Adam Pascal: Finding His Voice

He made his name in rock bands and in rock musicals on Broadway, but when he returns to Feinstein's at Lowe's Regency this week, Adam Pascal will be taking another step in his transformation from Rent's "pretty-boy front man" to a sophisticated Broadway--and now cabaret--star.

"It's such a different kind of venue than I've played before," Pascal says of Feinstein's, "and I thought it would be interesting to bring what it is that I do, not only in terms of my original music, but also the way I interpret Broadway material." After years as the front man of Mute and The Adam Pascal Band, he made his cabaret debut at Feinstein's in July, selling out the run and earning very positive reviews for his mixture of classic and contemporary. Before returning to the Rent tour as Roger, he was eager to make one more visit to one of New York's swankiest cabaret rooms.

As Pascal explains, his show is a combination of material from Pascal's new record, Blinding Light, and Broadway material "reinterpreted," as he puts it. Songs as varied as "One Song Glory," "What I Did for Love," "Maria," and "Pity the Child" will all be performed, but, as Pascal promises, "they're all radically different from the original versions." For example, rather than a traditional trio (piano, bass, drums), the song arrangements will feature Pascal accompanying himself on guitar and Larry Edoff on piano. "Just that in itself makes for an interesting combination," he says.

"I've been playing bass guitar and singing with Larry, my partner, for about two years now," he continues. "Once I started doing it, it felt like a very natural fit, and as I've gotten more comfortable with it, we've been able to explore things deeper musically as a duo, and occasionally as a trio." (Some performances have featured a drummer, though the current gig at Feinstein's will not.) "We've attempted to find a way to make the most of the two instruments we're playing, and our two voices.

Perhaps somewhat ironically, Pascal discovered his affinity for cabaret while playing the Emcee in the Broadway musical Cabaret. At the top of Act II, he had to ad-lib with audience members and improvise banter. "It was terrifying the first night," he recalls, "but after that first night it went well, and then I got more comfortable at it." He has applied those skills he learned as a rock musician and a Broadway star to his cabaret work, he says, and describes the process as "multitasking." "I'm emceeing the evening," he continues, "so I have to engage the audience not just in a musical way, but I have to speak with the audience and engage [it] in a comfortable and relaxEd Manner--which is difficult to do, given that every audience is different... [Multitasking] takes a lot of concentration, and if my mind wanders, one of those three things is gonna go south."

The transformation from rock star to cabaret performer feels right to Pascal. "I never felt truly, 100% comfortable just doing the rock stuff," he admits. "I always felt like, in a way, I was playing a character." As he grew both professionally and personally, he realized that rock no longer held the appeal it once had. "I certainly think I'm growing out of that a little bit, like I would almost feel silly doing that now. There was always a part of doing that that felt not quite right. There was a little unease to it. As a musician and an artist, sometimes you find your voice immediately and sometimes it takes years. I think, for me, it's taken a lot of years to find who I am as a musician and songwriter, and I think I've finally really gotten a hold of that, working with Larry and touring these past couple of years, doing the writing and embracing all these Broadway tunes that I had kind of shunned for a while. I really wanted to make my mark as a musician--ironically enough, just like the Roger character in Rent--but in doing so, I was concerned about any sort of pigeon-holing as a Broadway guy. And so for the first few years after I left Rent, I didn't even want to talk about it. And as I've gotten older and more mature, I've embraced it, and now I just love it. It's part of my act."

Today, he says, he finds both his own music and singing Broadway numbers to be similarly satisfying. "They both allow me so much expression as a performer," he says. "And they both require, to a certain extent, different skills. When I started doing musical theatre, I just fell in love with it. It's such a part of me now, and I enjoy it so much. I think that those two components of my musical life will always be there, and other things may come and go. I certainly may do more rock stuff in the future, but I don't think I ever would be that front-man rock-guy again." He laughs, almost with amazement. "It makes me laugh, just thinking about it, because I've been doing it since I was, like, twelve years old. So I really feel like I've grown out of it."

But of all his work, he says, he is most proud of being a husband to Cybele Chivian Pascal and dad to Lennon Jay and Montgomery Lovell. "Keeping a family together has been the most difficult, and wonderful, challenge of my life. To really make a family work, especially in this kind of business, is very hard." Without his family, he says, "I couldn't do anything."

For more information or to purchase tickets, click here. 

Photos: Adam Pascal by Linda Lenzi

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