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A not-quite-live Rent is a
lovingly imperfect
celebration of a lovingly
imperfect musical
By Caroline Siede
1/28/19 1:00AM Comments (109)
Photo: Ray Mickshaw (Fox)
January 27th, 8pm, Eastern Standard Time,
from here on in Rent: Live shoots without a
script. Of the eight live musicals that have now
aired on NBC and Fox, Rent is the first one to
experience a last minute disaster that totally
derailed its production plans. News broke just
a few hours before the show was set to air that
Roger actor Brennin Hunt had broken his foot
at the previous night’s dress rehearsal and that
Fox was scrambling to figure out how to
modify a live musical with no understudies. In
the end, the production went with the back-up
plan that was always in place as a worst-casescenario option: Air the previous night’s dress
rehearsal (which was also filmed in front of a
live audience) as the main performance. As the
cast popped in to inform us during the first
commercial break, the show must go on even
when the show doesn’t actually go on. To
salvage some of the fun of a live musical event,
Rent: Live cut to a live feed for its last 15
minutes, which included a final performance of
“Seasons Of Love” featuring the show’s original
Broadway cast.
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Rent: Live
If my Twitter feed is any indication, tonight’s
broadcast was a massive Rorschach Test in
terms of what people want from a live TV
musical. To some, the idea of watching a nonlive Rent: Live ruined the entire point of the
production. Others assumed that watching a
dress rehearsal would automatically mean
watching a second tier performance.
Personally, I’ve never been super tied into the
“live” aspect of these live musicals, especially
given how abstract that concept is when you’re
watching from home. (If Fox had lied and
pretended its dress rehearsal footage was a live
feed, I certainly never would’ve known the
difference.) And it’s not my experience that
dress rehearsals are always lackluster
performances. It’s definitely possible that
some actors would’ve given better
performances tonight than they gave last night,
but the reverse could also be true as well.
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I do feel really, really bad for the cast, who
spent weeks preparing for a live broadcast and
then had nowhere to put that energy but a 15minute finale. But I don’t particularly feel like I
was cheated out of a unique experience. The
problems that did plague the broadcast—
shoddy sound mixing, ill-timed audience
reactions, imperfect vocal performances,
awkward camera work—have been inherent to
all of these live musicals, even the muchbeloved Jesus Christ Superstar Live! so I can’t
really blame those on dress rehearsal
imperfections. While there will presumably be
plenty of reviews out there happy to snark on
Rent: Live’s lack of preparedness and lack of
understudies, that’s not this review. I come to
praise Rent: Live, not to bury it.
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Rent: Live To Tape did what these live
musicals are supposed to do—reimagine a
beloved musical with a new aesthetic, new
performers, and new staging choices. Unlike
Fox’s impressive but overly familiar
production of Grease, Rent: Live didn’t pull its
visuals solely from the Broadway production or
from the aggressively mediocre 2005 movie
adaptation, although it nodded to both.
Instead, Rent: Live served as another parry in
the ongoing Fox vs. NBC live musical battle, a
battle that has made both networks continually
step up their game. NBC pioneered the format
with The Sound Of Music Live!, Fox
revolutionized it with its expansive staging of
Grease, and NBC countered with its own
innovative concert staging of Jesus Christ
Superstar. Rent heavily cribs from the latter,
throwing out the 360-degree realism of Grease
and Fox’s A Christmas Story Live! for
something more abstract.
Production designer Jason Sherwood created a
multi-staged, multi-leveled, scaffolding-filled
New York City-inspired playground (which just
happened to feature a literal playground too)
for the night’s action to unfold upon. It’s a
fantastic bit of design, one the camera tried
and failed to take full advantage of in some
ambitious but sloppy tracking and wide shots.
In general, it felt like Michael Greif’s
compelling theatrical staging was largely
underserved by Alex Rudzinski’s muddled TV
direction. And while you could blame that on
dress rehearsal flaws, I had the exact same
critique of Rudzinski’s camera work on Jesus
Christ Superstar Live! too. Even with a whole
day to focus on just the final 15 minutes,
Rudzinski struggled to get good shots of all the
original Broadway cast members in the finale.
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Given that just about all of these live musicals
have had issues with their camera work,
however, I can’t say it felt especially glaring
here. It helps that, like Jesus Christ Superstar,
Rent is a largely sung-through rock opera,
which allowed the show to keep barreling
through even the strangest camera choices and
audience reaction moments. (The cheering for
Roger’s high note during Mimi’s death scene
felt especially egregious.)
Photo: Ray Mickshaw (Fox)
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One of my big questions going into tonight’s
production was how Rent: Live would update
its R-rated source material for network TV, but
I’m actually far more impressed by what the
production kept (“Sodomy, it’s between god
and me”) than what it cut (the word “dildo,”
for some reason). In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever
experienced more shock and awe during one of
these live musicals than the moment I realized
we were actually getting a full performance of
“Contact,” the sexual anthem I thought for sure
would be the first thing to be cut. Indeed,
rather than cut any songs entirely, Rent: Live
instead just made lots of small, internal cuts to
shorten the show’s runtime, which—while
somewhat jarring for obsessive Rentheads
(R.I.P. to the lengthy food order from “La Vie
Boheme”)—were likely imperceptible to more
casual fans. Unfortunately, the choice to rush
through the show’s few dialogue scenes was
less seamless.
As Harvey Fierstein did in adapting The Wiz
for NBC, writer Kristoffer Diaz also seizes the
opportunity to make some small yet impactful
updates to Jonathan Larson’s beloved but
flawed source material. Diaz’s smartest choice
is to explicitly make this version of Rent a
period piece set across 1991 and 1992. Rent is a
very dated show, and it works better when you
embrace that rather than try to present it as
timeless social commentary. This production
even goes so far as to insert some extra
historical context about the AIDS crisis of the
1980s and early 1990s. Elsewhere, Diaz gives
Angel a little bit more focus in terms of her
identity and activism. And he also gives some
of the show’s clunkier lines (“think twice
before you pooh-pooh it”) an update too.
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Photo: Ray Mickshaw (Fox)
As is usual for these live musicals, the cast was
a real mixed bag. As soulful musician Roger,
former X-Factor contestant Brennin Hunt
brought strong pipes but not much acting
range. RuPaul’s Drag Race star Valentina
struggled with her vocals and presence in what
should be a scene-stealing role as Angel. And
singer Tinashe started off strong as Mimi
before losing some oomph and vocal power as
the night went on. Thankfully, there were some
pros around to pick up the slack. Though I was
one of the few people not totally won over by
his Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, I
absolutely adored Broadway vet Brandon
Victor Dixon’s take on Collins. The show
always felt like it was in a safe pair of hands
when he was onstage, which was also the case
with Kiersey Clemons as Joanne and Vanessa
Hudgens as Maureen—two performers who
were definitely not phoning in their dress
rehearsal performances. Hudgens, in
particular, has become a real master of this live
TV musical artform.
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The highlight of the night, however, was
Jordan Fisher as Mark. Having already
demonstrated his gorgeous pipes in Grease:
Live, this time around Fisher got to show off
his wildly impressive dance and movement
abilities. The playful, exuberant physicality of
his Mark immediately set Fisher apart from
any other performer I’ve seen in the role.
Fisher was also able to imbue some welcome
pathos into his performance, particularly in
the second half of the show.
Photo: Kevin Estrada (Fox)
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In the end, Rent: Live was an imperfect but
heartfelt production of an imperfect but
heartfelt show. Perhaps it drew some new
viewers into the Rent fandom, but I suspect
that more so than most of these live musicals,
this one was for the musical’s pre-existing fans.
Rent is a show that’s uniquely important to
young theater kids, one with flaws that become
more apparent the older you get. But—for this
nostalgic Rent fan, at least—it was awfully hard
to remain cynical during that big final
celebration featuring all of the original cast
singing alongside their younger counterparts.
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Rent: Live isn’t the definitive version of Rent,
but I don’t think it set out to be either. Fox’s
version of Rent is—to quote David S. Pumpkins
—“it’s own thing.” This live production can
now stand alongside the original Broadway
production, the 2005 movie, the countless
regional and college productions, and the
infinite versions of the show that exist inside
the minds of everyone who’s listened to the
cast recording—all of which make up the
mythos that is Rent. Part of loving Rent is
being a part of the community that loves Rent.
Despite its production snafus, Fox brought
that community together for a night. I, for one,
was happy to spend a couple of hours back in a
world where everything is Rent.
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Stray observations
·
For those wishing tonight’s production
was just a recording of the Broadway
musical, that’s actually already out there!
It’s called Rent: Filmed Live On
Broadway, and you can purchase it on all
the major streaming platforms.
·
I enjoyed Brandon Victor Dixon’s
performance of “I’ll Cover You (Reprise),”
but it also felt like he had set himself a
challenge of not singing any of the song’s
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