"To Sontag, to Sondheim, to anything taboo..."

The past few days have been a bit rough health wise and I seem to be doing nothing but sleeping.  That is, nothing but sleeping and killing time on YouTube watching a very exciting find: the 10th Anniversary performance of “Rent.”  The entire original cast reunited about a year ago and did the entire show, which is all on YouTube.  It got me thinking about the time when I first saw “Rent,” almost ten years ago…

I first started coming back to New York for a week every summer when I was ten.  From the moment I touched down and started exploring the Upper West Side, I knew that this was where I needed to end up.  My days were spent sitting around the various dance studios of the city playing with my newest action figures while my sister and mother took classes from the top teachers of the day.  All afternoon I would sit in the muggy studios, nurturing a love for dance that I didn’t even quite realize I had yet, and waiting for the moment when day would become night and we would set foot in the theater.

(Are you kidding?  That can't be me.  That shirt is four times the size of anything I own now, and I'm half the size that I am now.  And I have a bowl cut.  In case you didn't notice.  And Harry Potter glasses.  And a different face.  Just a few differences.  Although I'm already rocking the man purse.)

During our summer vacations, the theater was a sacred place to me.  It was where I would soak up all my inspiration for the year and carry back stories of the incredible performances I’d seen to my friends in Montana.  From the first show I saw, “Crazy For You,” I was hooked on the song and dance in a way that was impossible from watching endless shows on tape back in Montana.  I’d purchase all the merchandise I could find, CD’s, shirts, pins, posters, hats, and act as a walking billboard for the various shows I’d seen on any given trip.  I was so taken by Times Square that I have endless rolls of disposable cameras consisting of nothing but every Broadway billboard I could find. 

One of the only rolls that contained any pictures worthy of actually keeping was of the first night that I saw “Rent,” back in the summer of 1997.  By the time I saw it in the theater, I’d already purchased the CD from Future Shop (before Best Buy) and borrowed the copy of Newsweek that the cast graced the cover of from my school library endless times.

(Obviously a future member of ABT.  Look at that line, and those socks...with sandals.)

As a kid from Montana, “Rent” signified so much more than any other show.  Suddenly it was exposing me to a New York that wasn’t the strollers and grocery stores of the Upper West Side.  There was a grittiness, passion and blasting sexuality to the music that I didn’t even realize at the time.  Being twelve years old, it would have been perfectly understandable for my parents to exclude me from going to see “Rent,” but I am so extremely thankful that I was included for it’s one of the most vivid memories I have at the theater. 

Even though we saw the show almost a year after it opened, the entire original cast (minus a recently departed Daphne Rubin-Vega) was still performing with a ferocity that I don’t think I’ve seen rivaled in my ten years since.  From the moment I took my seat in the front portion of the mezzanine, until the last euphoric “No Day But Today” (I wonder how many people have used this for a senior quote…) the entire evening is a bit of a whirlwind in my mind.

(Just dressed for a night out at the theater...in pajamas?)

Without even realizing it, these characters were connecting with the confused and slightly lost gay boy inside of me.  I felt like it was my show, and that’s what I find so remarkable about “Rent," everyone thinks it’s their show.  As we stood at the stage door, my bowl cut capped with a “Titanic” hat (yes, you read that right), each cast member made their way out to the crowd and took the time to sign our posters.  It took a while for the scene to die down, and then we made our way west on 41st street to be swept back up the Upper West Side, but it wasn’t the same Upper West Side I knew before.  The only thought that seems concrete in my memory was the feeling that the two leading actors (Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp) had squatted a lot during the show.  Perhaps, it was the critic in me that found something to be annoyed with even as a twelve year old. 

In the years since, I’ve read debates over whether “Rent” really deserves all of the praise it gets.  Certainly there is no debating that the untimely death of composer Jonathan Larson garnered the show an amount of attention that it probably never would have received had he lived.  Then there is the fact that he never got to clean up the show as he would have had he lived.  There are parts of the score that, if you must, you can deem as less than spectacular, but when the score succeeds, I think it does so in a way that nothing (i.e. “Spring Awakening”) since can even touch.

("Out Tonight" from the original production.)

("Out Tonight/Another Day" 10 years later.)

("I'll Cover You (Reprise)" at 10 year anniversary.  INCREDIBLE.)

Comments

[Libby]

Matt -- ohmygosh, this post brings back SO many memories!!! it's amazing how collins can still make me choke up after all these years. what a find. thanks for sharing.

[Sarah]

first of all: The way you described the theatre as your inspiration as a child...is totally how I feel. I grew up at 890 and the Met even if i didnt respect ballet until like 2 years ago but now it's a constant source of inspiration...that I have very little way of describing to my friends.... I wish that they understood.

second of all: RENT! I saw the movie first, but I fell in love immediately.I started a whole new chain of rentheads and my friend travis and I...it's our musical...we'll go into these tiny little piano practice rooms at my school and just sing the crap out of Rent and we know every word and every different infliction that each performer makes in their songs. He took me to see it this August and lucky for me it was during the brief return of Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp. so...amazing.

[M]

Libby! I was thinking of you so much while I wrote this post! Glad it brought back memories. And isn't that video of him AMAZING?!

Sarah, I can't even imagine what your life must have been like growing up around the dancers you must have seen. I have a feeling we have very similar upbringings in the sense that we were probably surrounded by a lot of great art as children, that we didn't come to appreciate fully until our teen years.

So glad to hear that you are a rent-head. I remember back in the day when you would walk down 41st street and see the people camped out waiting for tickets. Rent was such a scene back then, it was truly amazing.

Having come to it first through the movie, what are your thoughts on the movie? I actually just watched it again the other night but I don't think I've ever talked to someone who saw the movie first.

Very jealous that you saw Adam and Anthony's return. I meant to go but missed it. I'll forever have the memory of that first show I saw in my head though, and I kind of like to keep it that way. Even though I saw the show about 4 or 5 other times on Broadway, not a single one of the shows comes close to touching that first night. How was Tamyra Gray?

[Sarah]

The movie and the show are so different, it's hard to compare them really. There's the whole setting difference and all the added songs....The show gives off this more intimate and artsy feeling. It's such a tiny theatre and I love the way that the set doesnt end before the proscenium the atmosphere has this bohemian Rent feel to it....The most disappointing thing about the show was "Take me or Leave Me." Both my friend and I thought that the people we saw didn't do it anything near justice.
Tamyra Gray was pretty good...I had been so used to Rosario Dawson..who I loved in the movie, and recognized wasn't really a singer, that some one who could actually sing the part of Mimi made it so different.
Everything aside, nothing will match the feeling the first time I saw the movie and Collins sang the I'll Cover You Reprise at Angel's funeral...it still makes me tear up.

[Ashleigh]

I was able to see Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp twice in their recent return to Rent...I absolutely love Adam Pascal. I also think that Take Me or Leave Me has been disappointing every time I have seen it on stage. It's so amazing in the movie...but everything Idina does is amazing. I really enjoyed watching these clips...thanks!

[jolene]

"to huevos rancheros and maya angelou" -

rent is still such a sentimental favorite. i saw it recently, and have even caught myself wondering why it's still one of my favorites, but it is. what a treat you got to see most of the original cast. daphne still rocks it in "out tonight". and i totally agree spring awakening doesn't even come close to touching rent.

did you have any desire to see adam pascal and anthony rapp for their return to the Rent stage? I can't remember if they're still there or not.

p.s. those pics are priceless. ;)