![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhSo I saw Rent for the third time, and the first time since 1997. I saw it once with the original cast in 1996, rather early in the run, and then once with most of the original cast except Mimi and maybe Benny and Maureen though I can't remember. I've never seen it with any of the famous types in it, though I had forgotten that of course none of those pop stars could play Roger—Roger plays the guitar on stage.
It was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
folk's idea to see it, since he'd never seen it on stage and the movie is coming out. I have to admit, I was mostly going along at first since I have seen it a few times, but I'm so glad that I did see it again before the film comes out, so now it's all fresh in my head and shit.
Does it hold up? you ask. Boy, howdy.
The oddest thing was that of course when I saw Rent before, it was contemporary. The rush of the new, of the now, of people having lives I recognized. I had just moved out of the East Village myself, less than two years before. And now it's a time capsule of mid-Clinton New York, a city in the midst of a heroin crisis, with squeegee men still running around. Roger and Mark were emo before emo was cool. Then, AZT was the great (though really not so great) miracle drug, and now we have the protease inhibitors and the drug cocktails; then I didn't have a very close friend who was HIV+ and now, well, I do. Never mind the obvious happy surprise at the time that two of the three main romances were homosexual. Seeing two men sing a gorgeous love duet to each other on a Broadway stage? Awesome.
I must admit, Roger and Mimi have always left me a little cold. Roger, OMG so fucking emo, playing Musetta's waltz over and over on his damn guitar and Mimi with her dancing around a pole and talking about how great her ass is. I'm on record as saying that I didn't care for Daphne Rubin-Vega and man, tonight's Mimi once again beat her all hollow. Roger himself, though, I kinda liked. Maureen and Joanne I mostly like though the on-off thing I kinda am over by the funeral and I'm like, get it together already, ladies. I loved that the original Joanne is a bit round as it makes her moment of insecurity more interesting.
Mark. You know, I'm sad but I also like that in the midst of all this fucking and craziness, Mark is alone. He's alone at the start and alone at the end, because that's not his journey. He is the chronicler, and then he isn't as much as he had been, and now that he's taken a year off from being in his life maybe he'll be able to come back. That he isn't pining for Maureen is clear in Tango Maureen; that he'll work his shit out is just as clear at the end.
However, yeah. It's all about Tom Collins and Angel. (I remember when someone was all, that guy from Rent is in a movie I assumed it was Jesse L. Martin as Tom, so much hotter than . . . Benny.) Santa Fe and Cover You are my favorite songs in the show; Angel is the sort of non-lead role that wins Tonys (and did); Martin's voice is deep and low and fucking amazing. And the Cover You reprise? Chills, my friends. I cry every time I watch Angel die. It's just perfect, and those of you who know me, know that I pretty much hate character death.
There was this moment near the end of tonight's performance, when Mimi is back with us and Roger is up on the table holding her, Joanne and Maureen just to the back holding each other. Tom is near the head of the bed, because he had crossed to use the phone, and Mark is still at the foot of the bed, and they looked up at each other.
Dear reader, I want to write Tom/Mark. Post-play of course. I'm feeling this is not really slash, is it? Well, maybe kind of. Still. I am also having thoughts of Seamus and Dean dressing up as Angel and Collins at some costume party, which amuses me no end.
Oh, icon fromtarie
It was
folk's idea to see it, since he'd never seen it on stage and the movie is coming out. I have to admit, I was mostly going along at first since I have seen it a few times, but I'm so glad that I did see it again before the film comes out, so now it's all fresh in my head and shit. Does it hold up? you ask. Boy, howdy.
The oddest thing was that of course when I saw Rent before, it was contemporary. The rush of the new, of the now, of people having lives I recognized. I had just moved out of the East Village myself, less than two years before. And now it's a time capsule of mid-Clinton New York, a city in the midst of a heroin crisis, with squeegee men still running around. Roger and Mark were emo before emo was cool. Then, AZT was the great (though really not so great) miracle drug, and now we have the protease inhibitors and the drug cocktails; then I didn't have a very close friend who was HIV+ and now, well, I do. Never mind the obvious happy surprise at the time that two of the three main romances were homosexual. Seeing two men sing a gorgeous love duet to each other on a Broadway stage? Awesome.
I must admit, Roger and Mimi have always left me a little cold. Roger, OMG so fucking emo, playing Musetta's waltz over and over on his damn guitar and Mimi with her dancing around a pole and talking about how great her ass is. I'm on record as saying that I didn't care for Daphne Rubin-Vega and man, tonight's Mimi once again beat her all hollow. Roger himself, though, I kinda liked. Maureen and Joanne I mostly like though the on-off thing I kinda am over by the funeral and I'm like, get it together already, ladies. I loved that the original Joanne is a bit round as it makes her moment of insecurity more interesting.
Mark. You know, I'm sad but I also like that in the midst of all this fucking and craziness, Mark is alone. He's alone at the start and alone at the end, because that's not his journey. He is the chronicler, and then he isn't as much as he had been, and now that he's taken a year off from being in his life maybe he'll be able to come back. That he isn't pining for Maureen is clear in Tango Maureen; that he'll work his shit out is just as clear at the end.
However, yeah. It's all about Tom Collins and Angel. (I remember when someone was all, that guy from Rent is in a movie I assumed it was Jesse L. Martin as Tom, so much hotter than . . . Benny.) Santa Fe and Cover You are my favorite songs in the show; Angel is the sort of non-lead role that wins Tonys (and did); Martin's voice is deep and low and fucking amazing. And the Cover You reprise? Chills, my friends. I cry every time I watch Angel die. It's just perfect, and those of you who know me, know that I pretty much hate character death.
There was this moment near the end of tonight's performance, when Mimi is back with us and Roger is up on the table holding her, Joanne and Maureen just to the back holding each other. Tom is near the head of the bed, because he had crossed to use the phone, and Mark is still at the foot of the bed, and they looked up at each other.
Dear reader, I want to write Tom/Mark. Post-play of course. I'm feeling this is not really slash, is it? Well, maybe kind of. Still. I am also having thoughts of Seamus and Dean dressing up as Angel and Collins at some costume party, which amuses me no end.
Oh, icon from
tarie
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 08:50 am (UTC)God, I love you! You should be responsible for summations of all things in the field of entertainment... and shit. *nods*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 12:03 pm (UTC)I think I have a very weird rememberance of the cast, I have the original cast recording but I saw it in the UK of course so now I see one cast in my head and hear another and that means that Joe McFadden will always be Mark for me and yet it's Jesse L. Martin I hear as Tom and I can't wait to actually see him in the film.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 02:04 pm (UTC)A few people around me were bitching about things they disliked about it, and I thought to myself, "You are seeing a WORK IN PROGRESS that happened to make it to Broadway under unusual circumstances!" I love it for its uneven bits and for its amazing ones. Sometimes I do wonder what Jonathan Larson might have changed/added/taken away, had he lived.
How do you feel about the upcoming movie?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 02:13 pm (UTC)