Why was RENT a Flop in London ???? — Page 2

I saw it in London in 2000 w/ Debbie Kurup (sp?) and that cute guy from the British soaps. I loved Debbie, but the other cast members didn't quite seem to "get it." The whole NYC experience and the East Village in particular is very very American. Just the social politics alone.

Also, it was kind of uncomfortable when the British actors dropped the American accents and the audience is thrown from the East Village into "Oh, right, I'm in a theatre in London."

The success of the German tour doesn't surprise me. Berlin has that artistic, seedy underbelly that the East Village had in the 80s.

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RENT should still be at the shaftesbury i think! the show has failed to have a show run longer thana year since it left. RENT was infact a success, two years and then returned twice at The Prince of Wales after successful tours, they came back to Lonodn for about 3 months over the xmas period.

I loved RENT and wish it would return to the WE very soon.

The "curse" of the Shaftesbury still hasn't been lifted the new 4 million pound musical THE FAR PAVILIONS is a flop too - a 50 strong cast and big orchastra and no full houses and cheap tickets galour will close the show in months.

However - the curse maybe lifted - Other boards have mentioned that HAIRSPRAY will now open there...London really needs this show!

I saw Rent in London twice in 1998, and I noticed both times that a lot of the audience was American, and had seen the show either in NY or on tour.

With the exception of whoever was playing Maureen (who was frightenly bad),I didn't think the show was bad over there--but I think at the same time I was so happy to be seeing some of the OBC again that I didn't pay attention too much to the flaws.

They did make the cover of Time Out London over there, which was cool. And it wasn't for lack of advertising, we saw ads for it all over London. It was definitely a little surreal, I remember the Shaftesbury had pictures of the East Village in the lobby, they changed the Ted Koppel line to "CNN", and a few of the accents slipped on the ensemble cast: Alexi sounded totally British, and Mimi's mom used "Mummy" during the last voice mail.

that cute guy from the British soaps is Adam Rickett, thank you very much, and he's a bit more than just cute...

CATS- you're right, he's totally dreamy.

PS- I have the Icelandic Cast Recording, and it. is. HILARIOUS.

I cannot listen to it without doubling over in laughter. Nothing sounds remotely like what the orchestrations should be. "Out Tonight" isn't remotely rock. It sounds like a karaoke version of a techno song.

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Mister Matt - it's the wrong venue for Hairspray I think. The buzz for that show isn't overwhelming over here, so once the die hards have seen it, unless it's somewhere VERY visible I don't think it will survive.

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I disagree - people are very interested in the show over here!

I saw it with Adam Rickett (pictured) and saw him in bar me and friends went to after the show - he came in and we spoke for a while - a nice guy.

Hah...i really really want to hear Caprice as Maureen. I have heard very interesting things. Apparently there were rumors that she was lipsynching her performance, but I highly doubt it.

Akiva

Yeah, this was exactly my point about the transfer of Billy Elliott.

Incidentally, I thought Krysten was just stunning and FULL ON as Mimi. Very sorry to hear of her problems.

She is not exactly busy now- I hope things are better for her because she was dynamite.

When I spent the summer in Hamburg, Rent was doing very well.

Billy Elliott is a poor example. The movie was a hit in the US. Elton John is a hit in the US. I don't think the musical will have much of a problem here.

Now, something like Blitz! probably would be "too British" for the general American audience, but for reasons entirely different than I think people use the excuse that Rent is "too American".

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Maybe Londoners don't want to see a show about whiney 20 somethings and hear boring music.

Could they have good taste?

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Off on a tangent here - I rememebr hearing that the Dublin production of Rent was vastly different from most others. What were the big changes? Anyone know?

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Yes, Caprice did lip-synch her songs. Badly

Adam Rickets was (I believe) in Coronation Street, though couldn't swear to it. I had no idea who he was, but my friend was very excited about seeing him on tour - she was therefore a bit disappointed when he came out looking like Rubert Bear in the first act, and even more when it was announced that he was indisposed for the second act!