Last night David and I met up with our friend Jordan and a big group of his friends for a night of theater at the Hollywood Bowl. We attended the 2nd of 3 performances of the Broadway musical Rent which was directed by actor (and Rent alum) Neil Patrick Harris: As you very well may [...]
Last night David and I met up with our friend Jordan and a big group of his friends for a night of theater at the Hollywood Bowl. We attended the 2nd of 3 performances of the Broadway musical Rent which was directed by actor (and Rent alum) Neil Patrick Harris:
As you very well may be aware, this cast of Rent is made up of theater veterans and pop stars to create a new Rent world. The show is predominantly kept intact but the updated production was changed a tiny bit here and there to accommodate the larger Hollywood Bowl stage. As a purist, I did bristle a bit at some of the changes but as a big Rent fan, I welcomed other very smart amendments to the usual production. After the jump, check out some photos from this incarnation of Rent and find out what I thought of the show …
Overall, I really enjoyed the show and thought it was very fun … but there were a couple of problems that I just couldn’t get over as the show unfolded. While I think Vanessa Hudgens (who plays the lead female character Mimi Marquez) is a good singer, I had a hard time seeing her in the role of Mimi. Her stage acting isn’t really strong at all and she never really brought Mimi to life for me. I also did not care very much for Broadway actor Skylar Astin in the role of Mark Cohen. He felt so flat and just … blah. He deffo got better by the end of the show but, IMHO, his performance was so bad to start out with he never really made up for it. But, Nicole Scherzinger — Pussycat Doll and reigning Dancing with the Stars champ — totally blew me away as Maureen! I had heard that is a revelation in this production but, to be honest, I couldn’t believe it. When she opened her mouth, I fell out of my chair. Not only was her singing strong and impressive but her acting was really fantastic. Over the Moon is a tough song to perform … she nailed it with flying colors.
The rest of the actors were really very good and managed to keep the spirit of Rent alive in this new show. NPH made one big change to the production that I really loved … he added Maureen to the performance of Tango Maureen (which usually just features Joann and Mark) … it was a very inventive update on the song. The change I did NOT like was the total omission of one of the songs from the show. Contact was completely cut out … which really rubbed me the wrong way. But, I will say, I did enjoy myself overall. Neil Patrick Harris should be very proud of this production … he did a fantastic job bringing his new vision of Rent to a very large stage. We had a blast!
This production of Rent only has one more performance left … tonight. If you can see it, I think you should … it’s deffo worth your while.
David and I are hoping to meet up with our friends Josh and Emma (who we haven’t seen in ages) for dinner and a movie. It would be really nice to hang out with those two. I hope your weekend is going well … Happy Sunday!!
[Photo credit: Splash News]
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