#26
Posted: 9/18/08 at 7:25am
This thread has been quite interesting to read, because I am actually (co) directing the first Amateur (i know...I know...) performance of Rent in a couple of Months at the Bridewell Theatre.
Our outlook has to go for not so much a Rent Remixed, as a Rent revisited. The idea being that we forget all the Caprices, Scary Spices and Sugababes, and try and put on a version of Rent, we would have put on had it transferred from the NYTW into this off west end space. Not to show off too much, and to bring it back to its centre - the story of a bunch of friends and lovers who are trying to be artists in 90's New York, against the backdrop of an AIDS epidemic. To me, Alphabet City (circa 1993) is as much of a character in the show as Roger or Mark. It is set in a place that by the time the show went to Broadway pretty much didn't exist any more - to have the audience actually sitting of the stoop of Avenue A watching a 'slice of life' unfold in front of them.
As for changing the songs - again its more about trying to find what the song is actually about, why it is there and to perform it appropriately. To actively think of different ways to perform what are essentially famous MT songs is going to smack of gimmickery. Although we may do something with contact. I hate that number
Rent
Our outlook has to go for not so much a Rent Remixed, as a Rent revisited. The idea being that we forget all the Caprices, Scary Spices and Sugababes, and try and put on a version of Rent, we would have put on had it transferred from the NYTW into this off west end space. Not to show off too much, and to bring it back to its centre - the story of a bunch of friends and lovers who are trying to be artists in 90's New York, against the backdrop of an AIDS epidemic. To me, Alphabet City (circa 1993) is as much of a character in the show as Roger or Mark. It is set in a place that by the time the show went to Broadway pretty much didn't exist any more - to have the audience actually sitting of the stoop of Avenue A watching a 'slice of life' unfold in front of them.
As for changing the songs - again its more about trying to find what the song is actually about, why it is there and to perform it appropriately. To actively think of different ways to perform what are essentially famous MT songs is going to smack of gimmickery. Although we may do something with contact. I hate that number
Rent
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