Rent
Sat, 8 Nov 2008, 05:06 pmMark Wickett8 posts in thread
Rent
Sat, 8 Nov 2008, 05:06 pm“Rent” tells the story of a year in the life of an eclectic mix of New York characters struggling with uncertainty, jealousy, hopelessness, losing love and losing life. Scott Nell directs the Adelaide premiere of this rock opera with conviction, making good use of the width and depth of the Star Theatre stage.
The ensemble pieces are this show’s strength, though there are individual standouts too: Rod Schultz’s “Collins” is a rock for the show, his jazz smooth but city-grime voice soaring where others missed their notes and he is utterly convincing when he takes us on his emotional ride with “Angel”, played with so much fun, life and complete credibility by James Christopher Reed, who relishes the best costumes of the show. Whitney Boyd gives us immense presence and power as “Maureen” and delivers a stunning duet with Deanna Farnell’s uptight “Joanne” – but there’s strength further down the cast list too: James Clark gets to enjoy playing dark and nasty and a snarly Petra Taylor nearly steals scenes with her ever mumbling homeless woman – and what a great shocking first line in “On The Street”!
Chemistry between the various couples is not always in abundance, but you truly believe the grief late in the second act. Matthew Carey’s band performs terrifically, high above the back of the stage and the well-executed stage design puts up with occasional strange positioning and movement of actors, but it doesn’t jar too much and is more than compensated for by the excellent choreography in “Tango: Maureen” and the superbly steamy “Contact”.
“Rent” is a story of tolerance and friendship despite the worst that life can throw at you – and the opening night certainly had its moments of trying to trip up the cast and crew with technical challenges, but these did not dampen the passion of the company and delivered us a show worthy of its last line “there’s no day like today”.
I went to see "Rent" with a
Wed, 19 Nov 2008, 01:39 pmWalter Plinge
I went to see "Rent" with a Renthead friend, expecting to have a "meh" experience as rock and roll musicals aren't really my thing. I actually quite enjoyed it and thought that, on the whole, the odd technical glitch, sound problem and half of one song being fluffed didn't come close to ruining the experience.
However... I hesitate to call this a criticism, as it's probably something over which the production team had little control, but for a show like "Rent" where the ethnic diversity of the company is pretty much a USP, said cast was surprisingly, jarringly, white. I didn't buy a program with close-up photos so I will cheerfully stand corrected, but I saw one Asian girl in the ensemble, and one principal was played by an Indian actor.
As I say, this kind of isn't criticism at all, more of an observation. I don't know how many ethnic actors auditioned and I certainly wouldn't have wished the actor playing Mimi, for example, to have lost out to another actor who couldn't sing or dance to save her life but happened to have the right skin colour. (Mimi is meant to be Latina, right? I got that impression from the name and I think there was a line somewhere, but again I will stand corrected.)
It's just that you don't (meaning I don't, as a theatre-goer) see a lot of overtly non-white/non-Western-looking faces out there in amateur theatre and I wonder sometimes whether it's just because they're not around or because there aren't as many opportunities available. Obviously there are shows that require actors of specific ethnicity like 'The King & I' or, to use a recent example 'Driving Miss Daisy' but they don't seem to come along often, and would many directors be willing to cast a non-Western actor in a "white" part - ie a part where no other ethnicity is specified?
I mightn't know what I'm talking about seeing that I don't make/act in shows, I just go to them, but when something like "Rent" comes along where the cast are meant to be as diverse as possible, it seems a shame that the opportunity isn't taken.
PS I personally thought that the staging of "Over the Moon" was a perfect tribute to (ie send-up of) everything that is terrible about terrible performance art.