A RENThead's Review of RENT Live or a RENTview, If You Will

Let's give a warm welcome to our newest guest contributor, Joseph Sheets! As a huge RENThead, it only makes sense his first post for us would be a review of Fox's RENT Live. 

“Tonight’s show is in mortal danger due to technical difficulties” is one of several new and updated lines which took place during Fox’s RENT Live production. Spoken by Mark Cohen, narrator of the show, the line is a grim foreshadowing about the problems that would plague the production. One of the leads had broken his foot during the final dress rehearsal, leading to Fox airing pre-recorded footage. Some people had trouble connecting to the live-stream, or had blackouts, missing the opening numbers. While unfortunate, the show did its best to recover. And though it’s more “pre-recorded” than live, it doesn’t lose any of its charm and is an absolute delight.

RENT tells the story of seven artists struggling in the Lower East Side in the early 90s. An updated version of Puccini’s La Boheme, the show is famous for its representation of LGBTQ+ characters, rock opera score, and how it handles the topics of homelessness and AIDS victims. The fact a show renowned for its grit and edginess somehow managed to air on Fox is amazing. The fact the majority of the book remained largely unchanged is nothing short of a miracle. I’ve seen a lot of hate for this production, and a lot of it seems unwarranted. Let’s break it down:

Theater Review: Leonard Nimoy's Vincent

Wilderowens and I recently had the opportunity to see Leonard Nimoy’s Vincent at the Theatre at St. Clemens. You heard correctly. Spock wrote a play about the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh told to us though the eyes of his brother, Theo. 

Vincent is a one-man play, and when performing, it’s vital the actor has the ability to rely entirely on themselves to bring the play to life. There is no one else to play off of or take cues from. Unfortunately, James Briggs, who played Theo, was unable to do so. It's not that he was bad, but he was emotionally inconsistent. He told a good story but had difficulty conveying genuine emotion. Briggs did anger well, but when it came to anything else, he fell flat. There were struggles with sarcasm and asides, and this led to some of the humor of the play getting lost.