Rent: Broadway Tour review (Part 1. My Rent Background)

I first heard that Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp would be touring with Rent about a year or two ago and I've been eagerly awaiting their arrival in Boston ever since. My friend and I originally planned to see the show twice-once for free because she gets free tickets from her company and once in house seats for full price. When saw it the first time, however, we knew we had to go to an additional show. Adam Pascal's absence from the first show was a factor, but I probably would have wanted more even if he had been in the first show. I saw it three times total-twice from the center orchestra about 5-6 rows back and once from the second row of the balcony, partially obstructed. I could go on and on about my love for this show and this particular tour, but I'll try to keep my word count to a reasonable level by posting my thoughts in several parts.

First, a little background. To say that Rent is my favorite musical would be an understatement. Although I somehow managed not to know much about it when it first came out (I discovered musicals in 1995 and I was still in Andrew Lloyd Webber mode in 1996), I fell for it hard in 2000 when my college friends encouraged me to rush it my freshman year of college. At that time, the production still allowed people to camp out overnight at the theaters to assure themselves of getting one of the $21 front row rush seats.

Although it seems crazy, a bit dangerous, and probably unneccessary now, camping on the street overnight in front of the Wang Center (now the Citi Center) made the whole experience much more moving. There's nothing quite like learning about the musical with a diverse group of people who have lived many of the experiences depicted in Rent and there's nothing quite like sleeping on the street to make you relate to well, sleeping on the street and being homeless. There were gay people and straight people, guys and girls , people who had been homeless or addicts, and people like me (your run of the mill college kid who hadn't really experienced any of that) and we all had a great time playing cards, telling stories, talking about the show. Then, we all saw it together from the front row where the music was intensely loud, the energy and love for the show was crackling, and the cast and stage managers looked right at us and gave us prop posters and old guitar picks. I laughed and cried and mooed and was moved more than I ever had been before. I promptly bought tickets to another show later that week. That was the Benny Tour with Matt Caplan, Jeremy Kushnier, and Dominique Roy. I remember Mr. Caplan especially being a very down-to-earth, friendly guy at the stage door, which made it even nicer.

After listening to the soundtrack pretty much nonstop, I saw it again with my mother and brother a year or so later and converted them. I read everything I could find about the cast and the show and cried a lot about Jonathan Larson who I never met or even knew about until after he had been dead for four years. I listened to it loudly on a road trip to Virginia with my friends. It became the default for long family car rides because it was one of the few albums we all liked. Every Christmas Eve at 9 pm Eastern Standard Time, I listened to Anthony Rapp's voice, singing in the dark about connection in an isolating age. I saw Adam Pascal in Aida and in concert with his band and I saw Anthony Rapp on his book tour and in the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's Henry V. One of my favorite Boston memories was walking around downtown many blocks away from the Common where Henry V was playing and hearing Anthony's voice echoing around the skyscrapers and filling the city night with poetry from a long ago age. Although my mom almost never goes to the movies, my family and I spent Thanksgiving 2005 in the theater watching the movie version together.

Rent came through Boston a few more times, but I thought it would be too upsetting and disappointing to see the show in a less than great state. (Disclaimer: I didn't see those tours so I can't confirm anything, but word-of-mouth comments and press reviews were very negative about the overall production qualities and some of the reviews of this current tour even continue to mention how much better it is than those previous tours.) I did go to see the Rent Live showing in the movie theater recently and it was the best $20 I've ever spent on a movie. You can see my earlier review of that, but it brought up all my old love for the show and enhanced my serious performer crush on Will Chase who rocked Roger. I'm forever grateful to have that record of the stage version now that the show will be closed for awhile.

That brings us to this week and Part 2, which I will post soon.