STAGE VOICE/INTERVIEW: MICHAEL McELROY; Reprises Broadway Role of 'Collins' in National Tour of "Rent"

BY: COLIN MURPHY - SENIOR WRITER

Rent heads rejoice! The rock musical that reinvented the Great White Way returns to the Fabulous Fox June 2-7.

Rent: The Broadway Tour is a must see production with Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp and Gwen Stewart reprising the roles they originated on Broadway. Joining the trio are Justin Johnston (Angel Schunard), Lexi Lawson (Mimi Marquez), Michael McElroy (Tom Collins), Jacques C. Smith (Benjamin Coffin III), and Haneefah Wood (Joanne Jefferson).

Pascal, Rapp and Stewart originated the roles of Roger Davis, Mark Cohen and "Seasons of Love" soloist, respectively, at the New York Theatre workshop and on Broadway. Johnston, McElroy and Stewart were all members of the final company of Rent which played its last performance on Broadway Sept. 7, 2008.

Jonathan Larsen's Rent, which was inspired and informed by Puccini's La Boheme follows a group of beatnik artists in New York's East Village during the 1980s as they struggle through love, life and loss under the specter of AIDS. The critically acclaimed show, which ran for 12-years on Broadway, was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony awards for best musical, best score and best book.

The Vital VOICE recently caught up with out actor Michael McElroy who plays Tom Collins, the loveable NYU professor who falls in love with the sassy, street-smart and fabulous, Angel; the in your face transwoman who makes no apologies.

McElroy chatted it up about returning to the role of Collins, the important message of Rent and his work with the HIV/AIDS non profit, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS:

Colin Murphy: Hey Michael - How is the national tour going?

Michael McElroy: It's going really great, really well.

CM: Why do you think that Rent continues to enjoy the dedicated following that it does all across the country?

MM: I think that it speaks to a specific generation or a specific period in our culture but the themes in the piece are wide spread in terms of who they affect. It talks about just love and who you love and that's the whole point of living for this moment today. And all those things, even though it's all voiced through a specific point of view in terms of certain characters in a certain time in New York City in the East Village---what they are saying is what ever human being wants---to be loved, not to have to go through loss, all of those kind of things and I think we all can relate to. I think it's so brutally honest and raw in how it says that; that it kind of knocks down peoples barriers in terms of, Oh, well that person's this or that person's that and I don't relate to that because those things in the long run don't really matter.

CM: This particular tour is significant for Rent fans because Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are reprising their original Broadway and movie roles; what's the experience been like performing with these two who have been a part of Rent from the very beginning?

MM: Well, for me it's been great because I did the show with them. I joined the cast in 1997 a year after it had been running on Broadway, so I got to do it with Adam and Anthony for most of 1997. So it's a great experience to come back and work with both of them again and do a show that we did together 13-years ago and to see how and enjoy how we've all grown and changed and yet people are the same in terms of they're still the same incredibly humble, wonderful, fun people that they were then. And so it's been great and it's a great cast of people and everyone gets along and it's a lot of fun to do the show with them. Adam and Anthony set a wonderful example in terms of being there 150-percent and we all embrace that so it's great to be back with them again.

CM: Could you talk about the first time that you saw Rent?  As a gay man, what was your visceral response to it because obviously it was tackling a lot of issues that hadn't been addressed on Broadway before?

MM: I didn't see the show until I was actually offered the role. I was doing another show at the time that it was opening on Broadway, so I never saw it and then when that show was about to close they asked me to come in and audition because Jesse [L. Martin] was leaving to do a TV show [Law and Order]. So I went into audition and was offered the role and then went to go to the theater and get my script and to watch the show and that was the first time I saw it.

I'd heard the score and I'd seen them [the cast] on TV doing "Seasons of Love" but I'd never seen the show. So my first time seeing the show was not necessarily from an emotional point of view; it was more as an actor watching the show. So it wasn't until I had been in the show for a little while that I was really able to settle into the power of the show; at how fortunate I was to be able to play this role of a gay  black man who was a professor at NYU and a graduate of MIT and articulate and fun and funny; and an HIV-positive man who gets to meet the love of his life and fall in love and then experience loss. Those roles don't come along very often.

As a gay man, it was an honor to play the role; as a gay black man, it was an honor to play the role; and then as an actor, it was an honor to play the role because of the journey that the character gets to go on.

CM: I think it's quite poetic that the romance between Angel and Collins---of all the couples they seem to be the most functional---they've really got their shit together...

MM: And isn't that funny! [laughs] I mean how many examples do you have of that? And the fact is I think the reason that it works so well is you get to see them meet so you really follow the trajectory of their relationship. They meet on the street, they fall in love and then, you know, Tom experiences his loss. So it's like you really get the whole trajectory of their relationship and it's a fun relationship and they're both just kind of like just in it. You know what I mean? The other two couples have more drama in terms of trying to figure out how to negotiate what they feel for each other. And Collins and Angel don't question it---they just do it.

CM: Rent takes place at a time that was pre-protease inhibitor/cocktail when HIV was very likely a death sentence. Does that sense of urgency still play in a timely way in your mind?

MM: Oh definitely, definitely. I think that it's even more important now because I think there is a whole generation of young people who did not experience when it was a death sentence. They look at it now as something---which in some ways is positive, that it's a manageable disease---but it has made us less careful, it has made us less aware.

I was in New York in the early 1990s and got to see first hand the devastation of this disease to which I've forever lost friends and co-workers. So I've got to see first hand and experience first hand how devastating this disease can be and that's something that's forever kind of been around as a gay man; forever imprinted in your body, it's a part of you.

So I think it's great to see it as a reminder. It's a point in our history, a turning point in gay culture and HIV and all of that stuff---AZT---that was an amazing thing at the time. It was impossible to get---they were just starting to use it. You didn't have any options. That was it and even with AZT, still,  you were most likely going to die. So I think that it's an incredibly important story that still needs to be told to remind those of us who experienced it and make those who didn't aware of how far we've come and that we shouldn't forget.

CM: Can you talk more about your activism around this issue---I know you are associated with Broadway Cares...

MM: I'm actually on the board of Broadway Cares, at least I think. I've done a lot of work. I have a choir in New York called Broadway Inspirational Voices and we've done probably about---from 1994 to 2005 we've done a benefit every year for Broadway Cares. And then all of the fundraising we've had around the theater community yearly to raise money for Broadway Cares. It's a big one [non-profit] because it was forming back when I first came to New York and was very hands on and specifically for actors and directors and choreographers who were living and dying from this disease and now they have gone national and in some cases, global, in terms of the outreach that they have now.

We just finished a big fundraiser that they do every year called The Easter Bonnet where each Broadway show (including national tours) makes a bonnet and does a little skit and then they fundraise for six weeks and at the end of that you have the show that's won---and Rent, we won---we raised the most money out of all the Broadway houses and all of the national tours. We raised over $350, 000 in six weeks. I've also been involved with Gay Men's Health Crisis and done things like that as well but my main focus has been working with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in all different facets either through acting or through music or just being on the board or giving out grants and that sort of thing.

CM: Last Question---Obviously the musical Rent means a lot of different things to as many different people; but if you had a wish of a single message that people would take away from the musical, what would it be?

MM: Well the last line of the show is "no day but today" and that to me is so powerful on so many different levels for so many different reasons. One being, you know, for Jonathan Larsen, who wrote this incredible piece, sang the words "no day but today" and then not living to see what impact the incredible piece really had on people. The fact that he was living for this moment and wrote these words and then was not here the next day; that's a powerful thing.

I think also for us as human beings in this time; we're always worried about what's happening, what's going to happen and not living fully and completely in the moment. And I think it's the best gift that we can give to each other is to live and embrace this moment completely and fully and that's going to give you the most rich and fulfilling life.

Rent: The Broadway Tour plays June 2-7 at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. Single tickets are available at the Fox Theatre Box Office and all MetroTix locations. For curtain times and more information check out www.fabulousfox.com.

You can email Colin Murphy at colin_murphy@sbcglobal.net