Growing up a heavy metal-inspired
teenage musician in Long Island
during the mid-eighties, Broadway seemed like the last place in the world Adam Pascal would hit it big.
Determined to make it in the music business,
but willing to venture out into theater, Pascal auditioned for a small Broadway production named “Rent” and was
soon cast as the hard lucked musician Roger. What precipitated was the beginning of a career that later spawned starring roles
in elite Broadway shows like “Cabaret” and “Aida,” performances on television shows and motion pictures
like Cold Case and School of Rock and
even two music albums.
While Pascal stresses that his music career
is extremely important to him and in essence, the reason why he has a career to begin with, he believes that getting the chance
to showcase his talent on Broadway opened the door for the other opportunities his career has offered him.
“I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere
without my singing. I think that’s what my gift is. I feel like I’m a good actor, but I wouldn’t call myself
a gifted actor. Being in “Rent” changed my life in every single way. I had never done anything like that before
and to go and become a major part of this thing that became a cultural phenomenon for a brief period of time was pretty wild,”
said Pascal, via telephone.
“You really don’t realize it
until you have a few years distance to look back at it. It was an incredible experience; it introduced me to a love of theater
and a love of performing that type of material that I never knew I had. It established a career for me.”
Unlike his career establishing performance
in “Rent,” Pascal feels that playing Radames in Aida gave him a chance to hone his acting skills, cementing his
reputation as a performer. Surprisingly, however, during his time on “Aida,” the thought passed through Pascal’s
mind that he might be pigeonholing himself into a career on Broadway, when his music career was the most important thing to
him.
“Aida was like you know; now you’re
really a Broadway guy. It wasn’t just that one show [Rent]. At that point, music was still so important to me and I
wanted it to be a dominant part of my career, so I was very concerned with becoming “The Broadway Guy” and never
being taken seriously [as a musician]. It took me years to realize that whatever I did, whether I did Aida or not, it probably
wasn’t a factor in me getting the musical recognition that I felt at the time I deserved,” said Pascal.
“The actuality is what I was doing
material-wise just wasn’t good enough. But Aida was great because I made that jump and it was another learning experience
on the next level. Playing a character in Aida was much more of an acting role than Roger was in Rent, at least from my perspective.”
Now a seasoned Broadway veteran, with a
few motion pictures roles under his belt as well, Pascal has now begun taking his career down a new, yet familiar path, as
he has gone back to his roots and is currently touring with pianist Larry Edoff on a small east coast college tour, giving
himself the chance to focus on his music career that he didn’t have while performing on Broadway for so many years.
“It’s an interesting concept
to me, in terms of musical accompaniment because I’m playing bass and acoustic guitar and he’s playing piano.
He’s a brilliant piano player and he makes my stuff come alive in a way I just never imagined,” said Pascal. “We
have also done a few really interesting rearrangements of Broadway tunes and covers in the vain of this two-man operation
we’re doing.”
