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Post by duncan on Apr 26, 2017 8:02:34 GMT
Why is this not in the existing Rent thread? What evidence do you have for it being "so badly received in the UK?" Especially considering its just had a well received run in London and has been touring to, what was when I saw it, very acceptable houses.
Be specific, be very specific.
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Post by Mark on Apr 26, 2017 8:02:45 GMT
The original production ran a year and a half which is fairly decent. The most recent production was a complete sell out at the St James.
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Post by SageStageMgr on Apr 26, 2017 8:04:43 GMT
I don't know if it's badly received, per se. It's a very popular show still and regularly is revived with smaller productions.
Speaking more generally, it's in a bit of a bracket in my eyes with Spring Awakening and Next to Normal as an angsty American teen type of musical. A lot of shows are designed to pack in tourists and I don't know if Rent fits that criteria in the West End.
Personally, I can't stand Rent but I can appreciate why people do.
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Post by westendwendy on Apr 26, 2017 8:16:33 GMT
It's not badly received... It's been on the West End three,(four if you include St James!) and is currently touring again!
Next conversation...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2017 8:27:55 GMT
I have approximately 50, 000 words of a PhD thesis arguing the opposite. But as others have said, a 2 year run in the West End originally, substantial original tour and numerous others. Revivals (ahem Rent: Remixed aside), anniversary tours, current sell out London run. AND it's used almost constantly in musical theatre training and amdram.
I reckon it's doing alright in the UK?
Also slight sarcasm aside, I spent more time than is good for me reading every single review written about it here and in the US and they are comparable. A few minor gripes from the older male critics who basically felt it was too young and hip for them, but overall critics acknowledged it as the good and innovative piece of musical theatre it is.
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Post by shady23 on Apr 26, 2017 8:57:39 GMT
The current tour is getting rave reviews.
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Post by thebearofwestend on Apr 26, 2017 9:12:32 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2017 9:18:51 GMT
In it's defence it was always essentially 'unfinished' with Larson dying after the last dress rehearsal Rent didn't have the same preview process that other new musicals get with re-writes from the composer with the director etc. But due to the circumstances things kind of became 'enshrined' as they were.
One review, against the public reception and generally positive response doesn't a failure make, in my opinion.
It's a side note, but with the success of Lin Manuel Miranda now it always makes me sad in the sense of what could have been- Rent was Larson's 'In the Heights' essentially, so with backing, support and further mentorship what would his 'Hamilton' have been? what would we see if the two of them had been around together? (a hell of a lot of what ifs, but with Lin citing Larson/Rent as a key influence it's something I ponder on)
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Post by danb on Apr 26, 2017 10:06:14 GMT
It was mostly the white, middle aged male critics who didn't get it/chose not to get it. Even in the harshest of reviews, the energy of the piece was always lauded. They seemed to think that it was a gimmick and the new 'Hair', just because it was of it's time. Did they think that people would stop interacting, that the arts would disappear and that HIV would have gone by now? It just needs vision and energy (Bruce Guthrie in this case) to freshen up something old. I don't know if it is perceived as a 'gay' musical? I've always thought of it being about love and loss in the modern age. The characters' sexual orientations irrelevant. The only stereotype is Joanne, the be-suited middle class black lesbian lawyer, which is strange given the potential pitfalls of the charaaters. Yes, some of the characters are thinly written, but again I suspect as Emmi states, that is to do with Larson's inability to fine tune his material.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2017 11:44:55 GMT
We've had this discussion on the board before - can't remember if it was on the old board or not though. West End productions never matched the Broadway one in terms of sales. Probably because the audiences were at the time mainly older coach parties who couldn't relate. Personally, I hate the show too. The opening thing with these layabouts moaning about how they will pay the rent just repels me, the whole "I'll do my own thing and then moan I don't have any money." Newsflash: GET A JOB. OK, the AIDS thing is sad, but I just can't get into the characters at all, and it does nothing for me. Personal opinion, if it helps explain? if it helps there were a number of Buzzfeed articles around last year saying exactly that (you wrote them didn't you...). Lazy bastards, I don't care if you have AIDS get a job.
Seriously though I think it's one you either fall for or you don't, and there seems to be some cosmic alignment of when you see it in your life, if it's the right time people tend to click and fall really hard for it, if not they never quite get it.
I mean despite my (understandable, albeit sarcastic) defences above, in NY it had the home turf advantage of doing exactly what Larson was aiming to and writing a musical to a generation/demographic that was well physically there. It hit on a moment, and a demographic that nothing could match elsewhere.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 26, 2017 11:57:16 GMT
Merged.
Please check for existing threads before starting a new one. Unless there's a real justification for starting a new discussion threads will be merged.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2017 12:01:35 GMT
if it helps there were a number of Buzzfeed articles around last year saying exactly that (you wrote them didn't you...). Lazy bastards, I don't care if you have AIDS get a job. LOL, and no. And in "Rent" I was referring to the healthy ones, of course. Though, as Frankie Boyle once pointed out, it never stopped Freddie Mercury. Or Kenny Everett or many others. But that's a digression from a shock comic. Totally agree it is a zeitgeist show. I was past that period in my life when I saw it, and maybe didn't want the reminder? May try another look at it, now it is far distant. See if my attitude changes. haha in fairness Boyle has a point
I think it's sometimes one worth re-visiting, even just to see that with time things have changed (or just to prove a point to yourself that you'll never like it haha)
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Post by viserys on Apr 26, 2017 12:05:41 GMT
if it helps there were a number of Buzzfeed articles around last year saying exactly that (you wrote them didn't you...). Lazy bastards, I don't care if you have AIDS get a job. Totally agree it is a zeitgeist show. I was past that period in my life when I saw it, and maybe didn't want the reminder? May try another look at it, now it is far distant. See if my attitude changes. Definitely an age thing. When Rent came out, I was in my early 20s, at college with no income and spending most of my free time writing historical novels, thinking I'd be a bestselling author by the time I was 30 (and pondering which actors would play the leads in the movie version). So I felt like I had a lot in common with the artists in Rent (who were after all based on Puccini's similar artists in turn of the century Paris in La Boheme) and could identify with them. Now I'm a middle-aged lady working hard for my money (and theatre-trips!) every day and scoff at whiny millennials who aspire to a professional career as Vloggers or Instagrammers and think "ffs, get a job". Though I still enjoyed the recent Rent Tour very much and still a connection with these people. One thought: Personally I think Rent is often cast with people who are simply too old. It's much easier to understand someone in his late teens, early 20's (at most) still hoping to fulfill dreams of an artistic career or flailing around while trying to figure out their lives, than people in their late 20's/early 30's. Mimi actually sings "I'm nineteen..." but rarely ever does a Mimi actually look nineteen.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2017 12:50:37 GMT
And of course reading 'zeitgeist' puts me in mind of Louis' line in Angels in America 'What is it like to be the child of the zeitgeist?'
Welcome to my brain people...
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2017 20:33:13 GMT
Hey guys, how long is this version? I booked myself for the 23rd in Tunbridge Wells and I need to catch a train later.
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Post by LaLuPone on May 8, 2017 20:37:06 GMT
Hey guys, how long is this version? I booked myself for the 23rd in Tunbridge Wells and I need to catch a train later. I think it was about 2 hours 40 minutes including interval. Someone correct me if I'm wrong
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2017 20:38:15 GMT
Hey guys, how long is this version? I booked myself for the 23rd in Tunbridge Wells and I need to catch a train later. 2h 35m is ringing in my head for some reason? i'm not 100% sure tho...
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Post by infofreako on May 8, 2017 21:37:45 GMT
Hey guys, how long is this version? I booked myself for the 23rd in Tunbridge Wells and I need to catch a train later. I'm there May 23rd too. Pretty sure its 2 hours 40
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2017 1:29:50 GMT
Hey guys, how long is this version? I booked myself for the 23rd in Tunbridge Wells and I need to catch a train later. I'm there May 23rd too. Pretty sure its 2 hours 40 Nice! Let me know if you're up for a pre-show drink!
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Post by infofreako on May 10, 2017 22:16:18 GMT
I'm there May 23rd too. Pretty sure its 2 hours 40 Nice! Let me know if you're up for a pre-show drink! Happy to meet up for a pre show drink. We will arrange something nearer the time
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Post by Phantom of London on May 11, 2017 10:59:44 GMT
Love to get a chance to see this again, but can't.
You can never diminish the success of Rent, it is a imperfect musical, that's what makes it so adorable, there are lyrics that make me cringe, but I wouldn't change a thing, as it is written from Larson's heart. Also who would have thought a musical that dealt with the morbid and scary subject of AIDS would go on and be a smash hit, at the time this came out HIV was still uncontrollable and people who were HIV positive, chances are their illness would have gone on to become the final stage.
This is a important musical, that speaks to the audience unapologetically and directly and gives me pause, today if Larson's defect was detected he could have been saved, also Angel - as treatment for HIV through 'ART' medication, could have been saved and might of never of progressed to AIDS.
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Post by Deal J on May 11, 2017 11:39:30 GMT
I'm really excited to be seeing this production in Coventry on Saturday.
I loved it the first time I saw it in 1998, and from the feedback here it sounds like this production captures the original feel of the show.
My husband is also coming to see it, he is completely new to the show so I'm really intrigued as to what he'll make of it.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 11:09:25 GMT
I can slowly feel the chances of a West End transfer diminishing in the near future, especially with this cast. Lucie is off with Wedding Singer, Ryan is off with Saigon, I just saw on twitter Layton is going on a solo dance workshop tour "Dance With Layton", I really hope we see this production again some day, especially with this cast.
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Post by infofreako on May 19, 2017 11:22:57 GMT
I too think the chances of a return to London are pretty much gone now. It would've been a nice idea but the current cast seem busy lining stuff up. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much if the cast changed drastically
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2017 11:33:36 GMT
I too think the chances of a return to London are pretty much gone now. It would've been a nice idea but the current cast seem busy lining stuff up. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much if the cast changed drastically It seems to of brought on a lot of attention for some of the actors too in the show, I hope, for example, we get Philippa Stefani in a show again asap. Maybe one a bit lighter to give her a break, because she basically has spent the past 8 months crying haha.
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