Cast: Adam Pascal (Roger Davis), Anthony Rapp (Mark Cohen), Tamyra Gray (Mimi Marquez), and the rest of the cery talented cast
For info, see the official Rent site.
Everyone who knows me knows I love Rent. Nothing new there. This time, I planned an entire trip just to see Rent with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal. I had seen them in the roles they originated in the movie (which I own, clearly) many times, but I'd never seen them live. I'm still kicking myself for allowing the fact that I had just moved to San Diego keep me from seeing the Original Broadway Cast of Rent.
I'm so glad that Adam and Anthony decided to go back to their roles of Roger & Mark at the same time. Of course, it was only for 6 weeks and ending right before I planned to get to the city, so I had to plan a weekend trip to go see Rent with them. As much as I love my friends on the east coast, they all know that Rent was the important thing to me this weekend!
When Adam walked on stage, it was like a rock concert crowd. There is always applause for whoever is playing Roger, but this was wild. Anthony got the same reception when he came on stage. I've never heard anything like this in a Broadway theatre before, and I doubt I ever will again. It was just a wonderfully electric crowd. :) I'd guess that almost everyone in the crowd had seen Rent a few times (like me). I'm sure there were some there (like my friend Kenny) who were fortunate enough to see this cast in their first production of Rent, How lucky they are!
Clearly, it was amazing to see Anthony Rapp as Mark and Adam Pascal as Roger. It was really a dream come true for me. I didn't know much about the rest of the cast, though I'd seen a couple of them before. I don't watch American Idol, so I hadn't seen Tamyra Gray before. She was amazing as Mimi. Definitely the best Mimi I've seen out of the 11 times I've seen Rent. I was a bit bummed that she didn't have long hair, since I love that part of Out Tonight, but it was worth it to hear her singing Mimi's songs.
James and I both believe they've added some background choreography, since the last time either of us has seen Rent and we really enjoyed that. It added a bit, but wasn't too distracting.
I also noticed that they added Lisa (subtracting Sue) from the Life Support meeting. I wonder who Lisa is... I'm guessing she's someone who recently died of AIDS and I'm sorry to hear that. Initially, they say that Jonathan Larson had planned that the names of the Life Support meeting attendees would change with each cast and they'd be friends of the cast who had died of AIDS. When he died just before the opening of Rent Off-Broadway, I think that froze the show in many ways and no one wanted to touch it. I can understand that and I find it interesting that they did allow another name to break in to the meeting.
If you have a chance to get to see Rent on Broadway before Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal leave, do it! Of course, getting tickets will be difficult. It's great to see Rent selling at about 100% again! If I could have gotten tickets to see Rent the night that I saw the matinee, I would have gone back that night in a heartbeat. In fact, I look back and wonder what I was thinking buying tickets for just ONE performance out of the three I could see in the two days I was in New York for this trip. Oh well, live and learn... I'd love to see the entire movie cast do the Broadway show, but I'm guessing that will never happen. At least I got to see Adam and Anthony. It's a moment I will cherish forever!
The only down side was that they were having some real problems with the microphones. They were cutting out from time to time in the first act, so it sometimes seemed like someone had missed a line, but if you were watching them you could tell that they were on cue, but the mic just wasn't on (or wasn't working). Disappointing, but NOTHING could ruin the experience of getting to see Adam and Anthony in Rent.
Grade: A+++
Labels: 2007, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Best Musical, Broadway, dancing, drama, musical, Rent
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:00 PM show | 0 screams