Latebreaking RENT FILM CASTING NEWS — Page 3

Mister matt,
young perfrmers could do it damn good if they soent time findinga good cast. Rent's producers/creative team have been VERY sloppy in casting and look for cheap labor over good talent over the past years.....

LOL Matt_G, I will not entertain any additional posts by you. You have my permission to "get the last word."

Updated On: 10/26/04 at 10:58 AM

Evelyn, you can entertain my foot up your ass for all I care. You have no clue what you're talking about here.

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But she looks older for her age.

And the only reason I want her in there (age aside) is because she's the only one I can stomach listening to singing those songs.

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The ONLY Mimi I have seen that looked remotely close to the age described in the show was the first replacement after Daphne (whose name escapes me). She was excellent.

PS - Mimi is the only character whose age is given in the show, so the whole age thing is more speculation than anything else. If you think the actors cannot be in their 30s, then you must not know theatre people. Many of them keep up the Bohemian lifestyle well into their 30s. If I want to see 30-something Bohemian alternative punks or artists, all I have to do is take the Red Line to the Belmont stop in Chicago and stand in front of the entrance for about 5 seconds.

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Matt,
the first replacement was marcy hariell

Ooo Mister_Matt, a fellow Chicagoan!

Btw, in the screenplay, Angel says that he's 22.

Notice how they didn't say anything about Angel. I wonder if that means Jai has the part...

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I think it was aldente who explained why it would be worse than a 32-year-old Olivia Newton John playing a high school student: "Grease" is meant to be funny and over-the-top. Characters aren't dying of incurable diseases, coping with homeless, or struggling against gentrification. There's no harm in a woman well into her thirties putting on a blonde wig to mock her best friend at a slumber party, but there is something pretty off about people who are well into their thirties and look it singing "La Vie Boheme" in a restaurant. The reality is that by the time the film's been released, it will have been nine to eleven years since these people started performing the roles... and oh what fun it'll be to compare the photographs of them performing it on stage when it was a "contemporary piece" to them performing it on stage as a "period piece!"

Updated On: 10/26/04 at 11:39 AM

Do people really care this much?

Really??? HONESTLY??? For the love of St. Bridgit, people, put this energy into something creative!!!

That said...no. No other cast can replicate what the original Broadway cast had. That's usually true about every show. Once replacements come in, the very delicate balance achieved through weeks of rehearsals, previews and then months of performances after opening is shifted when new people come in. And to think of what the original RENT cast went through together...I mean...you cannot in any way, shape or form achieve that articifically. There may be better singers or actors out there, but the experience of putting that show together was what made that cast what it was. Special. The most special cast I've ever seen in anything.

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Princess MimiChica, I have to agree with you on this one. Whatever Columbus decides to do, someone's going to complain. It happened with Harry Potter---he listened to what fans of the books had to say while preparing the film for production, and yet when it was released, he was criticized for being "too faithful" to the book. You know that if he deviated in any way from the plot or charactization, he would've been nailed to the wall by those same people. The poor dude can't win. The same thing is going to happen with the Rent film. I, for one, appreciate the fact that he cares enough about fans of the stage production that he's looking to cast original cast members instead of "Hollywoodizing" it by casting only name actors in roles they aren't suited for. Whether or not the original cast members are age appropriate any longer is another issue---but I have to give props to Columbus for trying to go more "Broadway" than "Hollywood."

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yes, Rentheads wanted to beat her because she replaced an OBC member.


Shayna Steele is God.
Thank you.