World Premiere of Rent - My Review/Comments + SPOILERS

[alli2]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 11:38pm

I swear to god, I started crying as soon as the “Revolution” symbol came on the screen, continued through Seasons of Love, and then stopped until the Without You. It was like an opening night on Broadway and there was applause for every name when it came onscreen in the credits. And there was applause after mostly every song. People clapped along with Seasons of Love, but thankfully no moo-ing at the screen because I think that would've been overkill.

My favorite part, and I knew this would be my favorite part from the clips online, was when ‘Rent’ started. I love how they filmed it. I never thought before that it was a protest of everyone on the block getting evicted against Benny. It was awesome how it was portrayed on the screen. But why were they throwing their fires out the windows? They were cold, they should’ve wanted to keep it! Oh well. I still loved it.

BEST LINE OF THE SHOW. Collins’ first entrance, “MERRY CHRISTMAS, BITCHES!!” Everyone in the theatre cracked up.

They connected all of the scenes so well, I loved how it was written. Only the 2nd and 3rd parts of Goodbye, Love were cut. The initial fight is still in there, and it’s amazing. I really could’ve cared less that Halloween was cut, it didn’t make one single difference. I love the song as do we all, but it really didn’t make or break the movie.

Another one of my favorite parts was during “Will I?” when Roger comes to the Life Support meeting, and joins them. It was such a great moment.

There was lots of clapping and woo-ing for Angel during his dance break in Today For You, the flip was amazing.

EDIT: I keep forgetting to write how much I loved Tango:Maureen. It was done really well, Anthony said his head hurt a lot from how many times he had to hit it on the ground. Hehe. I loved it all!

I thought how they did the background vocals for OTM was a great idea, I think it would've been how a real performance artist would've done it. But the protest was awesome. It really got out of control. And I thought at one point that Mark was being beat also. They all went to the Life Café and they couldn’t find Mark, and that was the point where he came rushing in after them saying that Buzz Line bought his footage and they were going to be on the eleven o’clock news. I liked how that was done also.

Angel’s death was so much more elaborate. While he was in the hospital, he was covered in the purple spots, and it was so hard to watch that. Without You was amazingly done. It’s a lot rougher to watch than onstage because you see Mimi going through withdrawal symptoms [or is it just severe sickness?], and that picture of her in the rain, is from this song. Roger brings her in and starts to try to warm her up. Roger catches her buying from ‘the man’ too and gets mad and runs off.

They arrive back at the loft on New Years Day and find it padlocked, Angel uses a trashcan to knock the lock off. They get up to their lofts to find all of their stuff is gone. Joanne informs them that they're squatters, that they can't be kicked out now.

‘Contact’ being cut didn’t phase me either. You see Roger get mad at Mimi when Roger, Mark, and everyone get back to their loft and all their stuff is back, and Benny comes in saying it was Mimi that talked to him and after he leaves, Mimi goes to Roger and says, “Roger, nothing happened!” But he won’t hear it.

Sara Silverman was a GREAT Alexi Darling. Sleezy and manipulative as ever. Everyone laughed really hard when she had her first appearance on screen.

What You Own is cut between Roger driving to and in Santa Fe and Mark cutting his documentary together and working for BuzzLine. The clips of Roger driving to and in Santa Fe were very Hollywood, but of course, it’s a movie.

I loved how the finale was done. Mimi doesn’t faint or whatever after she says "I Love You" like she does in the show though, and they don’t kiss after Your Eyes is over, she just falls limp. Adam’s ‘MIMIIIIII’ was amazing. They’re all sitting on the table watching Mark’s documentary and it looks just like it does in the show. The final thing we see is a picture of Angel sans the wig. Everyone just started clapping and screaming.

Everyone's performances were amazing. They all gelled together, and told the story beautifully and it was just RIGHT. Though I wasn't impressed with Rosario's voice when I first heard the soundtrack, I loved what I saw onscreen. I loved mostly everything I saw onscreen.

One thing that seemed a bit off were some of the scene transitions, like there was too much of a pause, but thinking back, it was kind of like a nice pause to reflect on the past scene. One other part that was a little bit cheesy was during Another Day when Mimi leaves and is in the street singing to Roger on the fire escape and Mark, Collins, and Angel come around the corner singing behind her. It worked, but it wasn’t my favorite moment of the movie. I wish they would’ve shown how Angel and Mimi met, because we’re told both in the show and movie, but I would’ve liked to see it.

I absolutely loved the movie. At the party, everyone was SO nice. Idina and Taye wouldn't see ANYONE though. They were surrounded by body guards. I talked to Julie Larson-McCollum, she was so sweet. Jason Foster who played 'the man' was awesome in person as well. They had techno versions of the OBCR playing for some reason! The Roseland Ballroom looked AMAZING. Jai Rodriguez and Joey Fatone were also there. Joey spent most of the night at the bar, heh.

So, I was asked to "set the record straight" about the movie against all the negativity, and I hope this did it. I never read a single review before going, so I had no negative preconceptions going into it. But, if you do, just forget them and go in with an open mind. It's NOT the show. It's the MOVIE. Expect something different, though it's similar, but it's something that's still VERY good.

My pictures again: http://photos.yahoo.com/langfrosh04
Updated On: 11/19/05 at 11:38 PM

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 11/18/05 at 11:41pm

Wonderbar review.

GAH, I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 8:20am

I wish you didn't give SO MUCH away about how they filmed a few things, but I enjoyed reading your article. 4 MORE DAYS!!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 8:27am

Did you say What You Own was cut?

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 8:31am

I think she meant that during "What you Own", the scenes switched back and forth between Roger in Santa Fe and Mark splicing his movie.

[alli2]

Posted: 11/19/05 at 11:31am

yes, that's what i meant. what you own is still in there.