Without You review, Menier Chocolate Factory

Anthony Rapp has the dazed look of a man who has just been punched in the side of the head and is still seeing stars. As his one man show at the Menier Chocolate Factory evolves, it becomes clear that emotionally, this is the case. 

Low rent

Rapp, an original star of Rent - the highly successful 1994 musical built around the lives of four New Yorkers living in the shadow of HIV/AIDS - has had subsequent success, but his sense of self is pegged to his early experiences. Without You is built around his relationships with Jonathan Larson, who wrote the smash hit, and with his mother - the two people that unconditionally believed in his talent. Both died around the time the musical, which ran for twelve years, was taking off. 

Death is a difficult subject, all the more so here for being presented without insight by a performer who launches into his narrative with no attempt to build a relationship with the audience. There are so many false endings at hospice bedsides, one half expected his mother to arrive on stage telling us it was all a dream. Uplift is provided by a terrifically cool band and well sung songs from Rent illustrating and celebrating death, but ultimately, what is presented as a voyage around loss is too much a forage up Rapp's tail end.

In conclusion: There are some deeply moving moments. If they had been kept as moments, rather than turned into an indulgent 90 minute narrative, they would work. Too often, one yearned to shout Get past it!

References
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