someone right now?
No, just a little dating. Nothing serious.

What's your favorite dating platform?
I just discovered dlist.com last week. I've had some really nice conversations on it. It's not just trolling for a quickie.

Do you know Daniel Nardicio, who started Dlist?
I met him years ago but I don't really know him.

Would you consider being a spokesperson for Dlist?
Sure. I think he probably wants somebody hotter. But I like that it feels like community building and it's not just a meat-market.

So no Manhunt for you?
No.

What's the gayest thing you've done lately?
Playing poker is not very... I sang at Northeastern University, and I sang a couple Hedwig songs, "Wicked Little Town" and "The Origins of Love."

You think that's the best rock score ever -- other than Rent, of course?
I think it's a better rock score than Rent. It's more purely rock and roll. Rent is more theatrical.

-- TIM MURPHY

Below, Rapp checks his prescription for curious reporters...

Comments

[oakling]

excellent answers! Especially Hedwig :)
And it's very true about the difference between the two. We talk about this at work a lot (why? I work at a drug and alcohol counseling center for youth, with an LGBT support group... somehow we have a whole Rent meme where people can't stop singing that song about all the minutes) and the general consensus is that Rent only really had the one song that all its other songs tended to sound like, whereas Hedwig was much more rock and had much more variety.

[Adam Amel]

This posting had the words: Anthony Rapp, RENT, National Tour and Hedwig... thank you for putting all of my favorite things together in one convenient post.