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Byron Utley
Byron Utley has previously performed on Broadway in
Death And The King's Horseman and Big Deal. Regional
theatre credits include I Ain't Yo Uncle, A Midsummer Night's
Dream, Joe Turner's Come And Gone and Othello. Off-
Broadway he appeared in Rent. Utley has acted in the film Night
And The City and the television shows Law & Order,
Ghostwriter and The Dudley Moore Show. He was the featured
vocalist with Hannibal Peterson at the 1995 Theatre Festival in Venice and
Milan. Utley also participates in the Colgate Palmolive Partnership
Mentor
Program.
Byron
Utley:
Before I did RENT, I wasn't too interested in
doing another musical. I was sick and tired of the British imports
and was bored with the musical theatre being produced on Broadway. It
seemed very white-bread, Middle America. It wasn't about our time or
what was really going on, especially in New York. RENT is uniquely
on-target with all that. In this show, you're dealing with hopelessness,
gay rights, human rights, housing... We are all affected by these issues.
To me, the piece is political as well as spiritual. Theatre gives
you a podium, a platform to say certain things you might not otherwise have
the opportunity to say.
