Exclusive: RENT Director Michael Greif Teases What Fans Could Expect at the 30th Anniversary Concert
Greif exclusively tells BroadwayWorld that he hopes to do the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical — which he directed when it came to Broadway 30 years ago — ‘justice.’
Michael Greif is just as excited as anyone else that Jonathan Larson’s rock opera Rent is coming back to Broadway, even if only for one night.
The Tony Award-nominated director — who was at the helm of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical when it came to Broadway 30 years ago in April 1996 — exclusively tells BroadwayWorld that he’s looking forward to the 30th anniversary concert, which will take place Monday, October 26, at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre.
“I love spending time with that show,” he says. “I’ve always thought that show absolutely brings out the best in the people working on it, including me, so I really look forward to that.”
Moments after tickets for the anniversary concert went on sale earlier this month, they sold out. It was announced shortly thereafter that a livestream option will now be available for fans around the world to tune in when Rent returns to Broadway.
“It seems very thrilling that people are very excited to see the show back on stage,” Greif says. “I think we’ll have a great combination of some surprise guests and amazing alums and, of course, original company members.”
“We will try to do the great show justice,” he adds.
Reflecting on the impact Rent has had on the theater community since its Off-Broadway debut at New York Theatre Workshop in 1996 before its transfer to Broadway’ Nederlander Theatre, Greif says he will never forget its Tony Award-winning writer. Larson died of an aortic dissection — a tear in the inner layer of the aorta — on January 25, 1996, after seeing the show’s final dress rehearsal.
“The absolute first thought about Rent always is how ironic that Jonathan isn’t here to celebrate his great success,” Greif says. “So the celebration of Rent is always a double-edged, complicated joy because there’s also so much sorrow attached to it.”
Greif is currently directing the new musical Basura, featuring music by Gloria Estefan and Emily Estefan and a book by Karen Zacarías, which opened at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta earlier this month.
He told BroadwayWorld that he’d love to see the production make its way to New York following its world-premiere run in Georgia.
During the rehearsal process, musical supervisor, orchestrator and arranger Alex Lacamoire told Greif how Rent left an everlasting impact on himself and the theater community as a whole. The cast of Basura was captured on video surprising Greif with an impromptu performance of “Seasons of Love” in the rehearsal room.
“It was very sweet and extremely surprising,” Greif tells BroadwayWorld of the moment. “In fact, we were in a choreographic session, and I said to the stage manager, ‘I’m going to go downstairs and peek at the theater.’ And she’s like, ‘You can’t go there now.’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ She said, ‘You can’t go down to the theater now.’”
“This was very surprising because that’s not the nature of our relationship in general,” he explains, adding that he began to feel “wonderfully disoriented” as people started to speak about how much Rent means to them. “My associate on this project, who’s Andy Señor — who was a Rent company member — began to speak, and because he was really so much a part of that journey, it was incredibly meaningful.”
“Then of course Alex speaking about the effect that Rent has had on his generation of theatermakers was incredibly moving and meaningful to me,” Greif says. “Then this amazing young company sang a little, and I was extremely moved.”
“But it started with a really great surprise,” he adds.
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus
