When Oasis last talked to Wilson Cruz two years ago, he mentioned that My So-Called Life wouldn't be the last we'd see of him.

And, in passing, he mentioned how much he would like to perform in a Broadway play, among his list of other career goals.

Well, audiences are about to see a whole new side of Cruz as the HIV-positive drag queen Angel in the La Jolla, Calif. cast of Rent (which will tour, starting in Los Angeles). He dropped the weight My So-Called Life made him gain to look younger for the show, shaved the goatee you may have seen and, in his own words, is "pretty damned beautiful" in women's clothes. (The cast hasn't taken publicity photos yet, so we can't show you the results).

Review by Patrick Martin

"How do you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own bloodcells betray? What binds the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change keep ripping away?" -- "Rent", from the rock opera Rent

"Rent rent rent rent rent.....," as the multicultural chorus of 15 blares out at the climax of the violently powerful opening number of Jonathan Larson's amazing rock opera Rent, which has taken American theater by storm. "...everything is rent."

By Jeff Walsh

In the opening shot of David Lynch's movie "Blue Velvet," an idyllic suburban home is descended upon by the camera. Warm, rich colors of green grass, a white picket fence and a happy Technicolor couple fill the screen. The camera never stops descending, though. As it continues down, it goes into the soil and thousands upon thousands of screeching bugs fill the screen, leaving the viewer with the sense that things are never as simple as they appear on the surface.