Jeffrey Seller

You know, I was on the phone with Jim Nicola, the artistic director at New York Theatre Workshop, and what he said is he was afraid that the kids in the show would not be safe to try to do all the complicated maneuvers, choreography, staging, backstage and onstage, given...

this trauma that we had all just experienced.

So, they were gonna do a reading of the show for family and friends of Jonathan.

And in fact, that night, we all came into the theater, sat down, and they started doing the show, sitting at those famous silver metal tables that were the set of Rent.

And it was so powerful hearing

Adam Pascal sing one song, Glory.

It was so powerful hearing Wilson Heredia sing I'll Cover You with Jesse Martin.

And then by the end of the first act, when they were in the Life Cafe doing La Vie Boheme, there was just this moment that Daphne Rubin-Vega, who was playing Mimi, just got up on that table and she started dancing.

And then Wilson Heredia as Angel got up, and then Nadina got up, and then the entire cast did all the choreography on that table to La Vie Boheme.

And the first act ended with a sense of euphoria.

Oh, Glory.

Oh, it was the best of times and worst of times because the show's success was potent and thrilling and changing my life.

And yet, I was also filled with the loss of Jonathan, and I think a little bit of guilt that he didn't get to go with us.

Because it was going to change his life.

He had only just quit the Moon Dance Diner as a waiter two months before we started rehearsal.

He still lived in that fourth floor walk-up.

And he didn't get to enjoy all of that.

And I felt badly.

Okay.

My father, who had inherited his family business, which was a tool business, bankrupted it by overspending and through his own manic behavior.