The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Rent” opens July 24 and continues through August 15 at the Flat Rock Playhouse in Flat Rock, North Carolina. The play, now celebrating its 30th anniversary since opening on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre in 1996, follows a group of young artists and friends in New York City’s East Village as they navigate love, poverty, creativity, addiction and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Inspired by La Bohème, the show celebrates resilience, chosen family and living authentically despite uncertainty. Its themes remain deeply relevant today, as communities continue confronting health disparities, housing insecurity, economic inequality and discrimination. “Rent” also serves as a powerful reminder of the lives affected by HIV/AIDS while honoring the enduring importance of compassion, inclusion, artistic expression and the belief that every life has value.
Courter Simmons is an out actor who has appeared on stage and screen. He’s performed at the Flat Rock previously as Frankie Valli in “Jersey Boys” and Dennis in “The Play That Goes Wrong.” Among other stage production notables for the actor on and off Broadway are “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Rocky Horror Show” and “The Legend of Georgia McBride.” He is also an award-winning cabaret artist who was nominated for a Grammy in 2024.
Simmons spoke with Qnotes to share a little bit about his personal life, his role in “Rent” and his thoughts on the importance of the message behind the play in 2026, among other things.
David Aaron Moore: Let’s start with some basics here. Where are you from originally?
Courter Simmons: I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, but I’ve lived in New York for 25 years now, so I’d say I’m officially a New Yorker.
DAM: Is most of your work in New York City, or do you travel for work more often?
CS: I travel a lot. I have appeared in shows in New York as well. One finds that when you move to New York to do theater, you end up doing theater all over the country and all over the world. So yes, I’ve been in shows on Broadway and off Broadway and all of that in New York. But New York is kind of the center of the theater world, at least in the United States, so you know that’s where all of the regional theaters, including Flat Rock, have their auditions. So when you live there, you audition for theaters that take you all over the country.
DAM: Tell us about your role in “Rent.”
CS: I’m in the ensemble in “Rent.” I’ve been really lucky. This is my third year working at Flat Rock. I played Frankie Valli in “Jersey Boys” here, and I was in “The Play that Goes Wrong” last year. This time, I’m getting to play a smaller role and watch other folks carry the larger loads, which is really fun. But it means that I get to play a lot of different characters. I’m a cop at one point. I’m a homeless man at one point. You know, I play a couple of characters who are living with AIDS and singing about their experience with that.
DAM: So it’s the 30th anniversary of “Rent.” What do you think continues to make the play still so pertinent in 2026?
CS: Well, it’s really a universal message. “Rent” itself is a period piece about the mid ’90s in the Lower East Side of New York City during the AIDS crisis, but it’s based on a famous, wildly well-known opera, “La Bohème.” So the story was written when Verity wrote the opera. He was writing about consumption, what we now would call TB. But he was writing about that and the plight of these poor artists living in Europe at the time. So, it’s not a brand new story. It’s a story that has taken place over a lot of time, and it’s about young people who see themselves as outsiders, who see themselves as being mistreated by society at large because they are different, because they’re artists, because they’re queer, because they’re young, because they’re really progressive politically. All of those kinds of things, which is a universal thing. So why is it still relevant now? We’re still fighting a lot of the same battles we were fighting in the ’90s – as far as queer rights. We’re far more aware at this point than we were back then of the plights and struggles of our trans siblings, right? AIDS, unfortunately, is still a thing. And only a few years ago we went through, as an entire country, a pandemic, which kind of brought all of this stuff back into focus because it was once again about societal and governmental response to a major public health crisis. All of these things make it really timely.
DAM: I understand you’re a cabaret performer, and your stage personality is a drag character. Tell us all about her.
CS: Yes! Her name is Cacophony Daniels, and she’s a live singing drag queen. I’ve been doing that for about 10 years now, and she has taken me everywhere all over the world. I do a weekly show in New York City at a bar called Rise in Hell’s Kitchen, which is the big queer neighborhood in Manhattan. And, like I said, I’ve also gotten to travel all over the country and the world, doing stuff with her, too. We live in a truly gig economy, and when you’re a performer, that’s especially true. So, I cobbled together a living doing both theater and Broadway and TV film as myself, and then also doing stuff as Cacophony.
DAM: There are so many people I meet in the LGBTQ+ community who really want to perform, in some way or another. And there are different degrees of success. No matter how well known you are, if you can make a living performing, I’d call that success. What thoughts do you have for performers just sticking their toes in the water?
CS: Learn as much as you can. It’s really important, especially nowadays, to be as well-rounded as possible, so you know, don’t just call yourself a singer, or an actor, or just a dancer or a musician. You have to be as well-rounded as possible. You know, we’ve got now 100 years of films that we can watch, right? But people only watch films from the last 10 years. So go back and watch movies that are 100 years old. We’ve got, you know, a music industry that’s 150 years old. Listen to music from all different genres and types and ages. I can’t stress the importance of it enough! Learn as much as you can about all of those things.
The Flat Rock Playhouse, the official state theater of North Carolina, is located at 2661 Greenville Highway in Flat Rock, North Carolina, next door to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. It’s five minutes south of Hendersonville and about 30 minutes south of Asheville. For more information on the Flat Rock Playhouse, visit their website at https://www.flatrockplayhouse.org/.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
