Fourth Show - RENT
Okay so yesterday I was in town and needed something to do before seeing Spamalot so I found cheap tickets to RENT and went despite all the bad press, bad word of mouth and bad reviews. Okay now I know i should've listened to all that but seriously it's RENT how can people screw it up? Okay i'm gonna preface my review with RENT is one of my favourite musicals. I've loved it for years now and I know it pretty well and love how it is so people screwing with it was probably always gonna piss me off.
Apparently it was easier than i thought. They re-arranged songs, the cut lyrics, they changed characters around. It was just horrible. They changed where Act 1 ends (they finished after Christmas Bells rather than La Vie Boheme) on top of that they did something to La Vie Boheme that i really didn't like i cant even say wether it was the arrangement or just the cast but it was terrible.
I mean one of the things I love about RENT is the diversity of the characters. There are very few straight, white characters in RENT. At least there's supposed to be very few straight, white characters... I mean i'm all for colour blind casting but seriously a show that's out of a cast of nine has 3 white characters, 3 African American Characters and 2 Latinos suddenly had just 1 African-American character and for some reason 3 of the characters became inexplicably English. Now i get that may have been cause the actors couldn't pull off American Accents but i've seen several shows now that are very American (which RENT is) and all of the actors have at least attempted to pull off fake accents. Some better than otheres but still they tried.
The thing that gets me is the director had said he's "reimagined it for the Noughties" by taking out the guitars and making it more accessible for the audience. And I get that but RENT doesn't particularly sound all that dated and the changes they made (Out Tonight becoming a Lounge/Burlesque song, What You Own becoming a ballad and a song for Mark rather than a duet between Mark and Roger). They also took out the break-up of Roger and Mimi and Maureen and Joanne. Yeah it means that song is more focused on Angel's death but it really makes no sense in the next scene when Mimi goes to Benny and Maureen and Joanne are on the opposite sides of the stage ignoring each other.
And that was the other thing the Stage... RENT has always had a dirty, gritty type atmosphere I mean these guys are squatters living above a tent city in the East Village of New York. Having a stark white, clean set just seemed wrong.
But above all else what pissed me off was the changes to Angel. Angel has always been the heart of RENT and the major part of his character is that he's a drag queen. Angel's Santa outfit is one of the most iconic images from the show and his song and dance in the Today 4 U scene is one of the more popular moments of the play. So to take away Angel's dress, drop all references to him being a drag queen and also change all the references from she to he just seemed pointless, stupid and wrong.
As for the good parts... Despite looking wrong I liked the girl playing Joanne. She was funky and she had a good voice (but seriously Joanne Jefferson is not blonde and she really shouldn't be white either). The guy playing Collins was brilliant. Had a great voice and was just perfect for the role. And Denise Van Outen was great as Maureen. SHe possibly mugged to the audience a little too much but that's pretty much what Maureen is supposed to be doing anyway so it seemed okay.
But all in all that was the worst production of RENT I have ever seen and considering all the others were community theatre that's a little worrying.
Apparently it was easier than i thought. They re-arranged songs, the cut lyrics, they changed characters around. It was just horrible. They changed where Act 1 ends (they finished after Christmas Bells rather than La Vie Boheme) on top of that they did something to La Vie Boheme that i really didn't like i cant even say wether it was the arrangement or just the cast but it was terrible.
I mean one of the things I love about RENT is the diversity of the characters. There are very few straight, white characters in RENT. At least there's supposed to be very few straight, white characters... I mean i'm all for colour blind casting but seriously a show that's out of a cast of nine has 3 white characters, 3 African American Characters and 2 Latinos suddenly had just 1 African-American character and for some reason 3 of the characters became inexplicably English. Now i get that may have been cause the actors couldn't pull off American Accents but i've seen several shows now that are very American (which RENT is) and all of the actors have at least attempted to pull off fake accents. Some better than otheres but still they tried.
The thing that gets me is the director had said he's "reimagined it for the Noughties" by taking out the guitars and making it more accessible for the audience. And I get that but RENT doesn't particularly sound all that dated and the changes they made (Out Tonight becoming a Lounge/Burlesque song, What You Own becoming a ballad and a song for Mark rather than a duet between Mark and Roger). They also took out the break-up of Roger and Mimi and Maureen and Joanne. Yeah it means that song is more focused on Angel's death but it really makes no sense in the next scene when Mimi goes to Benny and Maureen and Joanne are on the opposite sides of the stage ignoring each other.
And that was the other thing the Stage... RENT has always had a dirty, gritty type atmosphere I mean these guys are squatters living above a tent city in the East Village of New York. Having a stark white, clean set just seemed wrong.
But above all else what pissed me off was the changes to Angel. Angel has always been the heart of RENT and the major part of his character is that he's a drag queen. Angel's Santa outfit is one of the most iconic images from the show and his song and dance in the Today 4 U scene is one of the more popular moments of the play. So to take away Angel's dress, drop all references to him being a drag queen and also change all the references from she to he just seemed pointless, stupid and wrong.
As for the good parts... Despite looking wrong I liked the girl playing Joanne. She was funky and she had a good voice (but seriously Joanne Jefferson is not blonde and she really shouldn't be white either). The guy playing Collins was brilliant. Had a great voice and was just perfect for the role. And Denise Van Outen was great as Maureen. SHe possibly mugged to the audience a little too much but that's pretty much what Maureen is supposed to be doing anyway so it seemed okay.
But all in all that was the worst production of RENT I have ever seen and considering all the others were community theatre that's a little worrying.