"Showmances" are fraught with disaster. Still, some theatrical couples make it work.
On Broadway, there were Burton and Taylor; Fosse and Verdon.
Locally, Ryan Porter Craig and Cassie Sampson are transferring their passion for one another into memorable theater performances. They’re currently starring as Roger Davis and Joanne Jefferson in "Rent" at The Belle Theatre.
In “Rent,” their characters have other love interests. But that hasn’t always been the case.
“We met at 'Head Over Heels,'" Porter Craig said. "I was the King, and she was the Queen.
“Yep, and we had like a little tryst in 'Murder,' which wasn’t written, but we kind of turned the characters into that," Sampson said.
Their ability to improvise is just one way Craig and Sampson's off-stage relationship enhances their on-stage performances.
“One of the pros is our chemistry,” Sampson said. “It’s not forced or fake or anything. It’s real. It’s there. And that’s special when we get to share something on stage that we also share in real life. It makes it so much more special and more authentic.”
Directors love authenticity, but when it comes to a rock opera like "Rent," they covet Craig and Sampson because of their powerful voices.
One song Craig relishes performing is “One Song Glory,” in which his character gives voice to the desire to leave something meaningful behind before he succumbs to AIDS.
“Jonathan Larson, who wrote the show, this was, I think his ‘One Song Glory,’” Craig said. “He died before he was able to see his production on stage.”
Craig connects to “Without You” for an even more personal reason.
“It’s about couples and love, and just, the world goes on but life has no meaning because the other person you love isn’t with you anymore," Craig said. "Having lost someone in the past, that’s something I really grip with.”
Sampson’s character, Joanne, delivers two memorable duets in this production. The first is "The Tango Maureen" with Roger’s roommate, Mark, played by Bradyn Parmelly.
“She is very insecure, and she’s very worried because she knows that Maureen left Mark 'cause she cheated on him with her," Sampson said. "She’s constantly got in the back of her head, 'is Maureen going to cheat on me?'”
Then there’s the iconic “Take Me or Leave Me.”
Join Ryan Porter Craig, Cassie Sampson and their spirited cast mates for "Rent" on stage at The Belle Theatre in Cape Coral now through August 11, 2024.
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.
Script and audio engineered and produced by WGCU's Tara Calligan.
MORE INFORMATION:
- "Rent" follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. The characters are real. Their struggles and troubles are real.
- When it comes to famous Broadway couples, the standard bearers are inarguably Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Over the course of their 55-year marriage, the duo regularly appeared together onstage, including in the original productions of The Guardsman, Design for Living, and The Great Sebastians. In addition to Broadway, Lunt & Fontanne regularly toured the country, which elevated their fame to a level rarely achieved by stage actors. They even have a Broadway theater named after their union.
- "Rent" represents Craig and Sampson’s ninth show together, the other being Into the Woods(2023), Jekyll & Hyde (2022) and Head Over Heels (2022)at New Phoenix Theatre, Drinking Habits (2023) and Little Shop of Horrors (2023) at The Belle Theatre, and Murder on the Orient Express (2024), Into the Woods (2024) and Sister Act (2024) at Cultural Park Theatre.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda first saw Rent in 1997 from the back row of the Nederlander Theater on West 41st Street. He and his girlfriend came to see the rock opera not because the musical was set in New York’s lower East Side or had an incredibly diverse cast. Rather, it was because the musical’s brilliant composer, Jonathan Larson, had died tragically at the age of 35 on the very morning that Rent made its Off-Broadway debut. “It was the show that made me want to write a musical,” Miranda would later recall. And just two years later, Miranda penned the first draft of In the Heights.
- “If you’ve ever seen Hamilton or anything by Lin-Manuel Miranda, he takes a lot of inspiration from Jonathan Larson with his music,” notes Bishop Verot High School Theatre Director and community theater actor Lisa Clark. “A lot of the dialogue is timed and rhythmic … This word is supposed to be an eighth-note and this word is supposed to be a quarter-note and you’re supposed to say it in this exact rhythm because you go back and forth. You’re singing and then you’re talking then you’re singing and then you’re talking so it has to be in that rhythm because it matches up with the music in that way. It’s pretty complex actually.”
- Jonathan Larson’s Rent didn’t just launch Lin-Manuel Miranda’s career as a playwright and Broadway giant. It inspired him to direct Tick, Tick ….Boom, a new movie about Jonathan Larson and his work. There can be no better recommendation than this for you to go see this show.
- The rousing Act One finale, “La Vie Boheme,” is representative of the rhythm, syncopation and timing that Clark is talking about.
- Although not featured in the accompanying audio, Rent’s most recognizable anthem is “Seasons of Love” with its memorable verse, “525,600 minutes.”
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.