Everything Is Rent

The hilarious and talented Daphne Rubin-Vega originated the role of Mimi in Rent on Broadway! She joins Sarah and Beth to talk about her experience auditioning for and performing in Rent, including the time she forgot her lines in “Light My Candle,” her uniquely un-Broadway singing voice, what it was like working with Jonathan Larson, and the trauma that can come with being in the public eye.

Will Hines (Wrecked, Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About Spider-Man) comes in HOT in this episode, with questions like “Who cares about Rent?” “Why are we talking about Rent?” “Why do you guys like Rent?” and “What’s good about it?” Will saw Rent on Broadway in 1998 and some of his fond memories include Sweater Dude, Guitar Guy, and the song with the numbers.

Grant O’Brien (CollegeHumor) hates Rent and was NOT looking forward to listening to Tune Up #3, a song he describes as the “most bananas 24 seconds of a show ever.” Beth and Sarah try their darndest to convince Grant that Rent isn’t boring, but he really thinks the show would benefit from some tap dancing.

Nicole Byer (Loosely Exactly Nicole, Nailed It, Why Won’t You Date Me) joins Beth and Sarah to talk about her love of Rent, show off her beautiful singing voice many times, and change her name to Bond, Nicole Bond. In the most topic-packed episode yet, learn about Nicole’s surprising favorite musical, enjoy the longest discussion anyone has ever had about Tom Collins’ name, and hear why Angel is a combination of characters from the movie Michael and the TV show Drop Dead Diva.

Anthony King (Silicon Valley, Beetlejuice the Musical) has seen every musical except Rent, which was the most rebellious thing to do in the 90s. He’s worked with Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs and Anthony Rapp on other projects and can safely say: If everyone in Rent had AIDS, it would be a little too much.

You may know Deborah Baker Jr. (Stan Against Evil) from being the best around town. She's also a real-life Collins, always preordaining a wild night and recommending cheesecloth as a scarf for a warm climate. Deborah talks about her traumatic formative experience with Rent and sort of explains what it means when her belly button hurts.

The delightful Lauren Adams (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Masking for Trouble) stops by to talk about the great lengths she went to to force her mom to take her to Rent as a child, explain her confusingly named show choir, and greenlight an all-dog production of Rent. Beth, Sarah, and Lauren also discuss who "Cindy" is, re-cast Rent with "modern day actors," mostly from The Greatest Showman, and Beth uncovers a heart-stopping Easter egg/continuity error in the musical.

Sarah and Beth are up bright and early talking to their good pal Zeke Nicholson (A.P. Bio) about the magical day when he first saw the Rent movie with his mom, before a basketball game, but after shopping for Timberland boots. Despite multiple mic-drop-moments for Zeke in this episode, he does not enjoy himself during a game of Rent Trivia and he definitely isn't happy to be talking about a song he doesn't "give a f*** about."

Jonathan Larson's groundbreaking musical Rent premiered on Broadway in 1996. Over the years, musical theater fans all over the world have become Rent-heads, Rent-haters, and Rent-indifferent-istas. Comedians (and die-hard Rent fans) Beth Appel and Sarah Claspell shoot without a script as they dedicate each episode to a song from Rent, bringing on fellow comedians and musical theater nerds to talk about what they love, hate, and are baffled by in this divisive musical. Everything Is Rent - coming June 19th.