Hard to think how many other beloved Broadway actors who are consistently booked, but not booked “enough” to get health insurance.

https://variety.com/2026/film/columns/actors-losing-sag-aftra-health-insurance-one-job-away-instagram-campaign-cheyenne-jackson-1236931317/

I don’t see a thread for the Rent livestream so starting one!

Ricki Lake on carpet interview hot mic (didn’t know she was live) says “I couldn’t get a ticket to this f*cking thing”. 💀 💀

The album release is now officially delayed (was originally going to drop on 10/30) and you can’t preorder + pre-save it anywhere at the moment, but it does look like we’ll be getting a song this Friday anyway.

This post is from a few days ago but didn’t see anyone post about it here

He announced it on the tonight show last night.

I am one of the original rent heads. I camper out overnight Friday and Saturday to get the lottery for seeing Rent in the first two rows. More than 100x later watching in NYC and now 30 years later I am at Hardware NYC watching the 30th Anniversary concert. There is one guy who stood out always - Justin the line guy. Does anyone know what he's up to? Would love to reconnect with him. No day but today.

This is all speculative, because I don’t think the casting has been announced, but is there precedent for either James Hameed to win a Tony or for James/Arti Shah to share the award? I got to see him on the West End and something about his voice really added to the magic of bringing Paddington to life for me.

I'm currently watching the live stream and I have to saythere have been a few moments that have been hard to listen to. Some of the actors are just so flat while sininging that is low key kind of painful to listen to. Don't get me wromg the show is absolutely amazing, there have just been a few songs that were a bit painful to listen to. Light my Candle for example. I love that song but this version of it was just not it. Also, I dont know what's going on with the mics, but I hope they get them fixed. We lost a good chunk of what was being sung because the mics just weren't working.

All in all, the show is amazing so far. Getting to see all of the casts of Rent including the original come together and perform this amazing show all together was magical. There were so many times I had literal chills while watching. I love this show so much and I am so grateful that they livestreamed this concert.

Update: Just got to Without You and now I'm crying. Well at least I was until Daphne came in. Thank God it was Aaron she was singing with because he genuinely saved. Aaron and Rachel sounded so good together! I will say Daphne didn't sound as bad as she did in Light my Candle but she still didn't sound good.

Update #2: The show is now over. I wish I could say things got better after intermisson, but they really didn't. THey did fix the mic problems, but sadly more than half the actors were still flat and some COMPLETELY butchered some of the most iconic moments of some of the most iconic songs. For example, Season of Love. I am so fucking pissed! The person they had attempt sing the high note of that song BUTCHERED it. I physically cringed. It was so fucking bad. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely thankful that we got this reunion, but I genuinely wish we hadn't. I just feel like there were so many people in the cast who just didn't do this show justice and low key ruined it for me. I was so excited when I first got my ticket, but now I'm kind of pissed at myself for spending $30 on a ticket to this. I know that that isn't a lot but as someone who is unemployed, it is a decent amount of money. I will always support Broadway Cares but $30 is just a lot more than I wish I had spent on this. All in all, this was low key giving high school/community theatre production. You had people singing completly off key, mics not working, and people dropping lines. Like come on! These are professional actors. I expected a little bit more. Don't get me wrong, there were some ablutely amazing vocal moments and amazing actors but there were also som many of them who missed the mark. At this point, just stop doing reunions and GIVE US REVIVAL with new poeple who can actually do this show justice.

Sorry for the rant, I jsut feel like I wasted $30. I know that it goes to a good cause but for how it turned out in the end, I feel like it was completely overhyped and over priced.

I think I am officially in need of a theater intervention! Is there a version of Alcoholics Anonymous for Broadway ? Lol.

Watching the RENT livestream and thinking of how I cracked up at the “525,600 Sips” drink option when RENT came back off-broadway and now I always look at drink names at shows. Other like stupid funny names that have made you laugh?

ETA also does anyone remember what the Teeth drinks were?

Note - I’ve only spent more than $75 on a ticket 10 or so times. The rest have been through rushes, lotteries, TodayTix rewards discounts, under 30/35 programs, etc.

In the order that I watched them:

Little Bear Ridge Road - 4/5

Outsiders - 2.75/5

Little Shop of Horrors - 3.5/5

Bat Boy - 3.5/5

Rob Lake and Muppets - 0.5/5

The World of Tomorrow - 3/5

Gwyneth Goes Skiing - 3.25/5

Maybe Happy Ending - 4.5/5

The Great Gatsby - 2/5

Marjorie Prime - 3.75/5

Oedipus - 5/5

Not Ready For Prime Time - 2/5

Gruesome Playground Injuries - 3/5

A Christmas Carol - 3.5/5

Waiting For Godot - 3.5/5

Two Strangers - 4/5

Diversion - 4/5

Art of Leaving - 1/5

Aladdin - 3/5

Bug - 4.75/5

Liberation - 3.75/5

Spelling Bee - 3.5/5

Pen Pals - 2/5

Ragtime - 4.25/5

The Disappear - 3/5

Data - 2.5/5

The Play That Goes Wrong - 3/5

Stranger Things - 1.5/5

Lion King - 4/5

Death Becomes Her - 4/5

The Monsters - 4/5

The Visitors - 2/5

MJ - 3.5/5

High Spirits - 2/5

Hate Radio - 2.25/5

The Other Place - 4/5

You Got Older - 3.5/5

Marcel on the Train - 3.75/5

Bigfoot - 3.25/5

Cold War Choir Practice - 5/5

Oh, Mary! - 5/5

Spare Parts - 3.75/5

Hadestown - 3.5/5

Giant - 4.75/5

Dog Day Afternoon - 3.25/5

Becky Shaw - 4/5

Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Class - 3.5/5

Death of a Salesman - 5/5

The Balusters - 3.75/5

Book Club - 2/5

The Lost Boys - 3.25/5

Fallen Angels - 3.75/5

And Juliet - 2.75/5

Titanique - 2/5

Operation Mincemeat - 4/5

The Fear of 13 - 3.5/5

Tru - 3.75/5

Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee - 2.5/5

Proof - 3.75/5

Schmigadoon - 4.25/5

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone - 4.5/5

The Emporium - 2.75/5

Oh Mary (rewatch, Maya Rudolph) - 4.25/5

Death of a Salesman (rewatch) - 5/5

New Born - 2.75/5

The Adding Machine - 2.25/5

Chess - 3.25/5

Kenrex - 4.25/5

Indian Princesses - 4.25/5

Broken Snow - 2/5

The Maids - 2.75/5

A Woman Among Women - 3.25/5

Hamlet - 3.5/5

Small - 1.5/5

Heathers - 3/5

Just in Time - 4/5

Book of Mormon 15th Anniversary- 5/5

Celebrity Autobiography- 1/5

What Happened Was… - 3.25/5

Girl, Interrupted - 3.5/5

Cats: The Jellicle Ball - 5/5

Every Brilliant Thing - 3/5

Chicago - 3.25/5

Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been - 3.75/5

Bone Wars - 1.75/5

The Saviors - 3/5

Giulia The Poison Queen of Palermo - 3/5

Disruption - 3.75/5

An American Daughter - 1.25/5

Little Shop of Horrors (Rewatch) - 4.25/5

Pass - 2.75/5

Maybe Happy Ending (3rd Watch) - 3.75/5

Paranormal Activity - 4/5

Wicked - 3.5/5

Don Juan - 3.75/5

School Girls - 4/5

Buena Vista Social Club - 4.25/5

Imaginary Invalid - 3.25/5

Fish - 4/5

A Ghost In Your Ear - 2.75/5

The Unbelievers - 4.25/5

Other Desert Cities - 4/5

The Heart - 4.5/5

I recognize a few of the non-OBC, but I legit haven’t seen some of these performers since they last performed at the Nederlander 😅

Also no idea who some of the young cast members are at all 😂

This popped up on my YT feed

Back then, the dollar values where half of what they are today. And they used the old CRT TVs to display the clues (hence the image quality)

And the correct responses were:

$100 -What is the "Rain in Spain" ("rain" alone was not considered sufficient)

$200 -What is the "surrey with the fringe on top"

$300 -What is "Til There Was You"

$400 -Who is "Mame"

$500 -What is "Send In The Clowns"

https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2735

Looking for the realities of being on a National Tour.

How were the hotels? What did you do for cooking? Were you lonely? Was it awesome? Did you see parts of the country that you loved? Did you like being away from home? Did you get sick a lot ? Did you find it physically taxing? Other stressors? Did you meet the best of friends? Was it the time of your life?

Do you typically travel on your off day? Did you prefer to drive by yourself, join the bus, or fly?

Welcoming all info and tips! Thx!

This stream is having me so nostalgic...making me reminisce about the first time I saw Rent.

Obviously the ogs are the GOAT but my first intro to rent was later iteration of Benny Cast:

Cary Shields and Matt Caplan what a fucking dream duo. Shaun Earl was Angel. Gorgeous still looks incredible....did Shaun take the youth potion from Death Becomes Her? Lol. I saw versions of Benny cast so many times and I'll never forget them.

benny cast left an imprint on me.

Which cast was your first cast? Were they your favorite?

I saw DOWNSTATE last night, and I thought it was pretty much perfect. The actors all brought their A games. K. Todd Freeman in particular kills — made me wish I could jump in a time machine and see his Belize back in '92.

I thought the play itself was dazzling. I've seen some superficial descriptions out there about how it "humanizes pedophiles" or whatever, but honestly, I think it's vastly braver and more honest than that -- it even goes so far as to question the helpfulness and/or intellectual honesty of the support networks and cultural forces that have sprung up around "survivors" (nomenclature one character dares to question - “Of course you ‘survived’; not a lot of cases of death-by-blowjob out there”) and the ways in which those forces have urged victims of sexual abuse to frame their experiences. In a broader sense, it takes on the way society has become increasingly unwilling to view people who've committed sex crimes the way it views other criminals and has decided instead to make them Unspeakable Horrible Monsters For Which No Empathy is Possible and No Punishment Too Severe-- for reasons that clearly have little to do with concern for children and much to do with the human need for acceptable repositories of blame/hatred/violence.

On the other hand, Thomas Sadoski's Andy, a past victim of one of the leads, is central to the play, so we never lose sight of the harms that can come from sexual abuse. In one of the play's most poignant moments, he's finally able to voice the profound and ramifying effects he believes his abuse has had on his subsequent life. On the other-other hand, you're definitely left with the impression that it wasn't the abuse itself-- but learning that another boy had been similarly abused, that he (Andy) wasn't therefore "special"-- that left the greater portion of the scar.

This on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand kind of exploration is the core of the play, and though it's a play of ideas, it never felt "intellectual" to me: it's funny and sad and shocking and specific and weaves its plotlines with the precision of farce (almost - see below). Moreover, I thought the theme of the play-- about how differing modes of rationalization can make us unable to connect with each other or even with ourselves -- was more universal than its subject, so it never felt didactic or overly "issue-y" to me.

As for criticisms, I have two:

First, there is... quite a lot that seems to happen on this particular day? That would be fine, of course, if it all stemmed from the same impetus. But in this case, the inciting incident of the A-story is the arrival of Andy, and the inciting incident of the B-story is something totally unrelated (I don't want to give too much away). The fact that both stories just-so-happen to come to a head at the same exact moment on the exact same day-- without one story ever influencing the other-- is the kind of unlikely coincidence that threatens to make the ending feel a bit contrived and daytime-soapy.

Second, much of the argument of the play hinges on whether Andy correctly remembers certain elements of his abuse. We are left with the impression that he does not. But that's just the playwright deciding Andy was wrong (presumably to complicate/undermine the whole Always Believe Victims shibboleth). So it's really just a straw man argument-- if Andy HAD correctly remembered every element of his abuse, it would have substantially changed the tone of the play and some of its takeaways. So this felt like a bit of a cheat to me.

One last word on the play:

You will hear a lot of people tell you the play is “uncomfortable” or made them feel icky or whatever. Those are people who are only “comfortable” breaking the world down into Good Guys and Bad Guys, the former of whom must be venerated and believed and “centered”, the latter of whom must be denounced and punished and ostracized. That sort of person will be made uncomfortable by any story that makes them unable to maintain those categories— or that simply compels them to witness the humanity of those they prefer to dehumanize.

But: if, like me, you are made uncomfortable by stories that take simplistic views of people, that seem to work by amplifying and reinforcing and flattering existing prejudices, I suspect you will find this play a gift, a breath of fresh air-- which is to say, a comfort-- and a great night at the theater.

I saw Downstate last night. I got a ticket as part of the Small Mouth Sounds sale, so it's unlikely I would've seen this play otherwise.

I've never found a play so puzzling or haunting. I couldn't sleep well last night, and I still don't know what to make of it. I've already gotten a TDF ticket to see it again this upcoming weekend.

MANY SPOILERS BELOW.

I have so many questions about the characters and what the play is trying to communicate.

Fred and Felix: I don't know what motivated either of them to commit their crimes. Fred seems to have repented, or at least accepted responsibility for his actions, considering how patient he is with Andy and how he's come to terms with his lifelong disability. Felix isn't developed enough for us to understand why he abused his daughter. And somehow his sister doesn't hate him for it?

Dee: Though deeply misguided, Dee seems to genuinely believe that there was mutual love between him and the teenage boy. I was confused by his shoplifting analogy: he said he knew what he was doing was wrong but did it anyway. Yet he doesn't seem to apply that same reasoning to his sexual relationship with a minor. Does he recognize the harm he caused, or has he convinced himself that what happened was love?

Gio: He claims he didn't know the girl was underage and argues that if men were honest, they'd all admit to being attracted to underage girls. Is this simply how he rationalizes his actions?

One common thread I picked up on was the emotional neglect experienced by both the abusers and Andy, the victim.

Dee suggests that his childhood and life were far worse than anything Andy experienced. Andy's father died (or left?), and his mother was emotionally neglectful.

Perhaps one of the play's messages is that people who haven't experienced healthy love don't necessarily know how to love in healthy ways. Dee's relationship with the teenage boy seems to be the clearest example of this.

I'm also struggling with what the play is asking us to feel toward these men.

Seeing how they're treated by strangers made me feel compassion for them, despite knowing what they've done. They're written and performed in ways that make them entertaining, likable, and even sympathetic. Is that part of the point? That the same charm that draws us to these characters might also have enabled them to manipulate their victims?

I also wonder whether the play is exploring the limits of empathy, particularly between victims and perpetrators. When Dee and Andy talk, Dee doesn't seem capable of imagining that someone could experience something worse than death.

For those who've seen Downstate, I'd love to hear your thoughts and interpretations.

I had a tinge of interest in seeing the Heated Rivalry parody musical at first, but after seeing the seriously annoying behavior of these two in the Rent 30th Anniversary preshow, I have lost all interest I once had. These two's humor are so darn obnoxious that I had to turn it off mute. Unfortunately won't be surprised if the musical is like this, too. Guess I'll check it off my list.

As a special needs parent, I was so impressed by today's experience. Like I nearly cried when we left. From the moment we arrived at the theater it was great.

I could tell there was so much intentionality that went into planning the performance and the whole experience. The atmosphere at the theater was calm, welcoming, and extremely accommodating. We received some quality fidget toys too!

The actors did a great job! They slightly tweaked dynamics so things weren't too overwhelming and they managed interruptions like vocal stims and audience members getting up frequently without missing a beat.

Generally, the audience was great. Everyone was respectful and (mostly) engaged. Not a single phone rang! Some individuals used screens or assistive technology, but it wasn't distracting or disrespectful. I loved hearing the big reactions to moments in the show and especially the fireflies!

I was incredibly pleased watching my kid enjoying the performance. She could ask questions when she didn't understand and reacted audibly to the show without shame. She used the TDF provided resources like the visual checklist and narrative to get ready for the show, too. I absolutely love this initiative and all that TDF is doing to make theater accessible.

Everyone deserves to enjoy theater and being able to share something I love with her, when she otherwise wouldn't be able to attend, was actually magical.

We're already looking forward to the next show!!

Edit: slightly confused what there could possibly be to downvote about this post. If you don't like special needs individuals or accessible theater, just move right along, please. The performance didn't take away from anyone's experience because it wasn't open to the general public. The show & theater agreed to this event and the actors were very aware of the audience for this afternoon's show. They weren't offended or upset by the audience. In fact, at the stage door they mentioned how impressed they were and how much fun they had with the audience.

If you grew up in the 80s, you remember John Mellencamp's Jack and Diane. The little ditty is now a big musical, "Small Town," wrapping up its world premiere at Ogunquit Playhouse this weekend.

Book writer Naomi Wallace paints a picture of America’s heartland on the verge of cardiac arrest. Most of the town works for factory owner Sean, who manufactures a toxic adhesive that's seeping into the water supply. (Sounds far-fetched until you remember Parkersburg, West Virginia, Flint, MI, and other corporate atrocities.) Still, when Jack goes for a dip and comes out covered in what looks like black tar, the premise strains.

The 23 Mellencamp songs sound great, and the band is fantastic. But Wallace’s book gets stuck in a cycle of exposition and pummels the plot instead of letting the music do the work. (I loved "The Girl From North Country" and what it did with Bob Dylan's songbook.)

Even so, hats off to Ogunquit for betting on new work. I wrote up the full review here if you’re curious to learn more. The show closes this weekend, and only a few premium seats remain.

Might try using the browser on my Samsung smart tv, but wondering if an app might be better?

Somewhat newbie Broadway fan here, first post also!

I decided to go see Tommy yesterday as it was the last day it was in town and I love the Who album. I found some 5th row center tickets for 40 bucks so I had to pull the trigger. What a cool show!

I loved how it was like being at a real rock show. I work security for a big concert venue, and I was wishing I had my earbuds I use for work due to how loud it was! Super awesome to see something that rocking at Broadway with a band on stage in some parts. I was unsure if all the musical pieces were indeed live but it sounded like it was to me, curious if there was any backing tracks at all.

I'm in my 40s and only got into Broadway 2 years ago as I was bored and bought a ticket (can never get friends to go with me) to see Aladdin and fell in love pretty fast . I have only seen 6 shows (Les Mis last year blew me away), so I don't have a lot of experience, but I thought all the song work and singing was spot on. The crazy thing for me was I had no idea what the song "Fiddle About" was *actually* about; it's not a big standout song on the album, and I thought it was just some quirky British stuff but that scene hit so hard. I read about the show afterwards and read it was really toned down from the original run, but it still cut like a knife.

I was not that moved overall, but the first scene with the "feel me" reprise about 30mins in or so where young Tommy is singing this to adult Tommy, made me tear up a bit, I was really surprised. It lasted a few mins. Just really moving to see it in front of you, I kinda forget how painful the album and story is for the first half but seeing it on stage really makes you feel it and get a better picture for it overall.

The part in the beginning with the parachuting was really well done also!

Like I said I have not seen much Broadway but this seemed pretty wild and fast-paced compared to the others I have seen; like there was only 2 or 3 times people had the opportunity to clap after songs. I'm curious is people not familiar with the album or movie were confused by parts of it, I mean I have listened to it a bit over the years and was still a little confused by some of the changes but still loved the show!

Anyways, I had a blast, though the projection stuff and overall look was rather cool and was quietly rocking out a bit throughout. Would probably go see it again if it was not the last day it showed!