RENT - A Tribute to David Driver (Who is that? Look here!)

David Driver. Who is he, you may ask? Well..

David Driver was the original Roger and Mark understudy in RENT. What about Norbert Leo Butz? Well..

David was fired. Here is a direct quote from Norbert from an older interview about the situation:

"The show had just opened up, and Norbert tried out to be the understudy for the two male leads. After five auditions, he got it. He began rehearsals and two days later had to go on for Adam Pascal! I couldn't believe how little time he had, but he said that throughout the audition process he was learning the music so he felt like he knew it very well. Well, turns out, there already was an understudy for Adam who didn't know Norbert was going on. So, of course, he wasn't happy. Norbert said that he began Act One and right after he sang the first big Roger song ("One Song, Glory"), one of the producers went backstage and fired the other understudy! Norbert said that he left the stage, and as he was walking up to his dressing room, the other understudy was walking downstairs with his stuff. Ouch! Norbert also said that the other understudy didn't come from the world of theatre and had to understudy five parts and was not prepared for what it took to do so."
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/120333.html/pg2

Well.. this video has two audios of him. The first is the exchange between Mark (who is played by Gilles Chiasson here) and Roger during Christmas Bells. Not too bad, right? Decent. Well..

Keep listening. His One Song Glory follows that. I suggest you brace your ears.

So, here's to you, David Driver!

(Yes, I purposely overused the word well.)

Tell me what you think! (;

Category:

Music

Tags:

• rent
• obc
• broadway
• musical
• christmas
• bells
• one
• song
• glory
• david
• driver
• gilles
• chiasson
• anthony
• rapp
• adam
• pascal

[scottyrage]

*KILLS SELF*

[Jenna10227]

yikes that crack =\ that actually sounded very painful lol

[Doomitume]

don't know why I can't stop listening to that voice crack.

[MegglesLuvsRent]

yeah I saw Todd in August 08 on B'way and i saw Michael like 4 times on the tour and I liked Todd better 2 :)

[dancinbear7476]

There have been worse than this guy. Check out some recordings of Sean Keller

[kellymette]

so, david actually went on for Roger & Mark on Broadway?!

[GalahadsBass]

oh that was painful...

poor guy

but you can't replace adam, seriously i've heard so many other guys do it and adam is by far the best

[RENTAngel1]

Oh, God...that crack in OSG was so painful....

[wickedbrrr]

okay, even when he's not cracking, he's still not good!!! How did he get the part?!?!?!?!?!

and by the way; YIKES!! so painful...

[daisukefan92]

same thing but with avenue q!!