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Rent Live (2019)
FOX television strikes again with a live (almost) production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Rent, mounted by the same people who brought us the TV production of Grease with Julianne Hough and last year's Jesus Christ Superstar with John Legend.
This musical, actually based on the Puccini opera La Boheme, follows a group of friends navigating carefully through the Bohemian lifestyle of Greenwich Village that touches on subjects like homelessness, AIDS, and drug addiction. The principal characters include Mark, an aspiring documentary filmmaker who also serves as our host and narrator, who lives with Roger, an aspiring musician who contracted AIDS from his deceased girlfriend. Roger finds himself drawn to Mimi, an exotic dancer who lives downstairs who is a heroine addict and also has AIDS. Mark and Roger's best friend, Tom Collins, also an AIDS sufferer, finds himself falling for a free spirited drag queen named Angel who has AIDS as well. And let's not forget Maureen, Mark's ex-girlfriend, a loopy bisexual performance artist who is now in a relationship with a tightly wound lesbian lawyer named Joanne.
This show has a long and colorful history that climaxed with its premier on Broadway in 1996, where it ran for over 5000 performances and won the Tony for Best Musical. It came to the big screen in a somewhat abbreviated version in 2005 with most of the original cast reprising their roles.
I love this show and I think its primary attraction is its dazzling score by Jonathan Larson and the success of the piece lies in keeping this breathtaking score center stage at all times, unfortunately the co-director of this production, Michael Grief and Alex Rudzinski really weren't aware of this and just like he did with the TV version of Grease and Superstar, Rudzinski diluted a lot of the power of the piece by filming it in front of a live audience, mostly female, who spent the majority of the production screaming so loud that it was often hard to hear what was going on onstage (apparently filmed in the same theater where they did Superstar last year). The Angel character has one terrific number called "Today for You Tomorrow for Me" that actor James Levya put his heart and soul into but we television viewers were unable to hear one word of the song because of the obnoxious live audience screaming throughout the entire number.
I wish Rudzinski had put the care into respecting the property here that he did with Jesus Christ Superstar. Here, TPTB seem to be trying to bring something new to the show, but this is a show that really doesn't need any "help", in particular, a live audience that really didn't seem to understand a lot of what was going on. They just seemed to be interested in watching Mark and Roger gyrate in their tight pants and loving on Vanessa Hudgens.
The actors work very hard in recreating these roles even if the audience doesn't seem to notice. Vanessa Hudgens is spectacular as Maureen, far superior to her performance as Rizzo in Grease as was Tinashe as the flamboyant Mimi. Kudos as well to Brandon Victor Davis as Collins, who was electrifying last year as Judas in Superstar.
The music was expertly performed and staged with "Light My Candle", "Take Me or Leave Me", "Will I?", "La Vie Boheme", "The Tango Maureen", "Out Tonight", and of course, "Seasons of Love" the highlights. There was a reprise of "Seasons of Love" at the conclusion that featured original cast members that just felt like pandering. Sonya Teyah's striking choreography also deserves a shout out, I just wish the directors had preserved the integrity of the property by filming it without the annoying live audience. It wasn't as good as Superstar, but way better than Grease.
FOX television strikes again with a live (almost) production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Rent, mounted by the same people who brought us the TV production of Grease with Julianne Hough and last year's Jesus Christ Superstar with John Legend.
This musical, actually based on the Puccini opera La Boheme, follows a group of friends navigating carefully through the Bohemian lifestyle of Greenwich Village that touches on subjects like homelessness, AIDS, and drug addiction. The principal characters include Mark, an aspiring documentary filmmaker who also serves as our host and narrator, who lives with Roger, an aspiring musician who contracted AIDS from his deceased girlfriend. Roger finds himself drawn to Mimi, an exotic dancer who lives downstairs who is a heroine addict and also has AIDS. Mark and Roger's best friend, Tom Collins, also an AIDS sufferer, finds himself falling for a free spirited drag queen named Angel who has AIDS as well. And let's not forget Maureen, Mark's ex-girlfriend, a loopy bisexual performance artist who is now in a relationship with a tightly wound lesbian lawyer named Joanne.
This show has a long and colorful history that climaxed with its premier on Broadway in 1996, where it ran for over 5000 performances and won the Tony for Best Musical. It came to the big screen in a somewhat abbreviated version in 2005 with most of the original cast reprising their roles.
I love this show and I think its primary attraction is its dazzling score by Jonathan Larson and the success of the piece lies in keeping this breathtaking score center stage at all times, unfortunately the co-director of this production, Michael Grief and Alex Rudzinski really weren't aware of this and just like he did with the TV version of Grease and Superstar, Rudzinski diluted a lot of the power of the piece by filming it in front of a live audience, mostly female, who spent the majority of the production screaming so loud that it was often hard to hear what was going on onstage (apparently filmed in the same theater where they did Superstar last year). The Angel character has one terrific number called "Today for You Tomorrow for Me" that actor James Levya put his heart and soul into but we television viewers were unable to hear one word of the song because of the obnoxious live audience screaming throughout the entire number.
I wish Rudzinski had put the care into respecting the property here that he did with Jesus Christ Superstar. Here, TPTB seem to be trying to bring something new to the show, but this is a show that really doesn't need any "help", in particular, a live audience that really didn't seem to understand a lot of what was going on. They just seemed to be interested in watching Mark and Roger gyrate in their tight pants and loving on Vanessa Hudgens.
The actors work very hard in recreating these roles even if the audience doesn't seem to notice. Vanessa Hudgens is spectacular as Maureen, far superior to her performance as Rizzo in Grease as was Tinashe as the flamboyant Mimi. Kudos as well to Brandon Victor Davis as Collins, who was electrifying last year as Judas in Superstar.
The music was expertly performed and staged with "Light My Candle", "Take Me or Leave Me", "Will I?", "La Vie Boheme", "The Tango Maureen", "Out Tonight", and of course, "Seasons of Love" the highlights. There was a reprise of "Seasons of Love" at the conclusion that featured original cast members that just felt like pandering. Sonya Teyah's striking choreography also deserves a shout out, I just wish the directors had preserved the integrity of the property by filming it without the annoying live audience. It wasn't as good as Superstar, but way better than Grease.