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[Instrumental music from RENT]
PAUL ALLEN: Hi there, fellow RENTheads. My name is Paul Allen.
I’m your official blogger for Siteforrent.com.
Today, I’m here with producer Jeffrey Seller. Very excited.
My first question - why return to RENT now, and what’s different this time around?
JEFFREY SELLER: I hate to seem facetious, but why not?
It’s been almost three years since RENT closed on Broadway,
and I think we perceived that there’s a place for RENT in this marketplace,
in this city, in this country, in this world, and that the fans keep generating anew.
Young people who were five, seven, twelve years old when the show opened are now often in their twenties and they’re interested in the show.
It still seems to have something to say to young people.
Its message seems to still be contemporary even though the show is not, even though it takes place in 1991.
PAUL: As you just brought up, RENT takes place in a very much - a different New York than the one we see today.
How do you bring RENT to the new generation and still make it relevant and fresh?
JEFFREY: Through the heart.
Politicians will come and go. Cars will come and go, fads in New York City will come and go.
But the search for love is constant.
The bohemian drive to honor thy soul, to follow my dreams without selling out never go away.
So those basic tenets, that idea of living every day as if it might be your last, trying to find love, trying to pursue my dreams without selling out,
that’s contemporary in 1991, in 2001, and in 2011.
PAUL: Fantastic. We see some bands nowadays, you know, leaving their big labels because of that to pursue indie affiliation.
So, in comparison, do you think RENT’s return to an Off-Broadway venue is a chance for the show also to return to its roots?
JEFFREY: [sighs] Lord knows.
Does returning to Off-Broadway return us to our roots? Sure.
RENT was conceived as an Off-Broadway show by Jonathan Larson when we used to talk about it before it ever opened at New York Theatre Workshop.
Our greatest dream for it was that it would live downtown in a garage somewhere where we could have 350 or 400 seats and do it for that audience.
The idea that we would ever go to Broadway that was very far from our minds.
So, here we are, fifteen years later, going to Off-Broadway.
It ain’t a garage, but, it’s only 499 seats, and that’s a lot of power to push through those walls.
PAUL: With this show, you have such a loyal following from the RENTheads.
There must be a certain consideration for their opinion.
Is there a balance that needs to be struck between bringing in the new ideas in correlation to keeping old ones?
JEFFREY: Well, without RENTheads, there would be no RENT. PAUL: Mhm.
JEFFREY: But this isn’t American Idol and no one gets to vote. [laughs]
So, this production is a reflection of the vision of director Michael Greif
and all of the talented artists that he brings around them to make something that is in many ways singular.
It’s his vision. It’s his interpretation of Jonathan’s work.
We don’t do that through committee, we don’t do that through surveys.
We do that through blood and guts and art. [laughs]
PAUL: Now, RENT’s last run Off-Broadway, as you mentioned, at NYTW was wildly successful and the show quickly moved to the Nederlander.
If this production is as successful as everyone hopes it’ll be, will we see another return to Broadway?
JEFFREY: I can’t predict the future; I couldn’t predict that RENT would become what it became, but that’s not our plan.
You know, our plan is to do it in this 499-seat theatre on an economic model that could allow us to run there for a long time.
We’ve certainly seen that when Kevin and I, with our partner Robyn Goodman, brought Avenue Q Off-Broadway from Broadway,
it worked out beyond our wildest imagination.
And it’s still there almost two years later happily in a theatre right next door.
So, I can - you know, my great hope is that, two years from now, we still have New World Stages populated by RENT on the left and Avenue Q on the right.
PAUL: Last question. Every RENThead has their favorite song and their favorite character.
You’re obviously RENThead by far, probably the biggest - I need to know.
JEFFREY: “I’ll Cover You.” PAUL: Yeah.
JEFFREY: “I’ll Cover You” by a longshot. PAUL: Yeah.
JEFFREY: It still makes me cry. It made me cry last night at the dress rehearsal
and I have been emotionally, physically attached to that song since the first time I heard it. It fills me up with emotion as I say that.
PAUL: And would you say Collins would be your favorite character as well?
JEFFREY: You know, favorite character, I don’t know! PAUL: [laughs]
JEFFREY: Strangely, that’s a harder question. PAUL: Yeah?
JEFFREY: You know, are Collins and Angel my favorite characters because they sing that song, because that song is an embodiment of them?
I don’t know, I mean, it’s just Jonathan’s greatest musical moment to me in that play.
The metaphor of the song and the practicality of the song was genius.
It was as good as any song I’ve ever heard.
I don’t have a favorite character, but I know that that song, performed well, moves me every time.
PAUL: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jeffrey. JEFFREY: You’re welcome.
PAUL: It’s been an absolute pleasure.
JEFFREY: Good. Have a good time with this, make some good video. And away you go.