Date: Oct 06, 2011

"Rent" Star Anthony Rapp Rocks the Hofstra Stage

October 29, 4 p.m., John Cranford Adams Playhouse

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY  … Hofstra University will present a concert by Anthony Rapp, original star of Rent, both off-Broadway, on-Broadway and in the film version of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical. Rapp and his band will perform songs from Rent among other selections on Saturday, October 29, 2011, at 4 p.m. at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse, South Campus. Rapp’s concert coincides with Hofstra’s production of Rent, performed by the Department of Drama and Dance, October 21-30.

Tickets to the concert are $25, $20 senior citizens (over 65 with ID) and matriculated non-Hofstra students, and $15 Hofstra students with a current HofstraCard. Concert ticketholders will also receive one free admission to a performance of Hofstra’s production of Rent (which has an 8 p.m. performance that evening).

For tickets and more information call the Hofstra Box Office at (516) 463-6644, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

About Anthony Rapp

Anthony Rapp has been acting and singing professionally since he was nine years old.  With an extensive list of achievements, Rapp is best known for originating the role of ‘Mark Cohen’ in Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award-winning rock opera, Rent, for which he shared an OBIE Award with the rest of the cast.  He reprised his role in Chris Columbus’ film version opposite other members of the original cast.  Rapp recently visited the role once more with original cast member Adam Pascal in the Rent Tour. Anthony will next be seen in Don Roos’ 17 Photos of Isabelle opposite Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow and Jefferey Dean Morgan.
 
Anthony has an extensive theatre background, his most recent Broadway show was Second Stage Theatre’s Some Americans Abroad. Other Broadway credits include the revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation.  His Broadway debut was in Precious Sons with Judith Ivey and Ed Harris, for which he received an Outer Critics Circle award and a Drama Desk nomination.
 
Film credits include Adventures in Babysitting, School Ties, Dazed and Confused, Six Degrees of Separation, Man of the Century, David Searching, Road Trip, and A Beautiful Mind (SAG Award nomination for Ensemble).  He has also appeared in Winter Passing, a film written and directed by his brother, Adam Rapp.

A writer as well, Anthony wrote a book entitled Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent (Simon & Schuster) about his struggle to balance the demands of life in the theatre with his responsibility to his family during his mother’s battle with cancer.  He recently adapted the book into a one-man show entitled “Without You” which he has performed on stages throughout the country. 
 
On television, Rapp has appeared in The Lazarus Man, The X-Files, The Beach Boys: An American Family, Kidnapped and Law & Order: SVU.

In 2000, he released his debut album, Look Around.   He has performed his music in clubs and colleges throughout the country. He supports and helps raise funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Friends in Deed.

About Hofstra’s Production of Rent
Directed by Cindy Rosenthal

A smash hit off- and on-Broadway in the 1990s, Jonathon Larson’s Rent is a musical celebration of “La Vie Boheme,” loosely based on Puccini’s opera and set on East Village streets, fire escapes, tenements and cafes. This ground-breaking roller coaster ride depicting the joys and sorrows of an eclectic, diverse troupe of young artists and activists will captivate audiences.

Show times are Friday, October 21 and 28, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, October 22 and 29, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, October 23 and 30, at 2 p.m. at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse, South Campus.  Tickets are $15, $12 senior citizen (over 65) or matriculated non-Hofstra student with ID. Members of the Hofstra community may receive up to two free tickets upon presentation of a current HofstraCard.

For tickets and more information call the Hofstra Box Office at (516) 463-6644, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

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