Anthony Rapp's WITHOUT YOU Gets Menier Chocolate Factory Production this August

In 1994 Anthony Rapp was working at a Starbucks and about to audition for Rent a new musical by a young guy named Jonathan Larson. An inspiring story about friends and artists struggling in New York's Lower East Side, it was based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème. Anthony got the part, but Jonathan died suddenly the night before the musical's off-Broadway premiere.

This is where Without You begins. Rapp shares his experience of being a part of Rent – his audition, the casting process, rehearsals and his view from the stage during the tribute performance on the night after Jonathan's tragic death. Without You also details Anthony's achingly beautiful relationship with his mother during this turbulent time. Based on his New York Times best-selling memoir, Anthony Rapp, backed by a five-piece rock band uses a mix of original music and songs by Larson and R.E.M. in a stunning one-man show about grief, hope and triumph.

Direction is by Steve Maler; set design by David Korins; lighting design by Justin Townsend; sound design by Gareth Owen. Musical Direction is by Dan Weiss with additional arrangements by Tom Kitt. 

The production will play E4 Cowbarn, Underbelly Bristo Square (Venue Number 300) from Wednesday 1 - Sunday 26 August 2012. For tickets and more information, visit www.underbelly.co.uk.

Jonathan Larson's groundbreaking musical Rent went on to be a Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award winner after it opened in New York in 1996. The Broadway production closed in 2008 after a 12-year run, making it the ninth-longest-running Broadway show at the time.

Anthony Rapp has been acting and singing professionally since he was nine years old. He is best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen Rent, for which he shared an OBIE Award with the rest of the cast. He reprised his role in Chris Columbus' film version opposite other members of the original cast.

His Broadway credits include the revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation. His Broadway debut was in Precious Sons with Judith Ivey and Ed Harris, for which he received an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination.

Film credits include Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Adventures in Babysitting, School Ties, Dazed and Confused, Six Degrees of Separation, Man of the Century, David Searching, Road Trip and A Beautiful Mind (SAG Award nomination for ensemble). He has also appeared in Winter Passing, a film written and directed by his brother, Adam Rapp. On television, Rapp has appeared in "The Lazarus Man," "The X-Files," "The Beach Boys: An American Family," "Kidnapped" and "Law & Order: SVU." In 2000, he released his debut album, Look Around.

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