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: