Rent attendance anecdotes — Page 8

Speaking of all the cell phones going off, one of the girls in the group that walked out was TALKING on here phone during Glory. Holy Shibby. I just remembered that. I was ready to throw my shoe at her.

Updated On: 11/24/05 at 02:11 AM

Studio City, CA here -

The theater (coldwater/victory if you're familiar) was about 25% full for the 7:25pm showing. There was one girl behind me who would not stop snickering but thankfully she left about 20 minutes into the movie. There were a few kids that tried to start a round of applause after Seasons Of Love ended but I think they soon realized it wasn't the right crowd to do that in. They were a VERY quiet audience throughout but most stayed till the very end of the credits and clapped when it was done so I'm assuming they enjoyed it.

For me personally, I wasn't fully feeling it until the scene where Roger joins them for the Life Support meeting. I don't know why but that moment was so powerful for me that I actually cried and I thought the movie just got better and better after that point.

My favorite scene was Tango Maureen - beautifully done! And Santa Fe on the subway train was lovely as well. Thanks for being a part of this and for handling the wacky ones on this board with such class and style.

This has been the only RENT thread I've bothered to read, let alone reply to.... the sheer thought of keeping up with them was enought to scare me away. But I saw this one was started by you so I wanted to put in my two cents.

Even though it's my humble opinion that this story translates better on stage, it was truly a wonderful tribute and I enjoyed it a lot!

saw the movie four times today (different friends wanted to see it at different times and offered to pay...no complaining here)
at every showing the crowd loved it. my friend mike who had never seen the show or heard any song besides sol stood up at the end and told me "that is honestly the best movie i've ever seen"
so many positive reactions from everyone and considering i live in a very very uptight part of florida where it's basically all red.
and to whoever posted the exerpt about orlando from a review it was very true. people clapped after every song like we were seeing the stage show. it was one crazy night.

Los Angeles:

The screener we attended on Monday was insane. My sister and I arrived two hours early and we were twenty people back. The line wrapped around the theatre, down the stairs, and into the lower parking lot. I was rather afraid the line was going to end up doubling out onto Wilshire Boulevard. Needless to say some people were turned away. The audience was unbelievably responsive. There was laughter, mooing, and everyone ended up stealing my tissues. When the credits began to roll, no one moved. Suddenly, the entire audience began singing together, spontaneously (and surprisingly well). My sister hadn't seen the show and was only slightly familiar with the music and when we left, she asked if we could go again immediately.
So we tried to go to the Arclight in Hollywood for the midnight showing in the Cinerama dome--Totally sold out. We ended up going to the earliest matinee in the Dome (11:30) on Wednesday morning. It wasn't full, but a lot of people came in during the previews. I'd estimate about a 1/3 full, but since the Dome is so big, I can't swear to it. What was interesting was that there were very few people in the audience who seemed to be fans, or even have a passing acquaintance with the story. There was a lot of laughter and some sobbing. One woman actually left in a huff after I’ll Cover You, which was truly bizarre. No one mooed, but there was a contingent in the balcony that cheered wildly when Sarah Silverman appeared. There was some scattered applause at the end, but no one left until the credits had rolled.

I saw an evening showing of "Rent" in Tampa, Florida tonight. We were going to see the showing at the local mall [against my better judgement because I HATE seeing movies at that mall with all of the screaming teeny-boppers...], but it was completely sold out! Feeling justified in my glorious "I-Told-You-So," we went to the theater that I had wanted to go to begin with--the glorious Giant Screen/IMAX theater. Ahhh, heaven.

Anyway, moving on. The theater was pretty packed! The front row was pretty empty and there were empty seats scattered about the room like flyaway droplets of paint, but for the most part, we were a full house.

There were only two previews, which was sad, because I was so looking forward to seeing some after being jipped out of previews when I saw Harry on the IMAX last week. Ah well. C'est la vie. The previews weren't the most important part anyway.

I got a heady rush of joy when the logo came up and Seasons of Love began to filter into the auditorium. I held my breath in nervous anticipation, only to let it out once the song ended. My favorite part of that song HAS to be when Jesse Martin belts out "...or the way that she DIES!!" It gets me everytime when I see the trailer and he sings that as they show Angel's coffin. I get shivers every time. Tonight, watching the emotion from his voice reflected on his face....it still gets me. Anyway, yeah. The audience gave a loud round of applause once the school had ended.

Next, I hear a voice-over of the beloved, "December 24th, 9 p.m. EST...." It was so weird! I mean, I knew that parts of the songs would be spoken instead of sung, but every time I heard it....it was such an out-of-body-experience! It made my mind spin each and every time.

I really liked how scenes were added to and fleshed out--for example, I loved seeing all of the burning paper at the end of "Rent" and I LOVED seeing Maureen come onscreen during Tango: Maureen. It gave the song/show so much more weight. It was amazing. Oh, and Anthony--I *REALLY* loved the eyebrow thing that you and Tracie Thoms had going on during this number--it was positively hysterical! The audience was cracking up!

In fact, we had a lot of audience laughter throughout the movie--in all of the right places, too! The only other songs to get clapping afterwards were Santa Fe and Over the Moon, though the clapping for OTM was minimal....maybe people were confused? Nobody mooed, either. If other people had, I would have, but I wasn't about to be the only one mooing. Maybe next time. Oh, the audience also clapped at the end of the movie--really enthusiastically, too.

Our audience also got really emotional when Angel died. I was shivering like crazy and had goosebumps (I can never cry during movies and such...I know, I'm weird.) and my one friend was crying into a tissue. The audience was pretty somber for the rest of the movie.

I thought that there were parts of the movie that definitely brought closure by fleshing out weaker parts from the musical--and I LOVED the part where Adam Pascal joins Life Support. That was just...perfect. I still think that Mimi's "big scene" at the end is a bit cheesy, but I think that Rosario Dawson did a pretty good job of making it believable--much more so than the Mimis that I have seen on stage.

All in all, we had a pretty mixed audience in attendance. I saw quite a few teenagers, a few students from my university (Go UT!!), a lot of people in their mid-twenties to early thirties and a large group of men that were probably in their forties. It was a pretty good turnout, and I didn't see anybody walking out!!

My big problems with the showing weren't even from the MOVIE. We had to move back a row because the man in front of us had bad B.O. We wound up sitting next to these two girls that kept flipping their phones open in order to text message, which gave the theatre a bright blue hue. The girls in the row BEHIND me were softly singing along to the music....thank goodness that they stopped after the first few songs! If they hadn't, I would have snapped at them. I was surrounded my idiots, I tell you!!!


I had a great time tonight, though. I was so scared to see this movie because "Rent" is so special to me! I was hearing that people hated it or loved it. I was hearing that it wasn't brought to screen well...........but all of my fears were for nothing. Anthony, you and everyone else on the cast were absolutely wonderful. I loved physically SEEING everything. It really brought the story home. [It also made me miss NY...I can't wait to go back next month!!] Thank you so much for helping to make this movie into such a wonderful production!!!! I'm definitely going to see this at least once more this week because there were a lot of people who couldn't go today....I hope we have a great crowd when we go!!


My only question at the end was this--Why wasn't the song Love Heals playing during the end credits? Is it still able to be nominated for best new song if it never played? It's such a pretty song and I was really looking forward to hearing it!!! This was such a disappointment!!! To counter that, however, I loved, loved, *LOVED* the special thank you to Jonathan Larson at the end. That was worth the entire world to me.


One final thing--Anthony, if I am offending you by using your picture on my icon, please let me know and I will take it down immediately. I've made plenty of icons that aren't "Rent" or "Anthony Rapp" related that I can put up here instead of this one. I don't mean to offend you at all...I just felt like making icons to show my love for one of my all-time favorite musicals and to celebrate the new movie.

Updated On: 11/24/05 at 02:43 AM

November 23 11:10pm AMC 25 on 42nd st.

If not sold out--damn near.

Seemed to be a mostly young crowd, though it was mixed ages and diverse.

Audience applauded several songs and at the end.

Much sniffling during the funeral and after the fight after. Also, sniffling during the ending--and relief when Mimi awakes.

4 people walked out during the first La Vie Boheme. I think they were offended. lol

No one mooed.

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I had the unfortunate experience of sitting behind a group of irritating teenage boys. They covered their eyes and squealed every time that Collins and Angel kissed. And then proceeded to laugh when Angel died.
"Yay! No more fag."- I died a little inside.

But I heard lots of happy-buzz from a lot of the audience, and people did clap at the end.

I'm not sure how I feel about the movie itself yet..

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Updated On: 2/6/15 at 04:44 AM

I live about 70 miles East of LA and I loved the movie. There weren't many people in the theatre but it was late so I understand. I was sitting in a really diverse group. In front of me was an elderly couple with 3 tween girls in front of them. To my left was the cutest gay couple I've seen in my life, behind me were the annoying (singing off key and tempo) teenagers. We moved after One Song Glory because it got to be too much but then we landed next to some really awesome high school kids. Well the theatre was in tears after Angel died and most of the people sat through the credits. When SOL came on, during the credits, the audience sang along which was noticable when the track skipped and left 15 people hanging. But everyone enjoyed it! Such a great film. Whiteboy Spice - you were amazing, Congrats!!!!!

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I saw RENT last night (My review is in the "All RENT review" thread) and there were about 40 people there. When "Seasons of Love" started the whole theater got quiet and afterwards one guy behind my clapped which made me laugh. When Angel and Collins kissed I was expecting a couple of "Ew's" and snickering, but the only thing that I saw was a husband whisper something to his wife. I was pleasantly surprised. Speaking of lauging, people laughed in the right places and at the end EVERYONE was wiping their eyes and sniffling. One the credits began to roll everyone stayed in their seats and I mean you could hear a pin drop. Then slowly they got up and walked out. There was one girl a few rows down from me that was all out bawling. Her friend was rubbing her head and telling her it will be alright, while she herself was wiping tears of her cheek. When I walked out a group of teens were standing outside and I heard a girl say, "I don't know how much more I could have taken" while she was blowing her nose into a napkin. So, I think RENT majorly succeeded in capturing the hearts of those people in Sumter, SC. Hopefully they will tell their friends and word of mouth will spread like wild fire.

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"And at the end of the movie tonight, everyone was completely silent after Angel's final frame "

That happened both times yesterday.

I forgot to mention that there was no mooing (well, that I could hear). And there were people whispering a couple lines...but that was it.

I'm wondering what happened between the 11:30 showing and that one (7:30) because workers from the theater were walking up and down the aisle (how DO you spell that)--including one of the managers (Well, I assume he was because he was in a suit and had a nametag). And one of them told everyone to make sure their cell-phones were off. Maybe it was because of the amount of people.

Oh, Happy Turkey Day!

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LVB isn't supposed to be an overly-choreographed number, it's supposed to be a bunch of friends dancing around having fun. I doubt your gatherings are Fosse-worthy performances.

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I'm not saying LVB is supposed to be a solid dancing number (as far as standard musical choreography). But it looks like the choreographer went to the cast and said, "Just start dancing around and we'll see what happens"....

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