RENT!!!
by Katie
Is your refrigerator running? We don't even have one, bourgeois pig!
Has any staged performance stayed as inextricably tied to its original cast as Rent? Ten years after its debut, the original cast (save one or two) reunited for a less-than-brilliant film adaptation. Even this week, twelve years in, original casties Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal passed through DC as part of the national Broadway tour. They even brought the original “Seasons of Love” soloist along for the ride. But I wonder: has the popularity of the original cast made it impossible for newcomers to reinterpret the characters?
I had the distinct sense that some performers in the Broadway tour were wavering between reinterpretation and strict imitation, almost paralleling the conflict between the artist’s and crowd’s desires. As Mimi, Karmine Allers begins as a bit of an ingenue, but by “Out Tonight” is roaring and tossing her hair much like the original version. Also, sometimes Allers’s Mimi has a thick Spanish accent, and sometimes she doesn’t. What is this, West Side Story?
Nicolette Hart, too, seems constrained by the expectation to play Idina Menzel’s Maureen. She and Allers are capable of these vocal acrobatics because they have powerful, dynamic voices and experience to boot. I just wonder if we’re stifling them by knowing too well the first interpretations of the characters.
Justin Johnson’s performance most struck me, perhaps because he played an understated Angel, even in heels and zebra-print leggings. We understand that Angel is endlessly giving, and Johnson’s character makes her mark without dominating the others. Her scenes with Michael McElroy’s Tom Collins are the most romantic EVER, and dude can dance in heels. (Props. I can’t even wear a pair all day at work.)
Of course, Pascal and Rapp are flawless (to my unprofessional eye). Their voices are as strong or stronger than they were ten years ago, and after years of performing together they probably already are Roger and Mark, which makes it unfair because then it’s not acting. Or something. It was so good, I can’t say more than A M A Z I N G AMAZING. I wonder why Adam Pascal doesn’t play up his role in School of Rock more in his bio. (LOL FOREVER AT THOSE LEATHER SLEEVES.)
Do you want to know how much the second act made me cry? Well, I forgot tissues, and I was wearing a cardigan, so I had to use the sleeves to wipe my eyes and nose (different sleeves for different jobs) and hope that no one around me noticed.
At the risk of being drawn and quartered by rabid Rent fanatics, I would like to quibble with one beloved lyric repeated throughout the show: There’s only us, there’s only this. Really? There’s nobody else in the entire world that is poor and has AIDS? Have you heard of a little place called Africa? Or, I dunno, Washington DC? I don’t think the show is self-involved, necessarily, but I worry that the fans who latch onto this as REALLY SUPER INSPIRATIONAL are shortsighted, at least, and narcissistic at worst. There’s not only you, kids. There, I said it.
Also, if Benny didn’t perform any maintenance on the building, how can he collect a year’s rent? What about tenant’s rights? What graduate program do I have to get into to write a thesis about tenant’s rights in Broadway musicals?
Finally, OMGSOGOODOMGOMGOMG. I’m done.
Because we love it, here’s video of the original Broadway cast fucking rocking “La Vie Boheme.” I didn’t think Anthony Rapp could be any Alton Brown-ier, but I was wrong.
(image via 313rd Third Word)
