Fredi Walker News

RENT owned the 90s. No other Broadway show managed to have the dual impact on society by becoming not only a pop culture phenomenon, but also changing perceptions of what a musical on Broadway could be - and, most importantly, how it could sound. Contemporary, cool, caustic and engaging, RENT updated LA BOHEME to the East Village just as Jonathan Larson updated the way the general public looked at Broadway at a time when musicals had fallen farther out of fashion than they had since their early years approaching the turn of the last century. Yet, at the end of the millennium - to quote one of the show’s lyrics - RENT represented the hopes, dreams and desires of many Broadway babies and what we hoped would be achieved on the Great White Way in the new century. While SPRING AWAKENING, AMERICAN IDIOT and NEXT TO NORMAL certainly stand as solid continuations of the rock musical formula recalibrated and made anew in the mold made by RENT, no show since RENT has quite managed to have the cultural impact and win over audiences and critics alike in as major a way as that Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical has - with the exception, perhaps, of WICKED, which obviously owes a debt to its Oz-ian source inspiration and the built-in audience that comes along with that. Yes, indeed, RENT represents an entire generation in its sound, style, ideals and overall feeling, mood and tone and the subsequent success of the many members of the simply astounding assortment of talents that comprised the original cast acts as evidence that the show may have had the cast of the decade, as well. (more...)

The long-running Off Broadway favorite Love, Loss, and What I Wore will close tonight, Sunday, March 25, 2012 after playing for two and a half years and 1,013 performances. (March 15th marked the show’s landmark 1,000 performance.) (more...)

Producer Daryl Roth announced today that the long-running Off Broadway favorite Love, Loss, and What I Wore will close on Sunday, March 25, 2012 after playing for two and a half years and 1,013 performances. (March 15th marks the show’s landmark 1,000 performance.) (more...)

Guest star Fredi Walker-Browne, who originated the role of Joanne in the Broadway hit Rent, will delight audiences with her passion, drive and vocal artistry. (more...)

Guest star Fredi Walker-Browne, who originated the role of Joanne in the Broadway hit Rent, will delight audiences with her passion, drive and vocal artistry. (more...)

Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's hit Off Broadway show, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, welcomed its newest cast this week (performing March 23 through April 24, 2011). BroadwayWorld was on hand for the cekebration and brings you photo coverage below! (more...)

Producer Daryl Roth announced today that Sonia Manzano (Maria on "Sesame Street"), Anne Meara ("Sex and the City"; Stiller & Meara), Fredi Walker-Browne (original cast of Rent) and Rumer Willis (The House Bunny; "90210") will join upcoming casts of the hit Off Broadway show Love, Loss, and What I Wore, now in its second smash year at the Westside Theatre (407 West 43 Street). (more...)

Last night, September 27, the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival celebrated its official opening night, hosted by Baz Lurhmann. Some of the many guests on hand to celebrate were Claire Danes ("Romeo + Juliet", "The Hours"), Anthony Rapp (Rent), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent), Tamara Tunie (Law and Order: SVU), Kerry Butler (Xanadu), Liz Larsen (The Most Happy Fella), Liz McCartney (Taboo), Ann Harada (Avenue Q), Tom Hewitt (The Rocky Horror Show), Max Von Essen (Les Miserables), Curtis Holbrook (West Side Story), Chip Zien (Into the Woods), Diedre Goodwin (Chicago), and many more. (more...)

Fredi Walker-Browne, who played Joanne in the original Broadway cast of the landmark musical Rent, will direct KING ALIVE! The People and Music of the Movement, featuring Craig Alan Edwards, a one-night-only event on Saturday, September 26, at 8pm at Harlem's historic Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive. (more...)

Fredi Walker-Browne, who played Joanne in the original Broadway cast of the landmark musical Rent, will direct KING ALIVE! The People and Music of the Movement, featuring Craig Alan Edwards, a one-night-only event on Saturday, September 26, at 8pm at Harlem's historic Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive. (more...)

Today's Broadway Blogs on BroadwayWorld.com from Monday, August 31, 2009. (more...)

The program notes for Scandalous People: a Sizzling Jazzical, advise us that Myla Churchill (book & lyrics) and Benny Russell's (music) new musical concerns Dewey Demarkov, a fictional black entertainer in pre-Depression Harlem who earned his song and dance chops playing demeaning stereotypes (sometimes in blackface) in white-run vaudeville houses and minstrel shows. As uptown Manhattan developed into a cultural center, Dewey formed an act with his future wife, Desiree Malinda, that evoked the kind of self-respecting class and sophistication the entertainers of the Harlem Renaissance became famous for. His innovative style made his speakeasy shows at The Do Drop Inn a top attraction. (more...)

Broadway veteran Eugene Fleming will head the cast of seasoned stage actors and exciting newcomers. Fleming has appeared in numerous musicals including Never Gonna Dance, The Tap Dance Kid, and A Chorus Line. Other cast members include: Nicole Hill, Matt Stewart, Jennifer Swiderski, Ryan Clardy, Shina Ann Morris, Nirene S. Brown, Jeb Kreager, Terry Lavell, Buzz Roddy, Johnny Flynn, Ryan Dietz and Jesse Sullivan, Graham Kuptz, Jenny LaRoche, Kisa Willis, Monique LeFlore, Brittany Younger and Davina Porter. (more...)

Broadway veteran Eugene Fleming will head the cast of seasoned stage actors and exciting newcomers. Fleming has appeared in numerous musicals including Never Gonna Dance, The Tap Dance Kid, and A Chorus Line. Other cast members include: Nicole Hill, Matt Stewart, Jennifer Swiderski, Ryan Clardy, Shina Ann Morris, Nirene S. Brown, Jeb Kreager, Terry Lavell, Buzz Roddy, Johnny Flynn, Ryan Dietz and Jesse Sullivan, Graham Kuptz, Jenny LaRoche, Kisa Willis, Monique LeFlore, Brittany Younger and Davina Porter. (more...)

Broadway veteran Eugene Fleming will head the cast of seasoned stage actors and exciting newcomers. Fleming has appeared in numerous musicals including Never Gonna Dance, The Tap Dance Kid, and A Chorus Line. Other cast members include: Nicole Hill, Matt Stewart, Jennifer Swiderski, Ryan Clardy, Shina Ann Morris, Nirene S. Brown, Jeb Kreager, Terry Lavell, Buzz Roddy, Johnny Flynn, Ryan Dietz and Jesse Sullivan, Graham Kuptz, Jenny LaRoche, Kisa Willis, Monique LeFlore, Brittany Younger and Davina Porter. (more...)

If Tracie Thoms' life was written as an old fashioned Broadway musical it would go something like this, 'Girl wants role, girl doesn't get role, girl REALLY wants role, girl finally gets role and then girl REALLY gets role…again.' Sound complicated? Not so much. BroadwayWorld caught up with her and we spoke at length about her thrilling and inspiring 'Quest for Joanne'. (more...)

BroadwayWorld.com and That's Kentertainment are pleased to bring you highlights and interviews from RENT's 10th Anniversary Concert held on April 24th, 2006 (more...)

A few days before the 10th anniversary of Rent, on April 24th, a benefit concert of the landmark Jonathan Larson musical was held at the Nederlander Theatre. BroadwayWorld was there to bring you up close and person on the red carpet for this once in a lifetime event! (more...)

A few days before the 10th anniversary of Rent, a benefit concert of the landmark Jonathan Larson musical will be held on April 24th at 6:45 PM at the Nederlander Theatre (more...)

The original Broadway cast of Rent will reunite for the show's 10th anniversary benefit (more...)