Oh Rent Rent Rent Rent Rent Rent.  I didn’t think it was possible, but Rent Live made me dislike Rent as a show even more than I already did.  Full disclosure: I’ve only ever seen the movie version of this show, and now the “live” version, plus a few random clips from the last Broadway cast.  From what I have gathered, this most recent version is not a very good representation of the show, yet I still stand firm in my opinion that Rent is not particularly well put together, because most of my problems come from the structure of the show.

It’s really hard to really call this Rent “Live” considering probably about 70% of it was prerecorded, but that came about from an issue that they couldn’t help with Brennin Hunt’s broken foot acting like he said the forbidden “M-word” of the theatre.  Do I think that it actually being live with no broken bones would have saved the show?  No, not in the slightest.  Maybe a little better, but most certainly not up to “good” status.

I’ll start by stating the things that I actually liked about the show before I start absolutely dragging it through the mud.  Brandon Victor Dixon as Collins was incredible and I have no complaints.  His version of the I’ll Cover You Reprise was moving and heartbreaking, and his singing was always impeccable (which can’t be said for everyone in this show).  Vanessa Hudgens was pretty decent as Maureen, which was a nice surprise from what I expected, but she was still the least of all the good parts.  Jordan Fisher as Mark made me much more sympathetic to the character, and made me realize how much I absolutely hate Anthony Rapp’s portrayal of the character.  He was entertaining to watch, and brought a welcome new energy to the show.  Bringing back the original cast members for a Seasons of Love encore was extremely emotional even for me, who has never even particularly liked the show, and Jesse L. Martin still has pipes for days.  The opening number Rent (after the absolute drag of the scene right before it) was easily the best in the whole show.  It was full of energy, and the ripping down of the curtain into the guitar riff was a wonderful transition.  The addition of the chorus drumming on buckets, the railings, and various other objects was a very nice touch to the urban feel of the show, and allowed to chorus to have even more of a part.  The beginning of La Vie Boheme was also very entertaining.  The new choreography felt simultaneously familiar yet distinct from the original, iconic moves, before it fell into the trap of mediocrity that swallowed the rest of the show.  The same goes for the performance of Seasons of Love.  I adored how they started the song with just Mark and then transitioning into the support group singing the song.  It fits both thematically and story wise, and it was a nice, unobtrusive change from the original.  Also Keala Settle.  That’s all that needs said about her.

Essentially everything else about Rent Live stretched from outright horrendous to just mediocre.  Joanne was just plain uninteresting and Kiersey Clemons’ voice was unable to handle the intensity of Rent’s music at most times.  Brennin Hunt was just kind of there; he wasn’t overly interesting, but he had a good voice (sometimes he did go a little too hard on the grunge rock feel though) and acted perfectly fine.  Mario as Benny was similarly boring.  Tinashe as Mimi was, to put it lightly, not very good.  Her voice was unable to handle it, and it’s hard to place my finger on exactly what, but her acting felt off.  She brought nothing new or different to the character, and if anything made her even more unsympathetic.  She also was the sole downfall of Light My Candle, which was the worst put together number in the show.  The staging felt particularly unnatural, and Brennin Hunt’s awkwardness is exactly how I felt the entire time while having to watch her try to seduce him through the poor blocking.  Tinashe may have had the energy for Out Tonight but not the voice, but other than that, she was always below average.  Poor Valentina (James Leyva).  She was trying her absolute hardest, and was genuinely fun when she wasn’t singing (especially that moment with Mark’s old sweater from the movie), but the singing, oh boy, the singing.  It was worse than a high schooler could have done.  She just couldn’t do it, and it was the sole ruiner for Today 4 U and I’ll Cover You, both of which weren’t anything special, particularly the latter.  It did get a few laughs though, so there’s that.

Rent as a show is already structurally problematic.  There are many unnecessary moments of singing that make no sense because they really don’t need to be sung (I’m looking at you, phone messages) considering there is actual talking in the show.  The dialogue that is there feels very stilted and odd at most points, and the blocking suffers as a result, and it definitely suffers.  The characters can be very difficult to make sympathetic (mostly because just about all of them are actually pretty unlikeable people), and all of these performers (other than Jordan Fisher) either did nothing to help their case or actively made me hate them more.  Almost none of the characters actually go through an arc, which wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it were an interesting character study into people going through the AIDS epidemic of the 80s in a sympathetic and accurate light, but it just isn’t that.  Rent Live brought pretty much all of those issues to the forefront and even brought new ones to my attention.  The use of the live audience was poorly utilized, and was more often than not an active detriment to the viewing experience due to everyone deciding that it was a rock concert where they can scream their heads off without any repercussions rather than a performance of one of the most iconic musicals ever written.  The set just kind of looked like it was reused from Jesus Christ Superstar from last year, and it very rarely used it in any new ways. Rent Live is a mediocre at best attempt to bring the show to the television screen, and is sometimes truly baffling in several of its decisions.  It’s not good.  It’s not wholly bad, but the numerous bad parts far outweigh the few good ones.  It’s also not the worst live adaptation of a musical, that title stays with Peter Pan, which, let’s be honest, is going to be very hard to beat, but it by no means is the best, or even good.  But hey, at the least the soundtrack to Rent still rocks.