Don't forget, get the moonlight out of your hair

Countdown: 2 days 13 hours! Until I fly out anyway.

I had the fortunate opportunity to watch RENT on Broadway for free last night. Since RENT is leaving for good, they were filming the Broadway production and Christine and I got to watch it live. It was really fun and awkward, because this omnipresent voice kept stopping the show. They had to do a couple of songs more than once, and the actors were pretty funny in the awkward breaks in between. I think the entire show ended up lasting over three hours. It was also funny how they ended it -- they'd already sung the finale and taken their bows, and we were already standing up and applauding. And then the voice asked them to do that whole last part all over.

Anyway, they're going to release this in select movie theaters come September, so I highly recommend watching it if you've never seen it live before. I'm really glad they're doing this, because the RENT movie Sony made was a real let-down. It definitely does not live up to the Broadway production. I thought it was a bit too ambitious; it lost a lot of the musical, and just came across as a bad drama interrupted with songs that were out of place. It was much too sequential.

For me, a lot of the appeal in the Broadway performance is how ambiguous the setting always is and how the characters are almost always on stage together no matter who's in the spotlight. In every song where the cast sings together, if you keep a close eye on all of the background characters, you'll notice that each one is contributing to the story somehow. It is incredible how perfectly everything always blends in together, stage-wise and vocally. It's a bit overwhelming, and I feel like I learn something new about the musical every time I watch it.

The filmed version probably won't match up either, but I suppose that's as close as it gets! If only they'd filmed it when Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp were still on stage. FYI, they were the original actors who played the main characters, Mark and Roger, and they returned to these roles briefly this past year. Sigh. I actually did not want to see RENT ever again after watching them in their original roles, because I wanted to preserve their performance as my last one (my third). It was a serious dream-come-true for me. But I couldn't say no to free tickets!

The performance last night was amazing anyway, and all of the actors did an incredible job. The only criticism I had was for the guy who played Roger, whose voice I thought lacked the sexy coarseness that Adam has, and was a bit too angry -- definitely not as smooth as Adam's standard. He also lacked good chemistry with the other actors on stage. I didn't really feel the love for Mimi. Also, was it just me, but did his "I should tell you"'s seem too rushed? A bit too pale and soft-looking... didn't look the part. I am being unreasonably critical. He sang very impressively.

Everything sounded very close to the original soundtrack, which I loved and most certainly appreciated. I managed to snap a few shots during the finale, when kicking me out of the theater wouldn't have mattered anyway.