Without You

The musical RENT has been a pop culture phenomenon for ten years now. With the release of the feature film, Jonathan Larson's story has reached many people, one of whom is Anthony Rapp, the author of Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the musical RENT. This book starts with Anthony's audition for the workshop version of the musical and chronicles his journey through the workshops, Broadway opening, Broadway run and eventually the movie. Since this is a memoir, Rapp goes into detail about his sexuality as well as dealing with his mother's battle with cancer. Adding to all of those emotions is the sudden death of Jonathan Larson, the writer of RENT, the night of the first performance. The author presents an extremely open and honest look at his life and all that he went through for the years he was involved in RENT and his mother was dying. Anyone who appreciates the musical will like this book for its information about the show, but will end up finding much more in this well written story.