Journalists hoping to interview Broadway star Anthony Rapp Nov. 30 were thwarted by a cell phone that did not operate on San Francisco Bay Area’s Treasure Island, where the 33-year-old entertainer was in rehearsal for the film version of Rent. Simultaneously, the multi-talented, baby-faced Rapp was starring as Seymour in the national tour of the Jerry Zaks-directed musical, Little Shop of Horrors, a vehicle that the openly gay Rapp rides into San Diego December 7-12 for a run at the Civic Theatre.

Rapp, who’s been performing since he was a lad in his native Joliet, Ill., was the original Mark in the off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Jonathan Larson’s Bohemians-in-Manhattan rock musical, Rent.

At the time of our interview, Rapp was ensconced in a posh San Francisco hotel paid for by the movie people, and feeling, admittedly, very spoiled. Broadway tour accommodations were nothing like this.

When the San Diego run of Little Shop shutters, Rapp leaves the production to devote full time to rehearsing and shooting Rent. The film’s director, Chris Columbus – a hot commodity after helming Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – directed Rapp’s 1987 big screen debut, Adventures in Babysitting (with Elizabeth Shue). In fairly rapid succession, Rapp made 18 more movies, including A Beautiful Mind and Six Degrees of Separation.

As many readers know, Larson’s Rent is loosely based on an opera, Giacomo Puccini’s La boheme. The co-starring role of Mark is roughly the equivalent of Marcello in the opera – and that means lots of singing.

Rehearsing and filming Rent in the daytime and performing “Little Shop’s” Seymour at night seems daunting vocally. Apparently, Rapp has a good vocal technique. Other than vocalizing, what does he do to keep himself in top form?

“From doing Rent for almost three years, doing Hedwig and the Angry Inch [in Pittsburgh] last year, and Little Shop this year, I’ve learned that I have a little more stamina than I maybe thought I would. I do yoga, walk a lot and drink a lot of water. I don’t really drink alcohol, I don’t do drugs and I don’t smoke. I just try to keep myself clean.”

Rapp and his adorable significant other, classically trained actor Rodney To, are both in the biz. At the time of Rapp’s GLT interview, To was involved in multiple projects, too: the Los Angeles production of Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters and a Dec. 2 La Jolla Playhouse staged reading of Julia Cho’s Bay and the Spectacles of Doom, in which To plays the title role, Bay. Rehearsals for Bay begin in January, after which the world premiere work tours county schools for three months.

“We were born in the same hospital in Chicago,” said Rapp, “though Rodney’s a couple years younger. I’d been single for a few months after a long, kind of rough relationship that I kept trying to make work. I was actually dating more than one person for the first time ever. We’d become friends first, during the workshop of a show written for me. We went out on a couple of dates, and that was pretty much it. It was also my first real time being friends with somebody first, like having a developing relationship that wasn’t just like dating first. I think that’s part of the reason it’s gone so well.”

Rapp and To share an apartment in New York. “We’re spending a lot of time apart lately,” Rapp said, “but usually we get to see one another every two weeks.

“ Little Shop made a very strong impression on me when I a little kid. I saw it when I was 10 or 11 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Manhattan. I’d done a flop musical in New York when I was 10, The Little Prince and the Aviator. As an adult, I’ve appreciated Little Shop so much more as a piece of stagecraft, writing, and in terms of very intelligent, economical storytelling, where songs really work together, and the story moves forward. There’s not a wasted moment.

“In some ways there are things that Seymour goes through that I identify with from when I was a little younger, of not knowing that he was deserving of certain things. I’ve gained a little more self-respect than he. He gains it, but through dark means. We all have moments when we’re at our worst, when we’ve done things we’re ashamed of or are guilty about. I’ve been able to draw on some of that experience, but [mine is] certainly not as dire as killing someone.”

The New York Post called Little Shop of Horrors “a horticultural horror.”

Seymour is a mild-mannered employee at Mushnik’s floral shop on Skid Row. He names the exotic little plant he discovers Audrey II in honor of his beloved co-worker, an ambitious blond whose boyfriend is a nitrous oxide-addicted dentist. Seymour feeds the plant, which resembles a Venus Flytrap, drops of his own blood. Audrey II grows and develops an ever-larger appetite. To Seymour, it seems logical for the unfortunate dentist to become plant food. Audrey II sings “Feed Me.”

Sooner or later, everyone is eaten by the insatiable plant that threatens to devour even the audience at the climax of the piece, a coup de theatre that caused last season’s Broadway mavens and wags to liken Audrey – bigger, sexier and more seductively camp than ever – to the helicopter in “Miss Saigon.”

Audrey II is designed by master puppeteer, Martin P. Robinson, who created the plant life for the original 1982 off-Broadway musical based on Roger Corman’s 1960 film. It played in excess of 2,200 performances.

With a score by the amazing songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid), the San Diego Little Shop of Horrors, replete with the bigger, scarier, sexier Audrey II (built by the Jim Henson Company) is the acclaimed production seen on Broadway last season.

Little Shop of Horrors plays at:

San Diego Civic Theatre, 3rd and B Street,

Tuesday, Dec. 7 through Sunday, Dec. 12

7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 7:00 p.m. Wednesday; 8:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2:00 p.m. Saturday; and 1:00 and 6:00 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are $22-$60. For tickets call (619) 229-TIXS or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their website.