Rent: The Musical Disappointment

I wrote this RENT review on facebook, and thought it was so well written that I should post it here:

RENT, the movie version of the hit Broadway show, hit theaters in November. I commend the director for taking a nice stab at creating a movie worthy of the stage musical. However, I think that in many ways the movie falls short. I, too, missed the "sung dialogue." So much of the musical is sung on stage, even simple things like the answering machine messages, and to convert them to speaking, at least for me, caused them to lose much of their charm, originality, and even humor.

I am also still confused about the "wedding" scene with Joanne and Maureene. This never appears in the musical, and I found it distracting, out of flow, and inappropriate. The introduction of their parents, to me, seemed to change their story.

The other qualm I have with the movie is that I felt that the story had almost been shifted from two main characters, Roger and Mimi, to two important, but not originally featured characters, Tom Collins and Angel. The stage production is clearly the story of Roger and Mimi, and yet I found myself leaving the theater thinking that what I had just seen was the story of Tom and Angel.

All in all, I left the movie theater feeling much less satisfied than I did leaving the legitimate theater. I missed the connection between the actors and myself. I missed the simplicity of the stage production. I missed the live music, live singing and choreography. Rent is not a bad movie, but it is no substitute for the stage musical. I hate that so much of the population will never see anything beyond what they saw in the theaters or rent from Hastings. I'm glad I saw the movie, but I don't think I'll buy it to add to my collection.

that's all.