Rent attendance anecdotes- Page 12

[iheartmark]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:10pm

My mom let me skip school on Wednesday to see the first showing in Olympia. The crowd was a bit disappointing, only about 12 people, and only my 5 friends and I mooed. No one seemed to be that excited about it, but then again, it was noon...

The second time I saw it, at 3.10 the same day, was a bit better, more crowded, and quite a few people mooed. The thing that irritated me the most was that there were several people whose main reason for seeing the film was talking about how hot Adam was....very loudly, through the entire thing.

The third time (7.10 that night), it was absolutely packed, and the best audience so far. Lots of laughs, especially at "Merry Christmas, bitches!", and crying throughout the film. My mom saw it at that showing for the first time and cried during One Song Glory and didn't stop until after the whole movie was over. Lots of mooing, clapping, and overall rentheadedness would be the only way to really describe it. When Wilson entered before Today 4 U there was soooo much applause and a few cat calls...it was pretty great. :)

Then I saw it again today, and more of the same. Hysterical sobbing from a few rows back, and of course from our row (I don't know how anyone can see RENT and not cry....?) and very good reactions.

The review in the Olympian was...less than spectacular, but judging by the reviewer's inability to get song titles and quotes right, it was dismissed by the majority of people (at least, ones that I've talked to).

[sndtrklvr]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:12pm

Saw the movie first showing in a burb outside Boston. The theater was about 1/2 Full. Mostly college age girls. Some older folks. Mostly quiet, a few laughs -- Maureen's mother's line at the end of TMOLM got the biggest.

Scattered applause at the end. Several people around me mentioned they really liked it. A few mentioned they were off to get the soundtrack.

I was happy to see it made. Thrilled to have so much of the cast on screen. Have some issues with many of Columbus' choices. Anthony I thought you were great. Definetly walked away feeling stronger about you than ever.

[pippin2]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:43pm

I was at the 7 o'clock showing at the Zeigfield in NYC on Wednesday night. Theater was enormous and totally packed. You could feel the magic in the air as the movie played. I have never had an experience like that sitting in a movie theater, it was like all of us were on a journey together.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:46pm

well,friends are going 2-3 times a day, so i guess thats good. i havent seen it myself, but there is definately a lot of hype out here (30 minutes away from San Francisco, Marin County) many just want to find out what it is, others are musical theatre fans and its a must see, so yea...

[Leah5290]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:51pm

the audience was interesting tonight...a LOT of people who had never seen the show, but it was a packed theater. they didn't seem as into it as wednesday's crew, there wasn't any clapping/mooing at anytime, but at the end everyone seemed happy enough with it...and it was mostly a teenage audience with some older couples, so i was pleased! (this is in westchester)

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 10:09pm

Sugar Land, Texas (Near Houston)
5:00PM Showing

Audience was attentive but kind of lackadaisical. During the musical numbers, during which I usually love feeding off the audience's entergy, I found that the energy nipples had run dry. Nobody mooed. Nobody clapped. One person laughed when Collins and Angel kiss (To be expected. This is Texas. Ugh.) Some 5 year old kid kept stomping up the stairs the entire movie. I swear, it sounded like he had Nazi boots on. Who brings a kid that young to RENT?

[BEKA531]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 10:16pm

rent is making an absolute KILLING in new york. so far, i've seen it 3 times (twice today) at 3 different theatres, and they were all completely sold out. not a seat to be found. some people even camped out in the aisles.

very quiet audiences, too. no mooing, singing, or applauding, just some clapping and cheering at the end. it didn't sound like anyone was insulted by the material, either.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 10:20pm

aright so i saw it again today since opening night. I don't think it was sold out this time, but there were a lot of people who went (and it was a big theatre, so hard to sell out). Some people clapped during Jonathan Larson's name in the bigginging--i made a little woo, yea jon noise haha. No one clapped with the cast during SOL which I kinda missed. No one really moo'd either, me and my friend tried to but felt weird after it didnt catch on. This one guy let out this big MOO! and I started to laugh. Everyone was crying. During Without You someones phone went off and if it wasn't my second time seeing this movie I mightve killed them after the show. I'm going again tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see how different the audiences are. Wow, I have no life if thats what interests me, oy vey .

[today4u:proofpositiv]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 11:04pm

I've seem it twice now, the first time on the 23rd at lunchtime (the first showing) and I think there were 15-20 people in the theatre, including myself. I saw it again tonight, and the theatre was at least 3/4 full. I was really impressed because the audience was of a mixed age group, anywhere from 12- mid 60's; and everyone I know was crying by the time it was over.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 11:18pm

I saw the movie again today. But in addition to getting into exactly what you asked for, Anthony, I'd like to tell a story -- it all pertains, on a more personal level than what the people in the movie theatre were like.

I spent last night with my aunt and uncle out-of-state for Thanksgiving. Yesterday evening, my family and I were sitting with them and some other company they had for dinner. My uncle came in and was like "so, you're a Rent lover, huh?" My mom cut in and went "they call them Rentheads." I looked at her and nodded, sort of like "since when do you...?" News travels fast in my family, though. The majority of the company had seen the show on stage at one point or another, and knew in some capacity that the film was out. They were curious about a lot of things, though; about you, about Adam being uncharacteristically friendly toward me lately, about this crazy year I've had, about just *why* I love the show so much, etc. I was shy around some of the people I didn't know much, but I just started to tell them. My mom was next to me, and I watched she and my dad, across the room, exchange glances as I was talking -- I could tell there was a noticable increase in the degree of my animation when I could talk about something like this. My aunt leaned over to my dad and asked who I was talking about, and he was like "oh, Adam Pascal," and told her all about him -- what shows he's done, that he was only a musician to start out with, and not an actor, etc. My dad's always thought Adam to be a very talented fellow; he liked AIDA very much. And, even though he's never "gotten it," he likes that seeing him perform makes me happy. It was just really nice to see.

This morning, when I went downstairs for breakfast, I found my aunt's copy of Life Magazine waiting for me. Someone had found it in the paper, opened it up to the page with Adam's photo, and left it on the counter for me. I came downstairs, and my mom was just like "so, did you see your boy?" My aunt let me keep it, and everyone watched The View with me. At least they were interested. (I read the article on the bus tonight; I had to try really hard not to cry.) While we were watching The View, my mom saw a photo of Jonathan and went "wow, he was so young." I replied something like "yeah, he was thirty-five," and answered her question about how he died, and how it was just before previews, etc. I cried. That's never happened to me before.

I'm kind of upset with my brother; he used to say he really wanted to see this with me. He blew off our plans to see it to hang out with his crowd of "I'm butch, I SWEAR!" teenaged boys. Something tells me he couldn't find it in himself to turn his friends down because he was going to see a movie musical with his sister. I want him to see it, because it's important, but now he's gone from wanting to see it to "no, shut up. I'm not seeing your stupid movie!" He probably just wanted to see it with me a few weeks ago so he could have bragging rights and tell his friends he saw it early. *sigh* I'll make him. He has to.

For what it's worth, my parents and I saw the movie this afternoon.

We went to a theatre in the town next to my hometown, and it's about an hour and a half North of NYC. I'm from a cluster of towns that can sometimes be called "upstate," and is sometimes referred to as a suburb of NYC. Either way, we have easy access to NYC, and I think we can assume that many people around, especially the types who were in the theatre, have seen Rent, or are at least familiar with what it is. Our local paper gave the movie a fairly decent review, overall saying that the performances were so great and given with such care that the fact that some plot things made no sense almost became irrelevant, and they put something about the movie in the corner of the front page.

The movie was packed; probably just about sold out, save for two or three seats, perhaps. It was mostly teenaged girls, some with their parents, some with their boyfriends, many just with each other. I ran into some old friends there, too. (One had already seen it and loved it, one hadn't seen it yet and loved it. I couldn't catch up with the other afterwards.) I saw two walk-outs: one was a mother and her child, probably about nine years of age. They left right after the scene with April and Roger and the needle; presumably, the child was deemed to young for the material. One other couple left, probably bored, or something. The audience laughed *a lot* at all of the inappropriate moments. They seemed really into it. I heard a *few* sniffles after Without You and into the ICY reprise, but not nearly as many as I'd heard previously. Nobody sang, nobody mooed. After the last frame, there was a palatable silence, and then applause. Walking out, and in the lobby on the way outside, I heard a lot of positive comments -- just random little things, like how good an actor or a scene was. But every little bit counts.

The only exception that I noticed was in the people sitting directly behind me. I think they were pre-teen girls with their mother, or something. They whined through the *whole* movie, praying for it to be over, and their mother kept telling them to shut up and sit there quietly until it was over. They laughed every single time Angel was on screen, and went "oooooh, it's a GUY!" I wanted to turn around, slap them and go "don't you GET it? He's DYING, for God's sake; stop laughing at him!" They went "ew!!!!" when Maureen kissed the female dancer in the Tango, and after the movie were like "that was such a piece of sh*t." Plus, one of them kicked my seat through the entire thing, and they talked through the LVB, B kiss. Not cool, girls. NOT COOL.

Anyway, my parents; because after all I say about them around the boards and things, this is probably of interest.

My father saw the show with me three years ago, the first time I ever saw it. He's spent the past three years telling me that seeing it again is a waste of time and money, and to stop being so silly. He dozed off for most of the show. So this afternoon I dragged him into the movie theatre, and I told him I hoped he would like it, adding that the most I'd ask of him was to please stay awake. The rest was negotiable. I just wanted the story to actually pass in front of his eyes this time -- OPEN.

I strategically placed myself in the seat between my parents. My mom asked the typical cynic questions and made the comments. My dad shushed people throughout the entire movie. Before it began, he asked me if this time, he might be less confused about the story. It was obvious that he was going to make a conscious effort to sit in that movie theatre and try to UNDERSTAND. I was really proud of him for that.

After it ended, he hugged me and told me he thought it was very good. Very good, indeed. And he meant that. He's always been drawn to Angel, being that he sees that as the part that takes the most skill; he's just so impressed by what it takes. He couldn't stop raving about Wilson. The last thing he said about it was that the movie was better than the play; I had to catch a bus, so I didn't have time to ask why, but I will.

My mom, on the other hand is the cynic. During "Rent," she leaned over and told me she thought it was campy. She asked why "Adam" had AIDS (God forbid!). I knew what she meant, but eek. She asked me why these people didn't just get over it and go get jobs, why they were on the F train, because the F doesn't go to Alphabet City. and during What You Own went "What? Did he go to Santa Fe for five minutes? He just left! How did he pay for stuff, like food? Where did he stay?" She also was bothered by the fact that seconds are her near-death experience, Mimi was up and singing. She mentioned that it was shot very much like a musical; I think she meant that it's easier for her to use the notion of suspension of disbelief on stage -- as she is used to a musical being presented -- and had a harder time giving in to that suspension on screen. After the movie, her main thought was that it wasn't the best thing she'd ever seen, but that she did enjoy it, and did not think it should've been rated PG-13 at ALL -- she was so confused as to how it wasn't rated R. She says you're very cute, Anthony. Adam's voice has always been much like nails on a chalkboard to my mom. *However* she said that the unique quality of his voice is by far the best thing he's got going for him, though acting-wise, he did nothing that made her think "wow, that's bad!" and she said she thinks he looks better in person. She ADORED Jesse, and thought he stole the movie -- she's always liked him, though -- and told my dad that "that Mimi character" was "ugly and annoying." He agreed with that one, but it's hard to tell if they were bugged by Rosario's TAKE on Mimi, or by Mimi herself. I suppose the former greatly influences the latter, though. Both of my parents were bothered by the fact that she was very obviously much younger than the others. My mother was also the one who asked me why I was crying, and told me she hopes I won't go see it again after this -- three's enough, to her. heh. One of the last things she said before I left to travel was that seeing the movie didn't really give her any more desire to see the show, which to me is unfortunate -- she said that had it not been for me, she would have no interest at all.

I tried to get my parents to talk to me about it after. I asked them if they were confused at all about the story. My dad said no. My mom said not really, UNTIL I told her about the cuts. I told her that they had cut a fight between Mark and Roger, and she went "oh, I didn't get that" after I had said there was a rift between them. I thought that maybe she didn't pick up on Roger's isolation because she wasn't looking for something to compensate for the cut song she didn't know existed. In other words, she didn't know the second half of Goodbye Love was missing, so she wasn't consciously in search of something that would be in its place. She told me she assumed that Roger left because of Mimi, but that she also thought Roger to be a bit pathetic, because he didn't go out and do anything -- he just sat around and was sad. She assumed that his sadness was due more to the fact that he has AIDS than it was to April's death, though, and that he wouldn't go near Mimi primarily because he didn't know she was sick at first, not because he was just out of rehab. Either way, with that sort of thing, she picked up on the vitals, which was nice.

So, my parents have finally seen this movie. My father is finally warming up; he's starting to get it, and he's certainly trying. My mother finally took the first step.

And me? I'm still settling in to getting used to the movie, in a good way. I had tears in my eyes the entire time, but I had to try not to cry, because my parents would probably tell me I was being silly about it, but I lost it at Without You and cried like a baby through the end. Each time I return, I'm more relaxed about it; this is how it is, and I love it. Now it's out there in the world, and I can't do anything but enjoy it and hope that other people do, too. I am more astounded and heartbroken by Adam's performance each time. I fell in love with that beautiful voice all over again tonight; I don't know what it was, but I started to fall for those tiny little nuances all over again. But more than anything, I feel like having this movie, for some reason that I can't figure out yet, makes me feel even more connected to the material than I ever was before. And that's a really beautiful thing.

ETA -- Good God, what a monster-sized post. Sorry. If you read, I love you.

Updated On: 11/26/05 at 11:18 PM

[greenegirl87]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 11:27pm

emcee your posts are always so much fun to read!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 11:28pm

Thank you!

[Blue J]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 11:38pm

Emcee - I agree - love your posts. We had sorta similar experiences recently. I spent Thanksgiving trying to explain to some of my family what RENT is and why it means so much to me. Some got it, some pretended to, and others just gave me blank stares. Haha. Oh well. One of my moms though definitely gets the RENT thing (we bonded over our trips to set this past year - LOL ) and the other mom is trying. She saw it with me and said she liked it, but she won't see it again. However, she did spend the morning with me searching through newspapers and trying to get all 3 copies of the LIFE magazine. I was proud of her.

[Allie]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 11:42pm

I asked them if they were confused at all about the story. My dad said no. My mom said not really, UNTIL I told her about the cuts. I was just talking to a friend who didn't really like the film. I asked her the same thing, and she said no... until I told her about the cuts! Then she was like, "Yeah, you're right!"

[Alix7272]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:09am

I saw it in New Jersey today. The theatre was medium sized and was sold out - a mix of middle-aged adults and teenagers, a pretty homogonous group. Throughout the first half, people were a little fidgety and whispering but no more than in any other movie. By the second life support meeting, you could hear a pin drop and it was silent for the rest, except for sniffles coming from all sides of the theatre throughout the funeral and until the end. It seemed like people were moved by it in a way that they didn't expect to be. When the screen went black at the very end, everyone just sat there for a few seconds, afraid to move or speak. I've never experienced that before in a theatre.

Updated On: 11/26/05 at 12:09 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:14am

I saw it again tonight with my younger sister. I'm in Maryland, a suburb of DC. The theater was about 3/4 full, mostly younger crowd. I was bummed that the theater didn't have surround sound, so I guess I have to see it again to experience that

Warning: About to rant about bad audience member. This guy in the middle of my row decides that he has to go the bathroom DURING MAUREEN'S EULOGY- a part where I'm usually just starting to lose it. But no, instead I had to shift around and allow him to pass. Which, fine. I got over it and got back into the movie. Except, he then came back during the final chorus of I'll Cover You Reprise and we had to let him through AGAIN.

I wanted to kill him.

I literally had to grab my sister's arm to keep from attacking the guy. My whole body was like the human equivilant of when cats like arch their back and hiss; I was just furious. I mean, way to ruin the moment. God, maybe if you hadn't guzzled down that bucket of soda during the first half of the movie, you would have managed to make it through the whole movie instead of disrupting everyone in the row!

*composes self*

Um, yeah. Other than that, it was great. There was some nervous giggling when Collins and Angel kissed the first time, but that was it. Over the Moon was even more hilarious the second time. I kept noticing all the little things people said to look out for, like the Wax Lion cameo, and remembering just random things from the screening the other night. Like Adam's giant face during Your Eyes ("I am a VERY handsome man!") Still missed Rodney playing patticake

One thing I noticed was that in the blackout following Without You, the audience was silent. No one was munching on popcorn or swirling ice cubes in their drink. That silence pretty much continued through the end, which is something I've never experienced in movies before. It was just refreshing to see everyone be that involved in the movie.

Since Emcee mentioned her family, I'll tell my story. My grandmother started talking to me about Rent during our Thanksgiving celebration. She knew I had gone to see it 3 times on tour last spring and was trying to ask me what it was that I liked about it that much. I tried to explain it in the best words I could, but I'm so inarticulate about how I feel about Rent. I just kind of blurted out a bunch of stuff about how I love it because it's so different from anything out there, and it's not just entertainment at face-value, it has this meaning to it that changed the way I wanted to live my life. My grandma then gave me her book of operas, and told me that she heard Rent was based on La Boheme, so she brought the book so I could read about it. She also gave me a few newspaper clippings from the Washington Post about the movie. It was definitely reassuring to know that even if my grandma could never really appreciate a rock opera about drug addicts, drag queens, strippers and lesbians, at least she was accepting and encouraging of the fact that I enjoyed it.

Then today, when I was watching the cast on The View, my mom was in the room. She saw Rent with me last spring and didn't really say anything about it, but I know some parts bothered her. But when they started to sing Finale B, my mom commented "It does have amazing music." It was the first thing she had ever directly said about the show and it just completely blew me away. Then we got into this whole discussion about how Rent is different from many musicals these days on Broadway, in that it has so many great songs, while other shows just have a bunch of mediocre ones and a few show-stopping numbers. It was great. I want her to see the movie, but she doesn't go to the movies very often. But I know I'll make her see it once it's out on DVD.

Updated On: 11/26/05 at 12:14 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:17am

I'm sorry, I just have to say that my mom, my friend, her mom and I had a really good time discussing the giant face of Adam; I mean, really. When Adam scares me, it's bad!

[Chazds9]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:25am

I was a bit surprised by the audience I sat with. I saw it in Frisco, TX which is very close to Dallas. The couple next to me were drunk. VERY ANNOYING!! And the girl felt the need to sing along with some parts. I paid to hear the cast sing, not her. Also, we got a preview for the film BrokeBack Mountain. When Jake Gyllenhal and Heath Ledger start to kiss, you could have sliced the tension with a knife. I was a bit stunned by that. I think some of the guys in the theater were only there because their girlfriends made them go.

[SuddenlyTrey]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 1:04am

In my viewing in SC, everyone liked it I was skeptical since when I saw Moulin Rouge only 10 people came and it was just me and the 2 people I came with at the end. Then Chicago it was better but we had the usual rude people leaving loudly. But no one left Rent. I had my bets on the couple down the row from me and the woman was crying at the end...it was great. :) After Season of Love some people clapped...it was fun.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 1:56am

Saw it for the 4th time today in NYC with my mom and my grandma. My grandma kinda tagged along because we didn't want to leave her home alone - I did not think she would enjoy Rent at all.

So....audience:
If not sold out, it was pretty darn close. I was surprised to see most of the audience, probably at least 1/4, was 60+. I would say teenagers were actually in the minority. There were a couple of 10 year old girls with their mothers, who obviously did not know what Rent was about.

My mom has seen Rent 3 times on broadway with me, and I've put her through a lot in the last year. I've dragged her around to places like the BCEFA Flea Market, I always tell her the latest update from Anthony and showed her all the clips and trailers. She respected my love for Rent, but I don't think she really undertood it. So today, I was excited for her to see the movie, but I was nervous. I wanted her to love it as much as I do. When the movie ended, I nervously turned to her and she said "I thought it was great. Now I understand why you love it as much as you do" :) One of the things she told me is that especially with her eyes (she wears contacts), she needs to see words coming out of mouths and the movie helped A LOT because she actually understood the songs and knew what was going on.

And btw Anthony, my mom thinks you're really adorable.

Updated On: 11/26/05 at 01:56 AM

[liotte]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 2:44am

Ok, so I saw shows at 5:55 and 8:55 tonight in Monterey, CA. Both were about 3/4 full, seemed to be teens through about 40 somethings. Very quiet and respectful audiences, lots of sniffing during ICY:R and Without You.

No singing along, don't know how many people from this area have seen the show, but I guess not many. Walking out, people seemed to have good comments, and I heard talk about wanting to go to NYC to see the show.

[theatrebabe]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 11:55am

I saw it at 10:00 last night in Champaign, Illinios. The theatre only had about 20 people in it, but many of them seemed to know the show. The people a few rows back from us kept singing along(which annoyed me very much). I didn't hear anything bad from anyone and there were no walk outs that I saw.

[theatermom4]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:17pm

I was very disappointed in the attendance for Rent on Friday night here in Southern California (6:15 p.m. show, so maybe that was a little early). My teenagers got there fairly early...they were the first ones in the theater so decided to stand in the front and sing some Rent songs (wish I had been there!). Then they sat down and a handful of people showed up. During the show some obnoxious, giggling teens sitting right behind us left (thank goodness...I kept giving them dirty looks since they were ruining the show!). Later, a middle-aged couple in front of us left. They rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it...no applause or anything, but at least they seemed interested and quiet!

[Broadway Style]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 3:12pm

Well, here is an interesting tidbit of news to report. It sounds like the walk-outs thus far have been predominantly middle-aged people who were offended by the material. BUT I saw it in the Bay Area this week and two gay couples walked out of the showing. One couple walked out just about halfway through the movie. The guys stood up, rolled their eyes at each other and glanced at the rest of the theater, snickered and took off. The other couple I guess wanted to give it some more time, but ended up leaving about 3/4 of the way through. They left quietly with their arms around each other just barely shaking their heads.

Updated On: 11/26/05 at 03:12 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 3:16pm

This isn't really about people walking out, but when I saw it, 2 different people left during Your Eyes to go to the bathroom. I almost wanted to yell "It'll be over soon, just wait!" because I knew that they would miss the ending, but they probably didn't realize that and just figured it was a "slow" song so they weren't going to miss anything.