Adam Pascal to direct Foreigner musical at LIU Post next year

Adam Pascal has been tapped to direct a world-premiere production next spring of a musical based on songs from the rock band Foreigner, with help from students at Long Island University.

Pascal, who has been named the school’s inaugural artist in residence, will stage "Feels Like the First Time — The Foreigner Musical" from April 17 through 26 at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the LIU Post campus in Brookville. It’s part of the school’s newly launched New Works initiative, intended to foster original stage productions.

“I’ve never done this as a director,” Pascal told Newsday in an interview. “We’ll bring in some professional actors to work alongside the students. I’m really excited to be developing it in this way.”

Pascal, who grew up in Woodbury before landing the lead role in the original 1996 Broadway production of “Rent,” said he met Tom Dunn, the Tilles Center’s executive and artistic director, at a Memorial Day parade on Long Island a number of years ago. That planted the seed for a recent conversation about him working at Tilles, Pascal said, where he’ll also teach master classes, play a solo performance in November and appear with a traveling company of “Rent in Concert” next year.

“Feels Like the First Time" was first announced in 2017 as “Juke Box   Hero,” named after the band’s 1981 single. The show held its debut in Toronto in 2019, but Pascal said it’s now being rewritten at his request. Though Foreigner's many hits from the late 1970s and early '80s are still hummable — including “Urgent,” “Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded” and “I Want to Know What Love Is” — Pascal said he wanted a story that didn’t feel reverse-engineered from the songs.

“A book and lyrics for a musical are hard enough,” he explained. “You have to tell a story — and then you write for the characters.”

Though Pascal has spoken recently about leaving show business, he remains active. Last year he joined an Off-Broadway production of “Drag: The Musical,” and in June he’ll start an 11-date run of shows with his old “Rent” cast mate Anthony Rapp at the Manhattan nightclub 54 Below.

“Foreigner: The Hits Unplugged,” an acoustic performance by the band that will raise funds for the New Works initiative, is scheduled for the Tilles Center on Sept. 5.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com