Tommy Collison

When I went to see RENT in Boston (more), I met Cassidy Piskorick in the stage-door queue. I later found her on Twitter and we’ve chatted about our love of RENT and general music over IM ever since. She went to an Adam Pascal (one of the RENT leads) concert last night so I asked if she’d write about it here…. :)

When I heard that original cast member of the musical Rent, Adam Pascal would be having a concert in New York City, I new I had to go. My dad purchased three tickets: one for me, one for my dear friend Brittney, and one for
himself. On Sunday, June 20, we embarked on the estimated 2 1/2 hour journey to NYC. It was about 30degrees C outside, in a car without air conditioning, joyous! Four hours later, after 3 traffic jams and getting lost twice, we finally made it to Feinstein’s at Loew’s Regency hotel. It was 4 o’ clock, meaning we had two hours to kill.

After making a quick stop at Starbucks, we made our way over to the most epic toy store I have ever seen: FAO Schwarz. We spent an hour playing with puppets, admiring the Lego models, and of coursewatching kids play on the giant floor piano. Slowly, we decided tomake our way back to Feinstein’s. Upon entering, I realized that this
was easily the fanciest place I have ever been to. They seated us against the left side of the stage, directly in front of the piano,giving us a brilliant view of both Adam and Larry. We ordered our food and enjoyed, at 8:30PM sharp, the show began.

He had a great sense of humor and was fantastic, even though he had strep throat at the time. Most of the songs he performed were from his newest album, Blinding Light, but he also performed songs from Rent, Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line, West Side Story, and Cabaret. About halfway into the show, Larry backed the piano bench up too far and nearly fell off of the stage. My dad sprang into action and grabbed the bench before that
could happen!

After the show, a crowed formed in the lobby waiting for Adam to come out. He arrived and was happy to sign cds and pose for pictures with people. I purchased my copy or Blinding Light and happily got it signed, then got my picture taken with him. He was incredibley sweet and made pleasant conversation with everyone who approached him. All in all, it was a fantastic night! The only complaint I have was our dinner bill, which came out to $123.03, for the very small amount of food we ordered, that’s a pretty hefty sum.
Even Mr. Pascal agreed via Facebook:

“I have been in hotels all over the world. Many of them 5 stars, but I have to say the loews regency hotel in NYC is the most obscenely overpriced hotel I have ever stayed in…as i sip my $20 half glass of wine…”

For anyone interested in seeing Adam, there are new show dates listed on http://www.meandlarry.com/. I know I’m already looking into seeing him again!

If you’ve got a guest post – email me at tommy(at)collisonDOTie :)