By Andrew Gans
05 Sep 2008

Question: I saw it that day, and I thought it was a great performance — the best cast I'd seen in awhile. I was trying to watch the show and watch through some of the cameras, and it really looked impressive.
Goldsberry: Awesome. I think what's kind of cool is that Michael Greif had mentioned that [the performance] was interestingly kind of cinematic and theatrical at the same time. Our performances were reading both in close-ups on camera and also in the audience. That wasn't something we were just doing that night. I feel like we're always kind of living those moments in the most subtle ways and large ways. With this particular cast, that's what I enjoy so much about working with them as actors. I feel like we were just doing what we do. I don't know what portion of it reads to the back of the house … Perhaps you'll see something different that you didn't necessarily know was happening, I don't know. I know that a camera telling a story is a very specific tool: It basically tells your eye where to go. It's very different from watching a show in the theatre, so it's extremely important that the director who is directing the camera is telling the right story, and I think that [Michael Warren] did a brilliant job.

	Zipporah G. Gatling, LaChanze and Leon G. Thomas III with Renée Elise Goldsberry in The Color Purple
	photo by Paul Kolnik

Question: What's next for you after Rent? Do you have other projects lined up?
Goldsberry: I'm not really sure. My biggest thing is getting the glitter out of my hair and healing my knees and some things that have been going through the rigor of the show. I'm extremely excited about joining with the cast and seeing [the Rent cinecast]. I'm excited and nervous about seeing it on the screen. But in terms of the next project, I'm not really sure what's next.

Question: Would you like to do more theatre?
Goldsberry: Always. Absolutely. That's another thing that you mourn at the loss of anytime any show closes. You're always like, "What will be next, and will it ever compare to this?"

Question: One final question. Why do you think Rent has been the success it's been?
Goldsberry: For so many reasons. I think, for all of the people that were involved in the very beginning, from Jonathan Larson to Michael Greif to the entire original company and cast and the original band members, I just think something kind of divine happened when this very specific particular group of people got together. . . . I don't know that they had any idea that they were trying to change the world. They were just trying to be honest about a world that they thought was important to put on the stage and a message they thought was important to put on the stage. I think when you are that honest and [have] that kind of integrity about a goal . . . .I think it's rewarded. Obviously the message, you have to say that it's the most important thing, a message that celebrates life and love the way this does.

And, specifically, I remember when I first saw it, telling a story with the music of the time is something we don't do as often as we should when we create shows. I think the genre of musical theatre, when it started, the pop songwriters of the time were writing the music. I think sometimes when we write musicals now, we keep writing in that same style, as though that's the musical theatre genre.… We have to figure out how to tell stories with the music that we listen to now, or we'll lose our audience. That's the first thing that struck me so greatly when I saw the show. I'm like, "Yes! This is the music we listen to. You're telling a story with our music. It's an opera with our music." That's how I felt. . . . First time I heard it in my life, I wanted to scream, "Finally, someone is telling a story with this music." The irony is that it's not necessarily the music of this moment, and yet it still hits young people of the same age the same way. Isn't that amazing? It's so powerful. The arrangements are amazing. It's just beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful and, I think, blessed. And, I personally think it'll be back on Broadway in five minutes. So we're doing all this huge uproar and then literally it'll be like Les Miz and, in two minutes, will be back because I think Broadway will have a hole in it without Rent.

[Rent plays the Nederlander Theatre, located at 208 West 41st Street. For tickets visit www.ticketmaster.com . . . . Those unable to attend the final performances of Rent will be able to view the Jonathan Larson musical on movie screens across the country via Sony Pictures Releasing's new special programming division, The Hot Ticket. A composite of the best performances from the Aug. 20 and Sept. 7 shows will be screened nationwide Sept. 24, 25, 27 and 28. For more information visit http://www.thehotticket.net/rent.]

	Alice Ripley

DIVA TIDBITS
The Upright Cabaret in Mark's Restaurant in Hollywood, CA, will present two evenings celebrating the work of Lance Horne. The Sept. 19 and 20 concerts, entitled Open All Night: The Songs of Lance Horne, will begin at 9 PM. Among those scheduled to join composer Horne are Alice Ripley (Next to Normal, Side Show), Jennifer Leigh Warren (Big River, "Lipstick Jungle"), Tom Lowe (Les Misérables at the Hollywood Bowl), Julie Garnye (Actors Fund Hair concert), Tracie Thoms (Rent, "Cold Case") and special guest Alan Cumming (Cabaret). Upright Cabaret in Mark's Restaurant is located at 861 N. La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood, CA. For ticket information visit www.uprightcabaret.com or www.inticketing.com (keyword: Upright).

3S Theatre Collective (3STC), the New Jersey-based non-profit theatre company, will present One Night Only Sept. 22 at the Loews Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, NJ. The evening of disco-inspired Broadway show tunes will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. On the Town's Lea DeLaria will host the evening at the 1,400 seat venue. The concert will also feature the talents of Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Beauty and the Beast), Stanley Bahorek (Spelling Bee), Kirsten Bracken (Hairspray), Heather Parcells (A Chorus Line), Louise Stewart (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Patina Renea-Miller (Hair) and Rodney Hicks (Rent). The Studio 54-themed evening will also boast 12 back-up dancers. Attendees can expect to hear such tunes as Dreamgirls' "One Night Only," Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," The Wiz's "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News" and The Rocky Horror Picture Show's "Hot Patootie (Bless My Soul)," among others. The Loews Jersey Theatre is located at 54 Journal Square in Jersey City, NJ. For tickets, priced $20-$25, visit www.3stc.com and click the One Night Only link.

Original Beauty and the Beast star Susan Egan will join the Los Angeles choral ensemble Vox Femina for Singular Sensations, which will kick off the group's 12th concert season. The Nov. 8 concert at the Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, CA, will feature selections from A Chorus Line, The Color Purple, Chicago, Dreamgirls and Wicked as well as a "Leading Ladies Medley" arranged by Mac Huff. Egan will join the ensemble with renditions of "Don't Tell Mama," "Getting Married Today," "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," "For Good" and "Defying Gravity" and will solo on "Don't Rain on My Parade," "I Dreamed a Dream," "Gimme Gimme" and "All That Jazz." The Zipper Hall is located within The Colburn School at 200 S. Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, CA. For tickets, priced $25-$30, call (310) 922-0025 or visit www.voxfeminala.org.

A new musical revue celebrating Manhattan will be presented Mondays in October at the Metropolitan Room. Inspired by the life of Walt Whitman and Irving Berlin's As Thousands Cheer, Tim Di Pasqua's Notes on New York will play the intimate cabaret Oct. 6, 13, 20 and 27 at 7 PM. The 90-minute song cycle will feature Di Pasqua at the piano with singing actors Natalie Venetia Belcon, Vicky Devany, Keithon Gipson, Lennie Watts and Jennifer Zimmerman. The Metropolitan Room is located in Manhattan at 32 West 22nd Street. There is a $25 cover charge and a two-drink minimum; call (212) 206-0400 for reservations.

Casting is now complete for the Reprise Theatre Company's upcoming production of the Michael Stewart-Cy Coleman musical I Love My Wife. Directed by Larry Moss with choreography by Lee Martino, the musical will play the Brentwood Theatre Dec. 2-14. Joining the previously announced Vicki Lewis and Jason Alexander are Lea Thompson ("Caroline in the City," Cabaret) and Patrick Cassidy (42nd Street, Assassins). The latter replaces Steven Weber, who had been announced to be part of the production but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts. For tickets call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101 or visit www.reprise.org. The Brentwood Theatre is located at 11301 Wilshire Boulevard in Brentwood, CA.

Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.

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