Rent: Live

By: Dustin Bradley

RENT-heads it finally happened! On Sunday, January 27th FOX finally unveiled Rent-Live although the only real aspect of it that was truly live television was the final fifteen minutes of the broadcast with the rest being technically live theatre. The performance starred Jordan Fisher as Mark, Brennin Hunt as Roger, Tinashe as Mimi, Brandon Victor Dixon as Collins, Valentina as Angel, Vanessa Hudgens as Maureen, Kiersey Clemons as Joanne, Mario as Benny and featuring Keala Settle as “Seasons of Love” vocalist and ensemble member. The original plan was for the whole show to be live, but after actor Brennin Hunt sustained injuries at the end of Saturday’s dress rehearsal they were forced to air the filmed full dress rehearsal from Saturday until the finale of the show tonight. Confusing right? Below we will break down my opinion and reactions to the cast and performances.

If you don’t already know, Rent is the story of a group of friends embarking on the journey of love, addiction, disease and the bohemian lifestyle in the early 1990’s amidst the HIV/AIDS crisis that ravaged not only New York but the country. Throughout the story we follow filmmaker Mark, his roommate musician Roger (HIV+), their neighbor Mimi (HIV+), their former roommate and friend Tom Collins (HIV+), Collins’ partner Angel (HIV+), Mark’s ex girlfriend Maureen, Maureen’s current girlfriend Joanne, and landlord/businessman/ former friend Benny. The show is a rock opera written and composed by the late Jonathan Larson who died from complications from a pneumonia/aortic aneurysm just a mere few hours before call time on the day of the off-Broadway opening. Since it first premiered off-Broadway and through its Broadway engagement and 2005 film, Rent has been a powerhouse and phenomenon. The story and music have inspired many an artist and viewer.

This “live”-ish event was a cross between Fox’s Grease Live and NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert with full on sets, but also a rock concert vibe which some fans love and some not so much. I’m on the side of not loving it. It’s truly distracting for me to watch a musical (not to mention my favorite of all time) and have to hear a loud roar of an applause the second an actor appears or hits a note. Theatre etiquette is very real and is getting more lost in our times. There used to be a time that we waited until the very end of the show and curtain call before applauding, but we have been conditioned now to applaud after every song which is acceptable if you at a concert and not a theatre. I’m sure it stunned the actors as well. Besides a few lyric changes and a bit of the acting, this is my major critique.

Before I tell you who were my standouts and who not so much, let’s talk about the few unnecessary lyric changes. So, my major concern when this show was first announced along with many other RENT-heads was censorship. Were we going to be subjected to a watered down version of this story? Surprisingly not. We had a few cuss words changed as expected, but what we didn’t expect was simple lyric changes in songs where they were uncalled for such as “You’ll See” and a few others. And not only did the lyrics change, but so did the time period? Originally the musical is set in 1989-1990, but this version is set from 1991-1992. The HIV/AIDs crisis in New York was still happening then, but why increase the time period by two years? That’s confusing and never addressed. The references are still the the old ones so to change the time period yet not update the references was strange. 

In my opinion, the standouts of the night all around were Vanessa Hudgens and Kiersey Clemons who impressed not only acting wise but vocally, too. Jordan Fisher wowed and amazing vocally as Mark, but has received flack for being “hot Mark” and less nerdy Mark as well as not having his signature glasses and scarf. I will say that I very much much enjoyed his performance and not only was his voice amazing and his acting on par but, let’s be honest, he’s really nice to look at!

Brandon Victor Dixon at first seemed to not be my choice for the role of Collins, but after further listening to it and watching again I have changed my mind. He is immensely talented and his solo song, “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” was many critics’, including mine, favorite moment (in my case it’s my favorite song from the show).

Brennin Hunt had that rock flare that Roger is famous for while also treating the role as less moody as his previous incarnations. Tinashe impressed me as Mimi. She is a wonderful performer and, hopefully, after this will get more recognition in her music career as well as film and theatre. Valentina got applause the second she made an appearance on stage until the very end. Valentina started out so strong, but had a few hiccups in the rest of the performance until “Contact,” which honestly I’m so surpirsed made it to air seeing as how that song is not only Angel’s death but also a giant orgy and representation of non-safe sex. And while the lyrics of the song are juxtaposed with the death of Angel, it really surprised me that FOX took the risk to include it.

Mario didn’t have much to do seeing as how Benny is so underutilized in every version of this show, but he did the most with what he was given and it was fun to watch. Keala Settle amazed me as always! I was so impressed by her mainly because she recently reported that a few days before her performance on last year’s Oscars she suffered a stroke during a rehearsal. She kept it a secret for almost a whole year and finally revealed her truth a few months before this performance and you can tell her vocals when she sings about “No Day But Today” or “Measure Your Life in Love” hits her so much harder after this experience. And boy does it break my heart yet also uplift it! Her vocals were a tad weaker than normal, but that maybe due to her health problems and I, for one, and not faulting her for that after the year she’s had. I love her with all of my heart!

The set was beautiful and very well done. The production values were on par with the real performance despite it being a filmed dress rehearsal. The only problems were a few sound mixing issues, but they got fixed rather quickly. The costumes were fabulous and the subtle nod to the original Mark sweater had me laughing out loud.

At the end of the show they paid a tribute to Jonathan Larson AND reunited all of the original Broadway cast to sing the encore and as a RENT-head it made me BALL! I was so emotional about the ending it was unreal. Seeing Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Freddie Walker and Daphne Rubin-Vega was such a treat and blessing for me and all RENT-heads to see!

Overall, despite it’s flaws, the show and actors make up for it rather quickly by giving us solid performances, excellent vocals and most importantly energy. The soundtrack for Rent-Live was released on February 1st and I am more than ready to hear the studio version of this cast. Be sure to get the album when it becomes available and also check out the soundtrack for the original Broadway show and film.