In the new musical If/Then , Anthony Rapp plays two versions of the same character in alternate realities. It’s a complex, unique show, which — as the Rent star laments — is getting increasingly harder to find on Broadway.
Anthony Rapp stars alongside Idina Menzel in If/Then at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Joan Marcus
It's a Wednesday afternoon, which means Anthony Rapp has limited time to grab dinner between the matinee and evening performances of his current play If/Then. And that's not including the last 30 minutes he's spent signing autographs and chatting with fans outside the stage door.
"I literally had a woman out there — I just signed autographs and everything, which I do after every show — the woman said she thinks this might be as good as Rent for her, or even better," Rapp says from his dressing room a few stories above the red seats that are filled nightly at the Richard Rodgers Theatre slightly off Times Square. "Knock on wood, but I feel like I've been around enough years to have a little sense of when it's working."
The Rent comparison is apt. In 1996, Rapp originated the role of Mark in the iconic Broadway show, a part he reprised for the 2005 film adaptation. If/Then reunites him with his Rent director Michael Greif and co-star Idina Menzel, who stars here as a woman exploring dual lives.
But beyond the surface similarities, If/Then and Rent share an important approach to musical theater: Both shows offer unique, challenging material. And in 2014, originality is even harder to come by. When the Tony Award nominations were announced on April 29, If/Then, penned by Next to Normal scribes Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, was snubbed for Best Musical. Of the four nominees in the category, only one — A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder — has an original score.
Singing "You Don't Need to Love Me" from If/Then.
"I think that [original musicals] may be a little fewer and farther between than the big, mega-adaptations of big popular movies/traditional musical comedy that has a little more traditional, broader appeal," Rapp says, leaning forward in his chair. "But I think that as long as there are people like [If/Then producer] David Stone in the world who put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting new voices and other theaters like New York Theater Workshop and other regional theaters that are willing to take risks and develop new voices and new ways of telling stories in musical theater, in the musical theater language, I think there's hope."
He pauses for a moment before offering a slightly less optimistic coda: "But it's probably going to be rarer than Mamma Mia."
Rapp continues, "It's going to continue to be rarer that these outsider projects make it through. I've just never been a huge, huge fan of shows like Crazy For You and The Producers." The small dressing room adopts a confessional feel as he speaks candidly. "I understand them, and they're funny and they're fun, but… when I go to the theater, that's not what really excites me. What excites me are things like Spring Awakening and Next to Normal and Rent."
