by Marion Garmel
Indianapolis Star
February 4, 2001

Justin A. Johnston almost didn't audition for Rent.

The Gary native was a student at Indiana University when the producers had auditions in Bloomington for the national tour that will arrive at Clowes Hall on Tuesday.

"At first I was not even going to audition," he said. "But then I thought, I might as well give it a shot. At least I can say, above all, I auditioned for a Broadway show.

"So I did it. You have to go through certain levels to get to the main casting director. I thought, 'Oh, I'm getting closer -- whatever happens will happen.' After she heard me, they kept calling me back. I think they called me back eight times through the span of four days," he said.

The good news is, he was hired. He's a member of the ensemble, playing several parts, including Paul, a waiter. He also is understudy for the role of Angel.

Cast changes

The second national tour of Rent, which started in 1997, played eight sold-out performances at Clowes Hall in March 1999. It is back by popular demand, and there have been several cast changes.

People keep moving in and out of the parts, Johnston said. He has been with the tour since September. "And there is almost a whole new female ensemble from when I started. I've seen a lot of people come and go already," he said by phone from Austin, Texas, where the tour was playing.

Rent is the musical written by Jonathan Larson, who died at 35 of an aortic aneurysm shortly before the show opened at the New York Theatre Workshop in January 1996. It's a wholly contemporary re-envisioning of Puccini's La Boheme, an opera about struggling artists in Paris in the 19th century. Larson moved the action to the East Village in the 1990s. His artists are battling drugs and AIDS instead of poverty and tuberculosis.

Despite the subject matter, the musical has a pounding rock score that is joyous and breathtaking, reviewers have agreed. The musical swept all the major theater awards in 1996, including the Tony Award for best musical and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Music-dance background

Johnston was not a theater major at IU. "I'm sort of an everything major," he said. But he is a member of the African-American Choral Ensemble, directed by James Mumford, and the African-American Dance Company, directed by Iris Rosa.

He was one of the dancers Rosa brought with her when she choreographed the stunning dances in the Black Nativity at the Madame Walker Theatre two seasons ago.

"I started with dancing," he said. "I was the '80s baby, so we were submerged in Thriller, break dancing, the MTV generation. 

"I've always been very musical, and I know that's what I wanted to get a degree in. And this is what I love doing, so it was just right that this happened," he said of being in the cast of Rent. 

Johnston's mother is a retired computer teacher in Gary and will be here for the opening. His father is deceased.

Johnston also has a lot of family in Indianapolis. "The Goins family. Joan Goins is my mother's sister. There are a lot of cousins on that side. I really don't have a number now because there are so many. I saw them recently, and all these new cousins have been born," he said.

Taking care of the voice

Johnston says he loves the traveling aspect of the tour but moving in and out of different climates takes its toll.  "Something I didn't expect was the trouble of maintaining my voice," he said.  "We're coming right out of the winter season and, man! It can really put a wear and tear on your voice. We go into these dry theaters, and you can really feel it. You have to conserve your energy. You just have to work with it. Drink the water. Take the supplements. That does help."

Johnston doesn't know what he'll do after the tour closes in July. He would like to return to IU, where he would be a junior. "I want to go back to get the degree I worked so hard for it," he said. "But I'm going to get a degree in this field, so I might as well be doing the work if I have the chance. I really don't know what my destiny holds."

Rent

Seats in the first two rows of the orchestra section will be made available for $20 at each performance. The $20 tickets go on sale at the Clowes Hall box office on the day of the performance, two hours before the show, and are available for cash only, with a limit of two tickets per person. No lining up will be allowed before 9 a.m.

This practice began with the Broadway run and is in keeping with the spirit of the show and the vision of the late Jonathan Larson, according to producer Kevin McCollum. "Jonathan was himself a struggling artist, and his dream was to create a universal piece of musical theater that's available to everyone."

The $20 tickets also were sold when Rent came to Clowes in 1999. The show's return is a bonus presentation of the Indianapolis Broadway Series.