September PMS Poem: "My Job Is Lame"

For anyone who cares...my RENT review!

If there's one thing I can talk about for miles, it's RENT!  That and probably snowboarding.  Haha.  Anyways...saw RENT again for the 3rd time last night.  Yayyyy.  So good.  It's just amazing when you can just feel the sheer POWER of a song and it gives you crazy goosebumps!  I have to admit that the cast was an 8 out of 10 but I think this is due to the fact that I'm very very picky about how I want each character to sound.  But it's sort of refreshing to hear the characters done in different ways than you're used to so as critical as I am, it's still good stuff!  Ok so I'm going to go ahead and comment on each one of the characters...

MARK:  Ok so the Mark last night was a little ummm...soft...for me.  Mark is not a character who totally belts it out but he does have a unique sound to his voice (that i can't quite find the words to describe)  that when used at a medium power level is really good.  However last night I felt like his power was at medium-low.  Especially during Tango Maureen, he was completely drowned out by Joann (who was extra powerful last night) so that didn't go very well.  Also, he seemed a little too nerdy to play Mark.  Yes, I know that Mark is supposed to be kind of dorky but this guy was too dorky for my taste.  But having said all this, I actually grew to appreciate this different style of Mark by the Act II.

So I think my BEST MARK AWARD goes to the Mark from the LA cast I saw in 2003 because I remember that guy sounded a LOT like the original Mark.

ROGER:  Ok so after the first two words that came out of Roger's mouth last night, I thought to myself, 'omigosh, Southern accent!!'  And it totally annoyed me.  But as the night went on I either got used to it or he stopped doing it.  I'd have to say Roger was one of the standouts last night.  I mean, he always is but Roger last night was not only a great vocalist but also a great actor.  I feel like he evoked more emotion than any other character in last night's cast and any other Roger I've seen in other shows, especially during Another Day and Goodbye Love.  That was like wow.  He was REALLY f-ing pissed at Mimi and it almost scared me!!  But he was great.  Ashley mentioned that he was a little less edgy which I agree with.  He was dorkier too.

My BEST ROGER AWARD goes to last night's Roger.

ANGEL:  Ok so the neat thing about last night's Angel is that he wasn't hispanic but black.  I think.  He had a medium high sort of raspy voice which I didn't think was perfectly fitting.  But I thought it was neat because he had more of an R&Bish feel to his voice.  However, he definitely was lacking that extra notch of a pitch and squeak or squeal that Angel usually has.  I look forward to when Angel totally belts it out during Contact but I dunno last night's Angel just wans't powerful enough.  And his voice always went in and out, which I know he was doing on purpose but I didn't particularly care for that style.  His voice should just be bold.  I also wasn't totally blown away by his drumming solo during Today 4 U.  But Angel's always fun so it's all good.

My BEST ANGEL AWARD goes to the Broadway Angel.  Hands down.

COLLINS:  I looove Collins.  He's like my favorite so I always have high expectations for him.  When I first heard Collins last night, I thought hmm, he has a good deep voice.  I hope he uses it.  And I think he did about 80% of the time.  It could be possible that sometimes his voice was going so low that you couldn't hear it unless you were like, a whale.  In any case,  I didn't like how his voice went in and out,  so it lacked fluidity sometimes.  When it was there it was good but it just wasn't always there.  He did pretty good during Seasons of Loneliness though because he turned his voice up to full power.  He had a little raspiness to his voice at peak volume, which was unique.  I liked it.  He was also really good in I'll Cover You (Reprise) until the very end when he was supposed to go to a high note and bring down the house!!  But he went to a low note...oh well.

My BEST COLLINS AWARD goes to the Broadway Collins.  Actually he also gets my MOST GOOSEBUMPS FROM HEARING A SONG AWARD, MOST FLOORED BY A SONG AWARD and my BEST VOICE EVER AWARD!

MIMI:  Ouch.  I did not care for Mimi at all.  Actually, she made me cringe.  The perfect Mimi voice walks a very thin line between beautifully sweet and completely annoying.  It's very easy to fall over onto the completely annoying side and last night's Mimi was annoying as hell!  I feel so mean saying anything so mean about anything in RENT but man...her voice was just plain nasal.  She always sounded like i sound when i can't breathe through my nose.  Actually I really felt for Roger when he was telling her to go away, hahaha.  And on top of that she had a very thick hispanic accent which made her pronounce some words funny.   Actually when she lowered her volume a little she sounded okay, like during I Should Tell You.  I'm sure she normally has good vocals but she was just trying too hard to produce that Mimi voice and wasn't doing a good job.  But she was a great dancer, very athletic.  So props to her for that.

My BEST MIMI AWARD goes to the Broadway Mimi.  She was amazing.  And a really nice person too that I talked to after the show!

JOANN:  So Joann definitely stood out as the best vocalist last night.  Her voice was like WOW and outdid everyone else in both volume and power and control.  She drowned out Mark during the Tango haha.  I would have liked her to sing the Seasons of Love solo cause she might have done better than the other lady.  Yup she was great, not much else to comment on.

My BEST JOANN AWARD goes to last night's Joann.

As for the rest of the characters I don't really have much to say about them, ie Maureen and Benny.  They were both solid and always are.

Anyways, RENT still totally ROCKS, despite all of my critique.  It does rock, literally.  There will never be another rock musical as good as RENT and there might not ever be ANY musical better than RENT.  But one thing I did realize is that the best cast and venue is in fact in New York.  There is definitely a distinct difference.  The Nederlander theater in NY is just so small and intimate and makes the stage so much bigger and the voices so much more powerful.  The music just fills the theater and SUCKS you in physically and emotionally!!  And the cast is just all superb.  Absolutely positively the best!!  I even cried at the Broadway show because I connected so well with the characters.  That was the second time I saw it and I didn't even cry the first time, I don't think.  And I was also just completely and utterly floored by Collins during ICY(R) and the big black ensemble lady during SOL.

Anyways...time to leave my RENT state of mind once again.  Until next time...

Currently Listening Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast) By Jonathan Larson, Jeff Potter, Anthony Jackson, Daniel A. Weiss, Ira Siegel, Kenny Brescia, Steve Skinner, Adam Pascal, Aiko Nakasone, Anthony Rapp, Byron Utley, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Fredi Walker, Gilles Chiasson, Gwen Stewart, Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin, Kristen Lee Kelly, Rodney Hicks, Stevie Wonder, Taye Diggs, Timothy Britten Parker, Wilson Jermaine Heredia see related

- la vie boheme

i'm going to go see RENT tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HALF DOME YEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!!! I'm soooooooo excited.  17 miles roundtrip!!  Climbing cables up a huge granite face....oh HELL yeah.  Here's half dome, FYI, that huge-ass rock in the middle: 

This is a picture I took 4 years ago...too bad half dome was closed then.  But now I'm going back to conquer it!!  Hopefully I won't get struck by lightning =P, which is the number one cause of death to half dome hikers!