Rent attendance anecdotes- Page 18

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 2:10am

luvtheEmcee, was that the 8:15 showing? If so, I was there too. It was a great audience. Lots of noticeable crying and sniffling during Angel's death and at the end. I saw many people around me wiping their eyes. One of the few times I've seen a film where the whole audience is completely silent for about 10 seconds as it fades to black at the end.

[Starburst]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 3:02am

So I FINALLY got to see it Friday, and the group I went with IS the anecdote.

So we went to a 7:40 showing in Bellevue (Seattle suburb), and there was a couple other people in the audience besides the 5 of us, soon to be 10 of us. I was the only one who had seen the live show, and there were 1 or 2 others who had already seen the movie. I was so excited I nearly cried at the opening Seasons of Love.

Movie Rent = Love. I certainly hope to see more of Tracie Thoms. She and Anthony Rapp kicked everyone's ass. Whoa man.

Everyone loved it. During Angel's death and at the end, the theatre was just flooded with tears and estrogen. Everyone else in the theater seemed pretty into it, except one poor guy who seemed to be sick, and was trying to suppress his coughing.

Yay Rent.

[Feathah]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 9:03am

Saw it yet AGAIN in Queens. And the audience this time really loved it. A lot of crying and laughing - I even heard a MOOOO! Theater was abot 75% full. Seems like the rentheads are out trying to raise those numbers!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:37am

Emcee, Fantabulous428 and I saw the 7:15 show. And it was tons of fun. We sang along during the credits

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 11:38am

Just so you know, you witnessed HISTORY. 'cause I never sing!

[NJRae]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 2:36pm

First I just want to say hi as this is my first post. :)

I live in central NJ and our two local theaters were sold out at every showing for the first two days that Rent was out. I finally got to see it the first time the Saturday after it was released. The show sold out with a mixture of teenage girls and 30-40 year olds of both genders. Everyone was silent when the movie started (except the woman next to me who burst into tears just as it started and never really stopped through the whole movie). Everyone was laughing in all the right places and we were sort of grateful that no one was singing along b/c we didn't want to hear the audiance singing we wanted to hear the actors! Anyway, everyone seemed to get pretty teary when Angel died and everyone applauded at the end.

The second time I saw it, a week later, it was still very crowded although not quite sold out. Same basic crowd and everyone was, again, fairly quiet through the movie with the exception of the laughing and crying. This time at the end of the movie everyone applauded and a couple of people mooed. :)

Personally I loved the movie, although like others I did notice some small mistakes but I think that makes it more fun! Can't wait to see it again and really can't wait for it to leave theaters and come out on video. Made my sister and I want to go see it live again.

[LeaGirl]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 2:44pm

I had an impossibly gratifying experience on Saturday night at the Ziegfeld. Pretty full - but not very full because um.. even with like 4 or 500 people that theater isn't full.

One interesting antidote - the first few rows in front of us seemed to be mostly Rent fans. The woman behind us was a rent fan (heard her talking before) and she had two maybe... 10 year old girls with her.

During the opening credits, when Columbus' name came up.. one of the little girls said in a whisper "Christopher Columbus?" to the other one.

Then, in an ill moment of timing, the name switched to Jonathan Larson just as the second child queried (rather loudly) "WHAT? Isn't he DEAD?"

The ENTIRE theater whipped its head around in a feat of synchronization that would have made the Rockettes proud. The mother was mortified. The girls really seemed to enjoy the show, however.

Afterwards, in the lobby - I witnessed two things that made me feel really good.

First was a middle aged woman, sobbing loudly to her companions about how she thought the broadway play was just for kids and so she never went to see it. She was asking everyone in the lobby if there was a CD store still open, she was refusing to go home without the soundtrack.

Second was a really sweet looking 15 year old boy who was on the phone to someone and crying - he said "You need to see it again, the first time I was so distracted by the differences from the show, but see it again, I swear to god, it's beautiful"

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 2:53pm

Emcee, I only sing when appropriate, never during the show/movie

I find it really interesting that every time I've seen the movie, there's always been a group of Spanish speakers crack up at that one line Angel says after Maureen calls Mark. Not that they shouldn't, it's a funny line when you get it, but you can kind of tell how many people know Spanish based on who laughs at that line.

Updated On: 12/5/05 at 02:53 PM

[NJRae]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 2:57pm

Me neither, although my cousin did catch me mouthing the words :) My sister and I were just terrified that there were going to be all these teenybopper girls singing along with the movie and that just would have ruined it for us.

[NJRae]

Posted: 12/5/05 at 2:59pm

I also liked it better the second time. I think the first time I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be "the same" as the show and I was busy noticing the differences and taking in everything. The second time I was more able to relax and really enjoy it. Now I can't wait to see it a third time!

[cubbiegirl]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 2:34pm

I posted here before about my racist, homophobic, Bible Belt town which was not showing Rent..BUT this morning I got an email from fandango saying tickets were now on sale in my area.

It will be opening up at the theatre here on Friday..I am very interested to see who goes.

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:05pm

Raises hand really high in air, ohh! ohh! I (sadly) live in probably one of the reddest states around, NEBRASKA! (Thank god I live in Omaha though, where it is tad bit more diverse) anyway, I saw it at the AMC 24 and it was PACKED. People, besides rentheads, clapped after the preformance, were laughing at every part, and crying by the end. I was expecting the exact opposite to happen, (being Nebraska) but I was pleased to see how many people were touched by the movie.

[JLSatUD]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 6:19pm

My audience (opening night near Baltimore) clapped at the end and everyone was bouncing around the lobby afterwards which was great! No singing, which I was happy about, and no mooing either. I think I mouthed half the movie though. All the spoken lines made me smile, just because it was so odd (yet so ok!) to know what they were saying even though it wasn't a song. Showings around here have really been cut down this week, though. Now that we've all had time to enjoy and savor, I think I'd be amused at a "rocky horror" type showing!!! Bring on the fishnets and heels...

[pab]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 6:46pm

"Movie Rent = Love. I certainly hope to see more of Tracie Thoms. She and Anthony Rapp kicked everyone's ass. Whoa man. "

She is not a regular cast member on the TV show "Cold Case" on CBS at eight o'clock on Sunday nights.

[Fizz]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 9:08pm

Saw it again last week with my castmates after a show. It was a 9:50 showing, a good mix of teens and adults. LOTS of responses, they were laughing at everything remotely funny from the beginning to the end.

Of all the people I've talked to, only a total of two people didn't like it all that much. They thought it was okay but not great.

[Cugirl]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 12:54pm

Went to the 3:30 yesterday (Friday). There were about 30 in the theatre. There were a lot of responses from the audience and I noticed about half the people stayed during the credits. An overall good crowd.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 1:13pm

Went to see the movie a second time yesterday. Extremely small audience...maybe 5 of us, but it was a 4:15 showing on a snowy Friday...so that may be why.

Enjoyed it the second time...except for the couple behind me singing along...not so loudly that you could "shush" them, but just loud enough to hear all the voiced consonants...

Oh..and I have a new favorite moment in the movie...During the beginning of Take Me or Leave Me, when everyone is just starting to pay attention to the fight, there is a shot of "the friends table" and Roger is just eating away, completely oblivious, and Mimi gives him this poke, and he turns around and with this annoyed, yet shocked look on his face and stares with his mouth full! Ok..it's two seconds, but it cracked me up!

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 1:24pm

I just saw the movie for the fourth time on Thursday night.
I went with two friends who have never seen the original stage show or heard it's cast album.
The only song they were familiar with was of course "Seasons of Love", for the obvious reasons.
They loved the film and were moved to tears by Angel's death.
My friend Julio absolutely fell in love with "La Vie Boheme".
He said he felt like jumping out of his seat and dancing along with the cast up on screen. (I think we have a new RENThead!)
Eduardo loved it as well.
As for me, I still wish they wouldn't have chopped up the show's libretto as much as they did but I guess to the average movie goer it really doesn't make that much of a difference since they wouldn't know what was cut out.
Anyway, for all it's worth I guess it is what it is.
The musical numbers, especially "Seasons of Love", "Rent", "Light My Candle", "Tango: Maureen", "Out Tonight", "La Vie Boheme", "Without You" and "I'll Cover You (Reprise)" are what really made the movie for me.
Can't wait for the DVD.




Updated On: 12/10/05 at 01:24 PM

[Tag]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 2:45pm

I saw the movie finally this week and wasn't hugely impressed.

My biggest issue is that I was really distracted by the dialogue spoken in the movie that is sung in the show.

I went with a couple people that know nothing about the musical at all, and they were confused during scenes (like Angel's entrance for instance). I don't believe there was enough explaination.

The cinematography and design were well excecuted.

Mimi's death scene was just ridiculous. All of a sudden she was perfectly fine! Very unrealistic.

One interesting audience annedote (I'm in Toronto, so this is not small town American south or anything...) when Angel & Collins kissed at the end of Live In My House, the guy behind me actually said 'eww' fairly loudly too.

[kates422]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 10:53pm

I just got back from my 3rd time seeing the movie. I brought along three friends--one major Rent fan, the other two just know the music. All of them loved it.

Pretty good turnout in the theater. Afterwards, I heard groups discussing how amazing it was. That made me happy! It was good to hear. Also, there were no negative reactions at all during the movie. A lot of tears for the Angel funeral. Not many laughs at some parts. Pretty much nobody laughed at Over the Moon.

Also a plus--it seems to be playing in more theaters here (I'm at school...in southern Minnesota)! I think that's a good sign. THis was the first weekend it was at the local theater.

[guitargeek0624]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 11:01pm

The first time seeing the movie was...memorable. The movie itself was fantastic, but the audience was another story. First, there were only about 20 people in the theater, making it rather uncomfortable (I like seeing movies with more people...it's weird, but I'm more comfortable that way). These two ten-year old girls kept running in and out of the theater at various times for no apparant reason. When they burst out laughing during *SPOILER ALERT*

Angel's funeral, my friend and I got very annoyed. And they also shouted, "Eww!" every time Angel/Collins and Maureen/Joanne kissed. Psh, immature brats.

Well, I'm seeing it again tomorrow at an odd time, so hopefully, my friend and I will have the theater to ourselves so we can dance, sing, and moo all we want!

[dreaminaret]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 11:03pm

The first time I saw it was at an Advance Screening the Monday before it came out at Regal-Union Square. The crowd seemed older than I would have expected and there were a lot of mean older people who were so busy fighting over chairs, etc. And then they were walking out, etc.

Then I saw it at Symphony Space which was an amazing crowd. Midnight show again at Union Square and mostly NYU students there. That one was fun too but no one was mooing.

4th time was at 66th St. Loews at the late night showing Sunday night about 2 weeks ago and that one was relatively empty but people didn't mind my friends and I getting really into La Vie Boheme, etc. Some other people were getting into the songs as well. We saw them back on campus and they were listing to the soundtrack on their iPods, so presumably rentheads too.

I went on Wednesday to 66th Street again, the 10:30pm show (latest one). There were no more than 20-30 people in the theater which is understandable because it was a late night show. But the people were really moody. We were really into it and it just seemed like the guys just didn't want to be there. And we got condescending looks for mooing.

Can't get enough of the movie... I've gone to maybe 10 movies in the past year and 5 times that's been Rent. :) I just want to be in a crowd where everyone's as enthusiastic about it as my friends and I.

[defying_gravity2]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 11:24pm

I saw it for the seventh time last night. I thought that it would be pretty full, 7:15 on a Friday night. There were about 10 of us in there. It was the worst audience I've seen so far. There was a group of very annoying tweens who were way to loud and laughed and talked too much. They left during LVB, thank goodness. There was also a woman who brought an infant. The baby whimpered and cried through most of the movie. Then around ICY:R, the baby got hiccups. Why do people insist on bringing babies to the movies? Urgh. Still, a great movie.

[JLSatUD]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 11:31pm

babies are a pain at the movies. I went to see Narnia last night (I know, the horror of giving my hard earned dollars to a non rent box office!) and there were TONS of little kids and babies there cause they thought it was a kids movie, I guess. Kids were screaming and crying the whole time. UGH.

Rent was playing in the theater next to us, only about 15 people came out when it was over.

[starsinger]

Posted: 12/10/05 at 11:35pm

AHHH I JUST SAW IT IN BOSTON for the 5th time...and it was a PACKED SOLD OUT SHOW!!! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! EVERYONE LOVED IT!!!
just wanted to share that!!
xoxo
Sarah