Uh, the, looking back, uh, Tim, what do, what do, what do you think about, uh, the, the, the launch of Rent 30 years ago this year?

Well, it's, it's, you know, it's still kind of hard to believe we actually, um...

We're doing a live concert here in New York City in October, and Chris is gonna be a part of that as well.

Hopefully, with Neil, they'll be back together singing again.

But, um, I got together with a few of the original band members who will be playing, and we started playing this music, and it was so surreal.

It's like we just, we just jumped back in time 30 years.

It was, it was crazy.

[laughs]

He was in his 30s and had been in New York about 14 years, and still wasn't really making a lot of money.

And I was just wondering kind of what is it adding up to, so I invited a friend of mine down to see the workshop, and, uh, someone who I trusted very, very much.

He had great taste and great knowledge about the theater.

And, um, and, uh, after he saw the very, very messy act one, at intermission he said, "Do not ever leave the show, because if you do, not only will I never speak to you again, but you will regret it for the rest of your life." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You're doing A Chorus Line", which meant these are the beginnings of what is a generational musical.

And he knew things.

So at that time, I just committed to come what may with this show, I'll see it through, and then we'll see what happens after that.

Tim Weil says they weren't looking for the typical musical theater performer who came in singing Andrew Lloyd Webber songs, which was pretty common at the time.

So when this young woman from Long Island walked in named Idina Menzel, and, uh, she opened her mouth and she sang a Bonnie, Bonnie Raitt song, um, Something to Talk About, uh, Jonathan and I were just, and I, this is another one of those things, Kathy, like I remember like it was yesterday.