Hmm... Well, when I first saw it (a local production, mind you), I didn't like it either. Now, I'm OBSESSED. I think it might be so critizised because of the lack of editing. It's a great show, but it's too long, and a lot could have been taken out. When you just listen to it, also, you can just listen to some songs, and you're not watching five straight minutes of "I should tell you, I should tell you". Just MY opinion, though, and I know a lot of people probably won't agree. :)
Actually, I think you're spot on, flowerchild. To me, RENT is simply unfinished; but there's no question in my mind as to Larson's talent. What a loss!
I don't really care much about the Monday morning quarterbacking of theater fans who feel such shame about their over-the-top enthusiasm for something 16 years ago or 10 years ago or six years ago, that they feel they must now distance themselves from it in order to show growth. Nor do I care much for the people who didn't seem to grasp how much was there from the very beginning when they dismissed RENT.
For me, I go back to the content that was there when I first saw it in 1996 and the fact that people whose opinions I trust saw it and heard it too, be they John Lahr in The New Yorker or New York Times classical music critic Anthony Tommasini. And of course, my personal most trustworthy critic, Michael Feingold of The Village Voice. Like me, he went back and had a look at New World Stages, and saw that it was still there.
For the people who never got RENT, eh, whatever, no explanation is possible. For the people who did, none is necessary.
^^^And the shadow (and romance) of Larson's sudden and premature death hovered over all of you, Namo. I don't see how anyone could have missed it.
Do you really want a discussion that includes only those who adore RENT unconditionally? Because surely there are RENT fan-boards where you can find that. (I hope that isn't ALL you want, because your comments on RENT in this thread would be greatly missed.)
Here, I think even those of us who don't love the show as you do have acknowledged that much of it is talented. And we've tried to be honest about our own biases (such as my tendency to see RENT's bohemians as hippies redux).
Isn't that how a good, critical discussion works?
Or to put it another way, are you really saying that in an era when we were losing many of Broadway's brightest lights to illness, that the loss of such a promising newcomer didn't influence your experience of his final show?
No, actually, I don't want a discussion with you at all. Not one scintilla of a discussion. I don't want to engage with you, specifically, about any theatre related topic. But that's just me.
I was going back to the original question that still sits atop this thread. If anybody out there reading this doesn't get RENT, never liked it, that's fine. There's no law you have to.
I have seen Rent four times. Three times it was a national tour, and one was a college production back in March of this year. The first time I saw it was the best, and I absolutely loved the cast and production. The other two times I saw the tour (once with Rapp and Pascal), I was not too impressed. The casts lacked energy and the show just seemed disjointed. I thought the movie was pretty bland and lacking, and thought the casting was just bad. I like Rent, but it is far from my favorite show, and I have no strong desire to see it again anytime soon.
No, actually, I don't want a discussion with you at all. Not one scintilla of a discussion. I don't want to engage with you, specifically, about any theatre related topic. But that's just me.
Namo, I'm going to continue to address you as the intelligent and well-informed adult I know you can be. You may continue to bang your head on the floor and call me names like a small child. It's a free country.
I love RENT. but I found the only good parts of the New World Stages production that I attended yesterday at 2:00pm were the set, the female soloist (in all of her roles), and the male soloist as the male soloist. YIKES! The Roger understudy... how did he even get considered to understudy that role? The Mimi looked the part, which I guess was all they cared about because she sure couldn't sing it. That production was particularly painful. Thank God I got tickets for TKTS and did not pay full price for that mess.
Sorry to bump up this old thread, but I found it interesting reading through this, and I actually remember reading this article in which the director admitted to just how flawed the show was, and even said similarly to what others said on here about how there was still A LOT he was going to fix.
"It would've been easier if that had not been the focus," he added. "But that came directly out of Jonathan's material, and while I wish he'd been around so that I could've fought with him about certain things, I'm also sure I would've lost those battles. These questions of how you tell the story of a community continue to challenge me. The show has flaws, certainly."
Even those "flaws" are something that can be glossed over with a good staging. Me, I'm still figuring out how to use the material we're given and manage to have Mimi die at the end.
(No, screw you, it has to happen. Has to. Number one, it drives home the show's moral even more: life moves pretty fast, so live each moment as your last. Number two, after hearing what I heard -- namely, that Larson at one point made the glib statement that "it's okay if the fag dies" when asked why Angel died and Mimi lived -- I want justice. And since he's dead, changing his damn ending is justice.)
"Number two, after hearing what I heard -- namely, that Larson at one point made the glib statement that "it's okay if the fag dies" when asked why Angel died and Mimi lived -- I want justice"
You're still here posting merde like that, which proves that in many instances, life is not short enough.
Where in the WORLD did you hear that, g.d.e.l.g.i.? I heard that Larson wanted her to live because he wanted his show to be about life, not death. I personally believe that Angel has to die because he was the last person that sort of kept them together. He dies so they can leave each other and then subsequently realize how much they all need each other.
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joined:6/10/12
Posted: 7/26/12 at 11:52pm