RENT/London Photos — Page 4

Well, did she see the movie first? That might explain it

It's still hard for me to fathom being confused after you had the opportunity to see and rehearse the scene as it is in the show. I guess she could think the setting changes at the point Mimi descends into Roger's apartment, but Occam's razor applies here. In my mind. At any rate, the "Cat Scratch Club" mentality didn't seem apparent to me at any point during the 10+ times I saw her. On the other hand, I think her performance in that song is generally uninspired, probably due to her not being a natural dancer, and I think she'd make for a boring S&M stripper.

I took Tamyra's statement about not understanding Without You more as her saying that she literally didn't understand what was happening at that point in the plot. Hopefully I was mistaken and she's not quite that dense. I agree re: truly "getting" the song should enable the actress to perform the song on a deeper level, but there have probably been dozens of actresses who get the song on a deeper level but cannot translate that to their performance. Of course, this is a bit of a tangent. I wouldn't be surprised if Tamyra is just generally clueless about he role and the songs. Great voice, great effort, but I still maintain she seemed inorganic in the role, like you could see her making overly conscious acting choices at every point. To me.

Well, you're more naturally benevolent with opinions of performers, so that would make sense.

God, our avatars back to back.

Right, I suppose there are other possible settings for the song within the stage show, but it's hard for me to imagine anyone actually ascribing much validity to them. I mean, Mimi even (usually) does that compact mirror move. That obviously isn't happening when she's stripping.

When she magically goes from dancing at the strip club to descending the fire escape into Roger's apartment? I honestly don't think there's anything in the scene to indicate that she's dancing at a strip club for the first half of the song. If anything, the choreography hints otherwise. I can understand momentarily ascribing the same pattern of events to the stage show if you saw the movie first, but I would also think that the viewer or performer would think twice before deciding that the movie's pattern of events exactly mirrors the show's. Kind of like how What You Own doesn't necessarily literally take place on a mountain cliff.

"It's not clear to the audience that she lives right above Roger and Mark, or even in their building - does she even live in their building?. "

well, itd be odd if she came over from another building to ask someone for a match.

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"How long has she been performing with the assumption that the number takes place in the S&M club? lol"

Unless someone has told her since the interview, she still is. And she calls her a stripper, though i guess actingwise considering yourself a stripper or an s&m dancer doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

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You had to sweat it out a bit.
I did, and it was great, because I had really fought the audition. I live in San Francisco, but I was in L.A. and there was a nor'easter going on in New York, so I was stuck in the airport for 10 hours. I thought, "I'm just gonna go home and forget it," and I almost did. But instead I went and got a copy of the Rent movie and spent the entire time studying it.

Studying?
I didn't understand "Without You" or "Out Tonight." It had been almost eight years since I had seen the show, and I couldn't put into context what the deal was with "Without You" and why she was howling in "Out Tonight." I just didn't get it. But I watched the movie, and everything made sense. I was like, "Okay, 'Out Tonight' is a performance piece, she's at a strip club, she's doing her thing. Got it. 'Without You' is a memory piece. She's going through her memories because she just lost the love of her life. Got it."

She was talking about her audition and what she believed at that time. Though there's no indication that she doesn't still think of "Out Tonight" that way, it's quite possible that she understands it differently now.

God, do me this favour and keep this show open so I can see it on my trip to London in January? I must see this trainwreck in person.

But...in regards to the Mark 'remixed', I found these comments from Oliver's blog interesting:

...I thought it might be fun to let you know how we are slightly changing the character of 'Mark', so that when you come and see the show you'll have some idea of how we rebuilt characters for the 'remixed' version.

When I was offered the role of Mark, all my friends said things like 'Is that the one with the camera?' or 'Is that the one with the scarf?'. Having seen the original Broadway company, we all have total respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp, but Will felt out of all the characters, Mark, seemed to have a smaller emotional arch and was remembered for his camera rather than his 'journey of self discovery'. In this way we decided to make a 'remixed' Mark, so that the audience will hopefully follow his story as much as Roger's.

I know a great deal of people are surprised that I'm a little more 'High School Musical' rather than 'rock and grunge Rent', but we thought it might be interesting to make Mark more 'middle class' - from the text it's evident that he is from a different upbringing to other characters such as Roger or Mimi. It would seem that Mark makes the choice to live in 'poverty' and 'bohemia' (he could go home at any point and has a healthy relationship with his family, they even send him a hot plate and call him regularly throughout the show), whereas characters like Mimi are trapped due to their drug addiction and so forth. I think in this way it highlights how removed and different Mark is from the rest of the group. In some ways he appears the leader, in other ways he is completely detached, alone and isolated. This makes for an alternative and interesting new way of defining the character.

I'm aware people who know the show well, might be worried that characters will be changed too dramatically, but don't worry Mark hasn't become a bare chested model, just a little more 'preppie' than 'geeky' due to decisions on his upbringing, but I can assure you every choice has been carefully thought out. So, get ready for abercrombie, no glasses and ooohh there's a fierce tango. Anyway we open reallllllllly soon...so you can decide for yourself. I hope you all have a great time and even if you don't, I think it's always good to experience alternative ideas.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=186798400&blogID=315349195

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Updated On: 10/21/07 at 06:50 PM

The lack of emphasis on Mark's emotional arc (or there lack of) isn't really a flaw in my eyes. As far as I know, there's no unwritten rule saying that Mark and Roger should have been or have to be on equal footing, and there will always people who are more invested in Mark anyway.

I am going to London in a few weeks and I can't decide if I want to see this or not. I am curious, I have to admit.

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Dane, excellent point. IS she coming down from the roof? I guess she would have to be, right?

in regards to mimi's apartment... it's a play, not real life. just use your imagination, that's how the stage is set up it works for the show, and with such a "minimalist set" you have stuff like that. I mean why not ask, why does angel randomly go up stair in TFY, why is there a band in their aparment? Why is the christmas tree made out of metal? why do Joanne and Roger have the same mom? why are these people singing? you know?

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who knows, there is not talk of a CD and when i asked Luke Evans he said they were no plans

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