RENT Review- 3/18/06

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 8:02pm

I'm gonna die if I don't eat but here is a mini RENT review coming from me!- A lotto winner!! I was the last name picked and I nearly peed myself...haha. I wasn't planning to win, there had to be at least 70 people there. If I won, I was just gonna raise my hand and say "me" but no...I got all crazy (especially because it was the last name called) and my voice got really shaky and high and I'm like "Uhh- thats umm...ME!" lol


Karmine was there- wonderful as can be. Tim Howar was AWESOME as Roger. I thought nobody could be like Cary or Anthony but Tim really makes a great Roger. He and Matt Caplan had wonderful chemistry. I was in the front row since lotto and a lot of the cast seem to have voice trouble and yet they all were magnificent!!
They would wink at one another and all of them really had great characters and energy. Angel (Justin Johnson) was out of this world. Even when in the back round, he was all in character. Shivering on the table at the end was phenominal...it couldn't have seemed more real. And Collins (Destan Owens) was wonderful also. You could really tell he and Angel had one h*ll of relationship. Maybe I was seeing things but at the really sad points, I could sware Matt and Collins were crying (real tears.)
And Tim, my gosh- he's got energy like crazy!!! When I saw Cary- he played Roger just like I expected but Tim- he went over and beyond but it was NOT to the point of 'ridiculous.'

If the cast wasn't up to par today since their voices seemed a little 'eh,' then honestly, it would have been an A++++++++ performance; as opposed to this one which was A+++++++

Most of the cast came out to sign and take pictures...Matt didn't though. But, when Tim came out he was bombarded by RENTheads. After signing and taking tons of pictures, he would try to walk away and a crazy fan girl would run up and drag him back..and he was extremely nice and cute about it. He came back and talked and joked with them. I think he was going to meet his wife and kids for dinner and then do the evening show and even with that in mind- he still was so generous and kind to those crazy RENTheads...what a sweet guy!!

I shall be back soon- eating and taking a shower...I have that lovely Roger and Mark spit on me

Updated On: 3/18/06 at 08:02 PM

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 8:08pm

I've never tried lotto before, but I really want to one day. Seeing RENT is always fun.. I didn't really like Tim Howar as Roger, but maybe it was just an off-day. Glad you had fun though =).

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 8:11pm

I didn't like Tim as Roger at first but as the show progressed, I liked him more and more. His energy was just shooting out by the end!!!

[guitargeek0624]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 9:06pm

I saw Tim as Roger this past Sunday, and I went in knowing that he got some bad reviews. But he really surprised me. I really liked him. His was more of an Angry!Roger, but he made it work well with the show, and his chemistry with both Karmine and Matt was great.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 9:27pm

I saw Karmine and Matt three years ago and they were awesome. Although I have heard that Matt got pretty bad and "bored" I guess.

So I am happy to hear that he and the rest are well.

[neomystyk29]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 9:34pm

I'm glad you enjoyed Justin and Destan. I saw the show with them last year and thought them excellent in their roles. Both very natural fits physically, in their acting, and vocally.

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:14pm

With Will Chase, I think he’s a better actor, and obviously a fantastic singer. He’s got great stage presence, and really captures the frustrated side to Roger. However, Tim captured *all* of Roger, in my opinion. His rough voice got some getting-used to, but I was used to it by One Song Glory. Also, I think he had better natural chemistry with Karmine Alers (Mimi) and Matt Caplan. I felt for Tim’s Roger a lot more than I felt for Cary or Will.

Matt Caplan- what can I say? I hate you , I love you. As I said, he had fantastic chemistry with Tim, and he seemed *comfortable* in the role. Not comfortable to the point of goofing off as he was with Cary, or afraid, like he was with Will as some points, but perfect. The closest to in-character I’ve ever seen him. His Tango: Maureen was a little off, per usual. He seems to be trying to intimidate Joanne, rather than sort of warn (that’s not exactly the right word) her. La Vie Boheme he pissed me off greatly. He doesn’t seem to understand that there’s a difference between being funny and acting just for laughs. He needs to steer away from the latter. But I did appreciate the way he looked at Maureen directly at the “starving for attention” line, and other various little things. My eye twitched a little at his “Mucho Masturbation” enactment, though. The La Vie Boheme B was the best performed I’ve ever seen it. It was so powerful, and gave me major chills. I think he was best in Tune Up # 1, Finale A, etc. Just very simple, some good acting quirks without being too goofy, and beautiful singing.

Rent (the song) blew me away- Tim and Matt’s voices blend surprisingly well. They got very close to each other at some parts, too- closer than Adam and Anthony and closer than Will and Matt.

What You Own was…godlike. Everyone kept raving about Will Chase and Matt’s What You Own, but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t until I saw it again tonight with Tim that I figured out why. With Will and Matt, they seemed to be rocking out on their own, even at the end when their voices are supposed to be connected. (I am not explaining this well….) Tim and Matt, I really got that feeling. It was amazing.

Goodbye Love (Mark and Roger’s fight), Tim brought out better acting from Matt, I think. You could really feel his pain, while in previous productions, Matt was pretty unconvincing.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:20pm

Dramatic- I couldn't really tell by reading your post if you saw it today like I did? If so, where were you sitting?

Edit: whoops- I just read "when I saw it tonight..."
But, where were you sitting? I suppose you didn't do the lotto? If you did, you must have heard me have a squeaky voice attack when my name was the last name called.

Updated On: 3/18/06 at 10:20 PM

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:31pm

Couldn't have been tonight (Saturday) because tonight's show isn't even over yet!

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:33pm

Oh, actually I saw it *last night*. I wrote that interview last night and simply cut and pasted it here because I'm *lazy*.

But yes, I did win the lotto last night, and I'm glad you seemed to have so much fun!

And Matt was totally crying real tears at some points, in response to your original post. He had tears in his voice at the phone bit at the beginning of Halloween, anyway.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 10:53pm

Sitting so close you can see everything and to see 'real tears' coming from 'real actors' really makes me feel their real character. Matt Caplan is not Matt Caplan but he IS Mark and not just PLAYING Mark. I felt the same way about Tim. He seemed to have tears also...it was so touching how much they can actually 'transform.' I know actors are supposed to 'BE THE THE PERSON THEY ARE PLAYING' and NOT "ACT LIKE THE PERSON THEY ARE PLAYING."
I found this the case today in the show more than any show I've seen. Of couse, most shows I've seem the actors very well PLAY their character but these people in RENT today were dedicated to their character fully and that is truly hard to do. It may be funny but I call it *an out of body experience.*

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 11:12pm

That's exactly how I felt! I've never seen the OBC live, but I've felt that with most of them, too. Besides the OBC, this cast definitely makes me feel that they *are* the characters. No other Rogers made me feel that. And even for the members of the cast that weren't necessarily my favorite actors, they were the best *ensemble* that I've seen. The cast all worked so well together.

I really want to know about the OBC- everybody makes such a big deal out of them because they are, well, the OBC. But not a lot of Rent fans have actually seen them, surprisingly. That's one of the reasons I wish to see the 10th anniversary concert, even though I know it's not going to be staged.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 11:13pm

Threadjacking my own thread for a second...

Justin Johnston (Angel in RENT) was handing out card advertiments today for what looks like a perforamnce thing he is doing.

It just says "Justin Johnston Live @ The Cutting Room. 19 West 24th St. Tuesday, March 21st. 11:30pm.

I don't know anything else so I guess you'll have to go and find out if you want to. If you go, come let us know what it was...

Posted: 3/18/06 at 11:22pm

I'm sorry, but I don't see how Matt Caplan embodies Mark at all. To be fair, I've only seen him once, but he looked like a fratboy trying to get laughs up there without any emotional depth or seriousness.

He is very much a love-him-or-hate-him performer, though, and if you happened to like his performance... more power to you. I'm sure all of this has been discussed countless times considering the amount of time he's played Mark, anyway.

I'd love to see Tim because his voice sounds very intriguing, but I'm sure he'll be gone by the time I move to NY.

[matjomae]

Posted: 3/18/06 at 11:32pm

I've seen Rent a total of four times, each time through winning the lotto. I do the lotto for the sole purpose of sitting close enough to catch all the details and emotion. Every time I've seen the play Matt has played Mark and he was paired with a different Roger (Cary, Joshua, Will and Tim).

I never noticed Matt to be overally emotional, so I'm somewhat shocked that you said there were real tears in his performance. I love Matt, but I've always felt he sucked at showing any emotion beside humor. It has always bothered me; maybe in the past he has been playing Mark as more emotionally detached or something. So good to hear he may be changing up with acting decisions some...

On the other hand, I was taken aback by how much emotion I saw Tim put into his performance when I saw the show last weekend. I didn't think Tim's Roger was so much angry, as emotionally distraught and tortured. As someone else mentioned, it made me really feel for his Roger, more so then I've cared for any other actor's Roger. Tim turned on the waterworks a record breaking number of times, as I noticed them in Another Day, Goodbye Love and Your Eyes. It was the first time I saw tears from any character in this show (besides Antonique's Mimi), and was throughly surprised to see them. Had I not seen Tim's perfomance in the show, only heard about it, I would say the tears would have been over the top, but they really did work, and earned him the top spot on my list of favorite Rogers.

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 12:14am

He was showing emotion well in Halloween and Goodbye Love, I think. Not with Cary or Will, but he's definitely improved paired with Tim.

And Tim is officially my favorite Roger, for reasons I said in my review above, and for the reasons matjomae just said.

Siamese dram, I don't particularly think Matt embodies Mark, either, but his take on the character *could* be that he uses humor as a defense mechanism, and that it's a form of detatching. But I've alread posted my thoughts on this thread, so I'll shut up for now.

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 12:24am

Just a comment about Justin's gig. It's 18+, just in case any of you are thinking about going!

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 7:53am

Yea, I'm over 18 but I'm leaving on a jet plane soon...to go back to college...blah :-/

Thanks for letting everyone know though :-

[EverythingIsRENT]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 10:22am

Hey, you forgot to mention I was the OTHER Lotto winner even though we totally didn't get to sit together =P
But yes, it was an amazing show, and I must admit that as much I enjoy Karmine, I was kind of hoping to see a NEW Mimi today, but she blew it out. Amazing voice!

Caren as Maureen = FANTASTIC!! So dead-on funny. And if I can have a little lesbo moment, I was in the "ass" seat, and she has the best ass EVER! Girlfriend is TINY but totally has some junk in the trunk! If I had a choice, I'd want my body to be built EXACTLY like hers!

Oh, and during SOL, Robin de Jesus TOTALLY made eye contact with me and gave me the biggest grin!! Eeeeeek!

I had SO much fun with you the past couple days, SweetQ, and I can't wait till we can hang out again! Weee!!

Updated On: 3/19/06 at 10:22 AM

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 3/19/06 at 3:15pm

EverythingisRENT- I had a great time- you are WAY TOO HYPER! lol- and I thought I was the hyper one.

Now now- remember, they called MY name for the lotto!! hehe.

Anyways- I'm so glad I got to see 3 shows when I was home for Spring Break because I wont be home (in PA) or able to go to NYC until August.

Oh-well, I hope these 3 shows can keep my Broadway fix up until I can go back. Although, there are going to be Broadway tours coming to Florida before August.

I just got back to Florida from PA...so, I'm sweaty- off to take a shower!

[greenifyed]

Posted: 3/20/06 at 10:58pm

Are you stalking me? I was at RENT on the 18th, HAHAHA. So we both saw Bee and RENT this weekend... Weird! You weren't at Wicked on Sunday, were you?

[Dramatic_Irony]

Posted: 3/21/06 at 12:42am

Really random, but I *love* your avatar, greenifyed. *Anthoyn fangirl present. see avatar*

[Linzi]

Posted: 3/21/06 at 1:12am

Question: Where did the cast sign autographs? Outside by the stage door or inside?