Rent attendance anecdotes — Page 19

Hi,

I know this is a bit late, but I'll add in my $0.02 since I've seen Rent in two different states. (And this is my first post, too.)

First, I braved a mini-blizzard in the mountains of central PA to find a theater that was actually showing it on opening day! This was the perfect excuse to give relatives the slip, even though I was in the middle of nowhere. (Although I felt old... it was mainly a young teen crowd who had the day off from school. I was willing to bet several months' bills on the fact that I was the only one in the theater who actually goes to/has been to the East Village ever.) The theater was pretty packed, and the kids all quieted down once the movie started. I was worried the way that they were acting goofy prior to the show, but I heard quite a few people sobbing when Angel died and also at the end. This was also a matinee, so I was surprised that there were so few seats open.

I just saw it again in northern NJ this afternoon. The theater was about half-full, with a much older crowd. The difference was great for me- I could sit near the front, in the middle, with nobody in front of me. Still, not bad considering the other movies showing at approximately the same time (Harry Potter, 50,000 kids.)

I can't believe what I've been reading on this board- that it's not performed as expected. It's a fantastic film, and I plan to see it again with another friend probably next weekend. I literally have goosebumps the whole way through!

Reporting live from San Rafael, CA (Marin)

Surprisingly the attendance has been steady with auditorium capacity at or near 50%. Those who are not familiar with the stage version enjoyed the film and after some shows applauded!

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I went to see the movie in my hometown (a tiny, conservative, Caucasian, small-minded midwestern town)so my mother had someone to go to the movies with - huge mistake! I had to listen to a 50 something woman complain through the entire movie about immorality because my mother insisted that it would be rude to get up and change seats during the movie. My date and I ended up going to a showing in the city we live in so we could enjoy the movie.

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I loved the movie. but unfortunatly there were some immature teenagers who kept laughing at Angel. It was driving me and my friend insane! My friend actually turned around and told them to shut up. They bursted out laughing at the part where Angel takes off her wig and says "Hi I'm Angel" at the Life support Meeting.

I saw it in two opposite ends of the country. I saw it opening day in Redmond, WA(land of Bill Gates)while home for Thanksgiving break from my graduate studies at NYU. Unfortunately for me, I previous to this day had lived under a rock and didnt know anything about RENT. I saw a preview for it when seeing another movie and fell in love with the song "Seasons of Love". I saw it originally because of that song. During that showing, I was surrounded by highschoolers who were dressed as characters from the show and who told each other (with fingers pointed)"You better not sing". I didnt get it at that point and hoped that they wouldnt sing either. :) Ohhh.. little did I know what I was getting into. Needless to say I loved the movie... loved it! I saw it again in NYC about five days later. My friends and I saw it as a break from writing final papers. The theater was totally packed and I "got" to sit in the third row. How great was it to see it in NYC though? It was a totally different feeling. Maybe it was that I knew that I was going to love the movie when I sat down but it was just better the second time around. I had to fight not to bust out in song and dance. I cant sing or dance so that might have been scary for the folks around me. :) I am now totally addicted and will likely see it again back in Seattle at Christmas. I get it now!!!

I live on long Island and I got lost on the way to the theater and the way back because my friend was not allowed to drive on the high ways yet, but it was so worth the extra two and a half hours in the car. I cried so much I swear someone should have smothered me so I wouldn't be annoying. But the crying did result in a rather nice moment between myself and the woman next to me. She came in during the previews and I was a little annoyed at having to get up to let her sit down and she seemed a bit annoyed to be sitting next to teenagers (at least that's the impression i got from the looks she kept sending our way) so there was some bad air between us. But in the midst of my hysterical crying (somewhere around the funeral) i just turned to her to make sure I wasn't bothering her and she looked back at me crying equally as hard and we just smiled at each other sharing the moment. It was a nice moment. I didn't here a single rude comment or anyting, everyone seemed to be affected. In fact when the lights turned back on there was this long pause where no one got up because every one was trying to collect themselves. I went into the bathroom after and there were like a million girls all trying to fix their smeared mascara.

I love it when people clap at movies; it's very reminiscent of vaudveville and broadway.

Anywho, I went again tonight, 11th time, with my mother. I have been terrified of seeing RENT with her because she is SO religious and well, her age...62. She loved it. She hasn't always been 62, and she lived a hard life...it took her back there a bit and reminded her how difficult life on the fringes can be, was and is.

I just thought that, amidst all of the negativity, that you, (Anthony and unfortunately only a few others), would like to hear some positive stuff. Yes, she cried; but more importantly to me, she got it. I spent little time explaining anything. My mother, the Jehovah's Witness queen that she is, nothing against them either, saw, understood and absorbed what I've been talking about for years now. Life, love and appreciation for what you have right now truly ought to be universal in a way that isn't a reality yet.

So yeah, just wanted to let you know that RENT, even though it was in a theater with a sub-par sound system tonight, has definitely reached another person, and a baby boomer at that.

Updated On: 12/15/05 at 06:39 AM

Hey Mauriposa-
Where in IN are you? Where will you be seeing it in the spring? Want a RENT-head "buddy" to go along?

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Ahh. . .I see. I might be up for a road trip right around then :)

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alright, my two cents....

I live in a very small town in Kentucky. I should throw in that when the stage production came a few years ago that we had several people protesting outside the Center. It was horrible.

Anyhow, we went on Nov. 30 and there's rarely many people at the movies on Wednesdays anyway. I went with my friend who isn't really into musicals, but she loved it. She teared up and she hardly ever cries at movies.

Anyhow, there were 3 young people a few rows in front of us and probably 10 people in a group behind us. They were teenagers and young twentysomethings. They wouldn't shut up for the whole first hour. As soon as the song "Rent" came one, one guy goes "they're singing AGAIN!" I was thinking 'it's a musical!' He made cat calls at Mimi's dance and 'eww'ed during anything homosexual. I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked him to be quiet. The entire group started coughing loudly in spite, but finally stopped.

It was a rather frustrating experience, but the movie was worth it!

I saw Rent again for the fourth time tonight. It was a 10:05pm showing in suburban Maryland. Not exactly a Renthead hot bed, but I was in for a pleasant surprise.

There was a group of high schoolers (2 girls, 3 guys) that were sitting in the second row of the theater. They were talking all through the previews and I was worried they would be loud the entire time. Actually, they turned out to already be fans! (They seriously didn't look like your typical musical fans, so without getting into stereotyping, just trust me when I say it took me by surprise.)

They clapped along during Seasons of Love (in synch with the movie, so it wasn't annoying) and they clapped after Rent was over. Oh, and the part that made me realize they'd definitely seen it before was when the phone started ringing for the first time and one of the guys called out "Speak!" before the answering machine even started. Then at the end, during the last shot when Angel starts to fade into black, one girl shouted "That was good!" and started clapping. They sang along with the music during credits and and clapped along as they walked out of the theater. I'm glad they liked it so much, and I felt really bad for misjudging them in the beginning.

One couple walked out after Take Me or Leave Me. Which seemed rather late to me, all the controversial stuff had already happened, but I guess they won't realize that now. Other than that, it was a great audience. A couple other people also stayed through all the credits as well. I still wish the "Thank You Jonathan Larson" could have been at the beginning; I just felt like I couldn't leave before I saw that part. And when "No animals were hurt during the making of this film" comes before a tribute to him, it just seems wrong.

I'm glad I got to see it again. It probably will be the last time in theaters, just because I'll be too busy to have time. There are people I wish I had gotten around to seeing it with (a certain extra during the Rent scene needs to point himself out to me!) but unfortunately the opportunity never came up. I still managed to notice things I've never seen before, especially things that had been brought up on the boards.

I have to admit, part of me wishes that I could have seen the movie without knowing each step of the production, or even knowing the story. Tonight, when Mimi's hand starts to twitch at the end, someone in front of me actually gasped. I know I'll never be able to experience Rent like that, but it was a great reminder to know that new fans are coming along every day.

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So much to say. Well for starters I've seen the movie 5 times in my hometown area (a little suburb near Philadelphia) and I have loved it every single time.
Opening night I saw it twice. A friend of mine swears she heard a woman say "This has been the worst expieriance of my life because of those girls sitting in front of us." We were so excited that we couldn't help just freaking out every 2 seconds.
So the second time we saw it that night it was around 10 and there we're alot more Rentheads there. You could just feel it in the air, so much love going to this brillient work of art.
Anyway back on topic. I wish I could say the same for the other times i saw the movie in the past few weeks. (lets just say there has been more than one time I have wanted to throw my shoe at people.)
Other than that I love this movie and I'm extreamly upset my movie theatre is takeing it out after thi wednesday. (thank God for DVDs.)

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