Written by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Michael Greif

The Benny Tour
LA/San Diego

Tour began May 1997 in Los Angeles. Neil’s last show was January 18th 1998.

Original Cast
Neil Patrick Harris – Mark Cohen
Christian Mena – Roger Davis
D’Monroe – Benny
Kenna Ramsey – Joanne Jefferson
Wilson Cruz – Angel Dumott Schunard
Mark Leroy Jackson – Tom Collins
Julia Santana – Mimi Marquez
Leigh Hetherington – Maureen Johnson

Rent is a rock opera, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side in the thriving days of the Bohemian East Village, under the shadow of AIDS.

“Greif’s staging remains easygoing and unassuming, daringly so for such a sprawling musical. His new cast in some cases represents a trade downward from New York, in others a heartening trade up. Leading the latter group is Neil Patrick Harris’s low-keyed, enormously appealing Mark Cohen. Other standouts include Kenna Ramsey’s heartfelt, gorgeous Joanne; Cruz’s lively, funny Angel; and Mark Leroy Jackson’s passionate, powerfully sung Tom Collins, Angel’s surviving lover.”
La Jolla Review

“Among the musical highlights of this production are the performances by Neil Patrick Harris and Christian Mena as Mark and Roger, respectively, the roommates whose garret — the top floor of an abandoned building in New York’s dicey Alphabet City neighborhood — is the locus of Larson’s ’90s riff on the plot of Puccini’s “La Boheme.”

As struggling filmmaker Mark, Harris — of “Doogie Howser” fame — is fresh, earnest and energetic, and has a fine singing voice, too. Mena’s voice is rich and resonant, and he has a sexy, brooding presence that adds texture to his role. ”
Variety

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