For all the Adam fans who didn’t make it out to Los Angeles for his run in Burn This, just a little taste of what we missed. There’s also a nice little Opening Night video featuring Adam talking about the play in the Multimedia section of the official site. (h/t Broadway World for the top video.)

Ken Barnett, Brooks Ashmanskas, Director Nicholas Martin, Zabryna Guevara and Adam Rothenberg in rehearsal.

All rehearsal and performance photos by Craig Schwartz; photos from the April 3rd opening night by Ryan Miller, Capture Imaging.

Adam’s star turn in Burn This corralled a lot of critical notice. LA Weekly said that “Adam Rothenberg’s Pale is the hot, pounding heart of this production.” Los Angeles Broadway World thought that Adam was “astounding in a fearless portrayal of an intensely hurting individual.” Variety thought that “The talented Rothenberg, who blessedly lacks Malkovich’s distracting androgynous quality, offers a Pale who is believable, tough, utterly masculine …” And the Los Angeles Times noted that “Rothenberg, who looks a little like Willem Dafoe’s younger brother, has charisma and the right urban grace.”

In addition to all the raves, we got a new profile of Adam courtesy LA Stage Times’ Connie Danese:

Adam Rothenberg, playing the role created by John Malkovich, is a thoughtful and charismatic actor who explodes onto the stage in his first entrance like a modern-day Stanley Kowalski. How does he get to that peak so quickly? “Uhh,” he grins sheepishly, “Jump rope.” He pauses to add, “And a little Tai Chi. Then, well, you just throw yourself into the language and get your heart rate up.”

When asked about his training, Rothenberg is both charming and generous. “I have a wonderful teacher I would love to mention by the name of Alan Savage. I never went to acting school. I learned in the trenches working in black box theaters in New York. But this teacher has helped me a great deal. He stresses working with the text, understanding why you’ re saying something based on what the other person just said. I don’t know how to explain it. A lot of actors feel they need to be doing so many things, when at the end of the day if the writer has done his work you just show up, trust you’re enough and throw yourself into it.”

In the second act Rothenberg’s character shows a surprising sensitivity. “To me that section was just about dropping the rage and going with the language, which is so brilliant and beautiful. I felt the more I thought about what I was saying, the sensitivity just took care of itself.”

We at the Apple have been extremely remiss in our Adam news duties. We’ve got a big ol’ pile of Adam business to get to, but, while we sift through it, we’d like to direct any Los Angeles-area fans to his current appearance in the Lanford Wilson classic Burn This, running through the month of April.

March 23 – May 1
Burn This

Written by Lanford Wilson
Directed by Nicholas Martin
Set design by Ralph Funicello
Costume design by Gabriel Berry
Lighting design by Ben Stanton
Sound by Cricket S. Myers
Original music by Peter Golub
Fight direction by Steve Rankin
Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center, Downtown Los Angeles

Anna is a dancer-choreographer who has lost Robbie, her best friend and collaborator, in a tragic accident. Pale is Robbie’s brother, a powder-keg lost in his own way, who arrives at her doorstep in the middle of the night. Pale is dangerous, sexy, raw and demanding, and he interrupts the course of Anna’s existence bringing major changes in her life.

This passionate modern classic, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lanford Wilson (Talley’s Folly), features original music by Peter Golub, and is directed by Nicholas Martin (Dead End at the Ahmanson, The House of Blue Leaves at the Taper) and features Brooks Ashmanskas (Julie & Julia), Ken Barnett (Puccini for Beginners, The Producers), Zabryna Guevara (Marley & Me, All Good Things) and Adam Rothenberg (Mad Money, The Ex-List).

Burn This, which had its world premiere in CTG/Mark Taper Forum’s 1986-87 season, moved to Broadway in 1987, and helped to ignite the careers of John Malkovich and Joan Allen. Newsweek said of the play, “[It] has a voracious vitality and an almost manic determination to drive right into the highest voltage that life can register.”

Above: Adam Rothenberg in rehearsal; photo by Craig Schwartz.