I have been a fan of Broadway star Adam Pascal ever since he burst to fame in the Jonathan Larson musical blockbuster RENT. People said we sounded similar. We sounded similar enough that I was considered to replace him as Roger in the Broadway company when he left to do the Elton John/Tim Rice Disney musical Aida.

In total I had seven callbacks for RENT. I didn’t get the part, because at the end of the day, I’m a good singer who sounds a lot like Adam Pascal, but not a great singer who sounds just like him. Manley Pope and Norbert Leo Butz are examples of other great singers like Adam to play the role on Broadway.

Even though I didn’t replace him on Broadway, Adam Pascal remains one of my Broadway heroes. He has such an amazing vocal delivery. His voice is rich and colored, capable of being tender and kind or harsh and biting.

I was thrilled when it was announced that Adam had been cast as the male lead in the Broadway tour of Pretty Woman. Knowing how I idolize Adam, my sister bought me tickets to see Pretty Woman when the tour came to Chicago last week.

I had been looking forward to the event for months. My schedule had been planned around seeing the show and writing a review….then tragedy struck.

It wasn’t tragedy on any kind epic world scale, but in my private little world it was definitely a disappointment. There was a COVID outbreak in the Pretty Woman cast and the remaining Chicago performances, including the one I had tickets for, were cancelled.

Curious to see if Adam was one of those in the cast afflicted by the disease, I did an internet search. I found nothing on Adam’s COVID status, which I took as a good sign. But I also found a neat surprise from my search.

In the Marvel series Hawkeye on Disney+, there is a tongue-in-cheek fictitious Broadway show entitled Rogers: The Musical. The title reflects the identity of Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. The idea certainly pokes fun at Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – a real life big budget Broadway disappointment.

The Hawkeye production team didn’t just have posters up promoting Rogers: The Musical in the background of scenes, they actually staged a full Broadway production number. To my delight, that production number featured Adam Pascal.

What I found in my search is that the Hawkeye producers have now released the entire song from Rogers: the Musical.  Save the City was written by the creative team Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the songwriting team behind the music of the television series Smash. They also wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway adaptation of the film Hairspray.

Best of all, Save the City features Adam Pascal on lead vocals. His voice is just as vibrant as dynamic as when he premiered on Broadway 25 years ago.

I suggest you give the song a listen. It’s actually quite good.

Hopefully the touring cast of Pretty Woman are all safe and on the mend. I also hope that they reschedule the Chicago dates, however, nothing is certain.

I celebrate the small things in life. Of course I’m disappointed that the show was cancelled, but I’m happy that the cancellation led me to do a search that ended with a new Adam Pascal song to enjoy. I prefer to focus on the positives.

Peace. Love. Trust.

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