RENT Live on Fox — Page 17

I saw Rent on Broadway. I got the last tkt for the last preview.

I was disappointed in it thought i wasted the $12 or $20 dollar SRO ticket.

Last night I wasted my time. Turned it off after an hour.

I guess Im more into Mortgage than Rent.

I know there is a lot of negativity out there and a lot of people are giving their good opinions on why this was not good, but I had so much fun watching this.

This doesn't even come close of being the best version of Rent, but it will do for years to come when I want to watch a different kind of Rent.

I truly appreciated much of the cast, with Jordan and Vanessa being my personal shout-outs. The band sounded great and I love the violins on One Song Glory (were they always there? never noticed). The set was amazing and the staging of Will I? with everyone holding up the red candles... wow. And it's just a lift, but I loved it during I Should Tell You.

They could have done with a bit less of duct tape (it was really everywhere and we get it, everyone is poor). I was amazed on how I still remember almost every word, and I helped me catch some changes that I just don't understand (reason says I should've died three years/six months ago).

I also really liked Tinashe as Mimi, even though she managed to range from very good at Without You to meh on Goodbye Love.

Totally a fan of the new staging of Seasons of Love, with Mark starting it alone.

Was left a bit disappointed by the reprise of I'll Cover You, honestly, even though I was loving Collins up until that point. There's so uch to be done on that song and here it was so just ok. Benny's acting also left a lot to be desired.

(also, can we speak about Mark's original sweat being selled and Angel just DISGUSTED with it? haha nicely done)

JoseLee_ said: "I was there..what a terrible and waste of time situation. We all waited in the hot sun for 3 to 4 hours before getting into the studio then someone people (me included) stood for the whole 3 hours in the pit...just for it NOT to be live. The whole recording is from the dress rehearsal the night before. Apparently Rodger broke his foot the night before OFF SET.. how unfortunate and honestly disappointing. So the cast would just sing live to us..no costume changes or choreography..it was such a waste of time for us. Everyone in the audience was miserable and sooo mad. The only thing "live" was the very end "No day but today" and the Original broadway cast. It was basically a large viewing party... i couldve stayed home to do that."

It's safe to say that this was a total bust. Rent: Live will do one of two things: (a) kill the live tv musical genre or (b) have producers/networks re-think their strategy on how to present them (e.g.: understudies).

Also, can I add something? I understand that USA TV doesn't use or depend much on live TV, but really why does it have to look like it is a mexican telenovela from the 80s filmed with a potato? I was watching this in HD and things turned into basically a blur when the camera moved just a bit. Honestly, we're almost in the third decade of the 2000s, just upgrade it, networks. This could and should look better. Just compare the image quality of the US and UK The Sound of Music Live to get an idea of what I'm talking (even though the UK is still a bit meh).

TV Ratings: 'Rent' Is Fox's Lowest-Rated Musical

"Sunday's performance ... — posted a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.42 million viewers over its three-hour running time. Those are the smallest numbers for any of the four musicals Fox has aired since 2016.

They're also lower than any live (or live-ish) musical since The Sound of Music Live kicked off the broadcast trend in 2013. The previous low was 1.5 in the demo and 4.52 million viewers for A Christmas Story Live on Fox in 2017."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/rent-comes-low-tv-ratings-sunday-jan-27-2019-1180128

I suppose the audiences are too divided at this point. One audience wants a family friendly classic. Another audience wants a new, still playing on Broadway, hit and will settle for a bootleg. Another only wants a fantastic production, which the live format prevents. And according to the article the largest group doesn't care about musicals and opted to watch Shark Tank that night.

I thought this had some very good moments and overall was a win. But there were some things that were lacking, not all performance based

Misses:
Valentina – Just bad all around (acting, singing, same dang eye makeup as on Drag Race). Angel is supposed to be the heart of Rent and I didn’t feel that last night
Directing – A lot of the scenes felt very self-contained and didn’t flow or incorporate into the story as a whole. When they were all together (La Vie Boheme, funeral) it worked better. The camera focusing on one character at a time didn’t help
Producing – How do you not have an understudy or a better contingency plan if a performer can’t go? Roger is a big role but not played by a big name, so you’d figure someone else could have been ready. I hate that one of the big takeaways from this will be that it wasn’t “live”

The OKs:
Performances outside of the top 3: Tinashe, Brennin Hunt, Kirsey Clemons, and Mario were fine. All had their strengths and weaknesses. They weren’t award worthy like the top 3 but not bad like Valentina either

Guest vocalists: I’m glad they gave Keala Settle a little more to do, but it was such a tease when she let loose because I wanted more. Having the original cast at the end was nice but needed a little more or something

The Wins:
Choreography: I thought the dancing was great

Set: Looked magnificent and perfect

Jordan Fisher brought an extra spark to Mark and I’m glad he got to show off his dancing skills

Brandon Victor Dixon: Brought great vocals along with great emotion to the role. His scene at the funeral was great. He also brought it during I’ll Cover You despite a lesser Angel

Vanessa Hudgens: She’s continuing her live musical hot streak. She was the spark this production needed last night. It took a WHILE for her to show up, but once she did, she jumped in with both feet and just nailed it. She played Over the Moon with true outrage and seriousness. Take Me or Leave Me was awesome. She also nailed Maureen’s attitude in her acting.

What a wasted opportunity.

DottieD'Luscia said: "@JoseLee, as an audience member, when did they let you know that things wouldn't be going on as originally planned?"

The producer Marc Platt and director Michael Groeff told us 5 minutes before the live show. Which was 5pm for us here in LA. Then they made the cast go around shaking our hands around the whole stage. The hype guy was like "don't worry act 10 WILL BE LIVE"... lol it was such a joke. The cast was trying so hard to make us feel better by talking to us in the pit and taking selfies with us and shaking our hands everytime they passed by someone from the audience. It felt very fake. They just sang *some songs. Not every song. Literally at some points they were watching the "live" show WITH us. We were all so mad. If they were going to show the dress rehearsal to America...they could've done the show just for us since they apparently rehearsed for 2 MONTHS. I bet they all hate that Rodger guy. I know we all did.

JoseLee_ said: "DottieD'Luscia said: "@JoseLee, as an audience member, when did they let you know that things wouldn't be going on as originally planned?"

The producer Marc Platt and director Michael Groeff told us 5 minutes before the live show. Which was 5pm for us here in LA. Then they made the cast go around shaking our hands around the whole stage. The hype guy was like "don't worry act 10 WILL BE LIVE"... lol it was such a joke. The cast was trying so hard to make us feel better by talking to us in the pit and taking selfies with us and shaking our hands everytime they passed by someone from the audience. It felt very fake. They just sang *some songs. Not every song. Literally at some points they were watching the "live" show WITH us. We were all so mad. If they were going to show the dress rehearsal to America...they could've done the show just for us since they apparently rehearsed for 2 MONTHS. I bet they all hate that Rodger guy. I know we all did."

You sound very immature. I understand why you were disappointed and I agree that NBC and the producers should have handled this differently but to be angry at Brennin who broke his foot is absolutely ridiculous. He BROKE HIS FOOT! He didn't break it on purpose, it was an accident. Be a human being and not some self entitled theater twit and show him some compassion and some empathy.

I'm just not sure that Rent is the kind of show that families are going to tune in to watch. JCS and Grease--those are palatable shows to families with kids. Rent is definitely for teens and up and competed with other shows. Plus, True Detective, Victoria and many other shows were playing at the same time slot. Wrong time of year and wrong show IMO. And Rent feels very dated to me.



ETA: sorry for the lack of punctuation for anyone who read my response yesterday before I edited it. YIKES.

Updated On: 1/29/19 at 02:49 PM

CarlosAlberto said: "JoseLee_ said: "DottieD'Luscia said: "@JoseLee, as an audience member, when did they let you know that things wouldn't be going on as originally planned?"

The producer Marc Platt and director Michael Groeff told us 5 minutes before the live show. Which was 5pm for us here in LA. Then they made the cast go around shaking our hands around the whole stage. The hype guy was like "don't worry act 10 WILL BE LIVE"... lol it was such a joke. The cast was trying so hard to make us feel better by talking to us in the pit and taking selfies with us and shaking our hands everytime they passed by someone from the audience. It felt very fake. They just sang *some songs. Not every song. Literally at some points they were watching the "live" show WITH us. We were all so mad. If they were going to show the dress rehearsal to America...they could've done the show just for us since they apparently rehearsed for 2 MONTHS. I bet they all hate that Rodger guy. I know we all did."

You sound very immature. I understand why you were disappointed and I agree that NBC and the producers should have handled this differently but to be angry at Brennin who broke his foot is absolutely ridiculous. He BROKE HIS FOOT! He didn't break it on purpose, it was an accident. Be a human being and not some self entitled theater twit and show him some compassion and some empathy.

<<edited by BWW staff>> We literally wasted our entire day. 12pm to 4pm ... 4 hours WAITING to go into the studio in the hot LA sun. THEN standing for the complete 3 hours for basically a sing-along. Why wouldnt we be mad? If it wasnt going to be live or see ANYTHING like as planned we couldve been told at the beginning and just left. We were trapped there. And we just had suggestions like "do everything LIVE but for Rodger's seens THAT can be pre recorded.".. the whole thing was a waste of time. I can care less than he broke his foot. I dont care at all. I dont know him. You dont know him either. Imagine wasting 8 hours of your life and STANDING the whole time. 12pm to 8pm.

Updated On: 1/28/19 at 03:04 PM