Bryant Park Review and ROSARIO'S MOM

This is only a review of the RENT performances, as I had to get back to work and could not stay to hear the rest of the show. People I spoke to who were there for sound check said everyone sounded good though.

Anyway, first and foremost, I thought the performance was amazing for a number of reasons. Besides sounding great, you could tell the cast was genuinely having fun with the music, each other, and most importantly the audience. They knew who they were dealing with and responded accordingly. They were all so enthusiastic, it was as if they hadn't been singing this song for 10 years.

Jesse wasn't there for some reason, so Wilson took over his solo in Seasons. To be fair, he sounded great, but it was Wilson's voice on a solo that's meant for a deeper, more soulful soloist. However, he is still an amazing singer and sounded as good as ever. Tracie, as always, was fantastic. Anthony joked afterwards that we (the audience) "broke her cherry" for this song. Towards the beginning there was a sound glitch/skip, and the audience just burst into cheers and the cast totally went with it, making "what do you expect" type gestures and really just going with it. Made the performance that much more enjoyable.

TMOLM - wow. I never saw the OBC so I have no idea how Idina and Fredi were together, but she and Tracie have RIDICULOUS on stage chemistry. When one of them wasn't singing, they were doing some sort of hilarious motion in response to the lyrics. For example, Idina humping Tracie's leg, or lifting her shirt at one point. Both of them really took liberties with the notes (in a good way), or as my friend likes to say, they "tore it up"

If any of the singers were flat, I didnt notice, and I dont think anyone else did either. The experience in and of itself was so amazing that they really could have been singing gibberish and it wouldn't have mattered. As someone who was here as well as the Today Show, I have to say that I enjoyed this performance more (even though What You Own was out of this world).

One last thing - hopefully those of you at the Today Show and/or Bryant Park were able to meet Rosario's mom, Isabel. She was the crazy and hilarious hispanic lady running around taking pictures of the fans and encouraging them to sing along. I don't use this word often, but she is fabulous. Her best line..."she [rosario] was worth every stretch mark and ounce of fat!" She even had a small fan base of her own and kept laughing when people asked her for her autograph. Such a sweet and funny lady. Be sure to look for her at any future events like the ones today.

Hope y'all enjoyed the performances today, I know I did. Now what the hell am I going to do until November?!?!?

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robbiej, i thought i noticed that but i wasn't sure - i mean i noticed the glitch but i couldnt tell if it was a vocal track or if it was just the music that skipped and they (the singers) fell behind and then made up for it...either way, great show!

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A friend of mine actually called it from the second it started. She said, 'They're singing along to a voice track.' I didn't believe her till the glitch.

ETA: Yes...they did sing live. And sounded quite good.

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Updated On: 8/4/05 at 01:38 PM

no matter what, it was still AWESOME!

i assume that was her mom that was snapping pictures right before it started on stage?? hilarious!

Luckay you!!
Glad you were there :)!

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there was a mob at the exit.. some signed stuff for like a minute and then were escorted to their limos for .. what adam said was their next publicity event..

Anthony was, as always, as gracious as ever and signed for many people.. i dont even think he was escorted to the limos.. i think he may have stayed and signed..

To there limos?! Seems funny, somehow I see them as just "regular" people, I have to get away from them NOT really being thier characters.

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Sounds awsome!!! You're so lucky you could be there!

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Where do we get a video of "that"?

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i will second that it was AMAZING. way too hot out, but it was AMAZING. i felt SO bad for Idina whenever the crazy-ass wicked/rent fans would see her and start screaming "IDEEENAA! IDEEEENAA! OVER HERE!" Like, no sh*t, she knows you're there.

Irony? Who calls me literally the a second or two after the SOL chords start? Dean Armstrong. I had to yell into the phone that I'd call him back.

It was amazing! I thought I was going to faint in the heat, but it was totally worth it! The performances were phenomenal, but I loved the sound checks. There were only about 100 people(maybe a bit more), so it was calmer and they did SOL twice and TMOLM once. Before the first SOL, someone screamed out "I love you Adam!" or something like that, and he replied "Thank you, baby." :-P In b/w songs Adam and Idina were talking to the crowd and asking us things. Anthony also spoke to the crowd. Rosario's mom is awesome!! She got the crowd in the middle (I was more to the side) to sing SOL, and then Rosario went down and sat and sang with them.

The "stagedoor" was insane. There were SO many people there. I only got Wilson's autograph. Anthony was almost to us, but then he had to leave.

Idina and Tracie sounds FANTASTIC together. Tracie is amazing.

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The sound check was at around 10. I too enjoyed the sound check better, even though during the actual performance there was way more energy since we had been waiting so long. The sound check was cool because there weren't tons of people and the cast was really great, having lots of fun, and making it fun for us too.

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who else is way excited that there are more RENT topics on the first maessage board page than wicked topics? lol... i love both shows but its nice to see some RENT threads!