Rent: The Best & Worst Moments From Fox’s Live-ish Musical Production
It’s been well over 525,600 minutes since Fox first announced it would stage a live production of Rent. (Almost twice that number, in fact!)
Needless to say, our expectations for the musical, which debuted at last on Sunday night, were high — and not just because Rent is a poignant, beloved classic. It also boasted an impressive cast (including Brandon Victor Dixon, Jordan Fisher and Vanessa Hudgens, all of whom have previously worked on live TV-musicals), and it was directed by Michael Greif, who helmed the original Broadway production.
Fortunately, there was a lot to love about Fox’s broadcast (which was only partially live, due to cast member Brennin Hunt’s last-minute foot injury). Among the performances that left our jaws on the floor: Tinashe’s electric rendition of “Out Tonight,” Hudgens’ udderly fabulous (see what we did there?) version of “Over the Moon,” and, of course, Dixon’s stirring “I’ll Cover You (Reprise).”
Naturally, there were also a few missteps in the live-ish production, including some lyric rewrites that left us puzzled, plus a staging choice that missed the mark.
Now that the musical has wrapped (and we’re left humming “Seasons of Love” for the next two weeks), we’ve rounded up the highlights and lowlights from Rent‘s TV debut.
Scroll through the attached gallery — or click here for direct access — to see our picks for Rent‘s best and worst moments, then grade the musical in our poll and drop a comment with your reviews!
A BEST label and Valentina’s performance of Angel don’t belong anywhere near each other. And “partially” live is a stretch. It was 2 hrs and 45 mins of taped dress rehearsal. I know it was out of their control but still… and those lyric changes! Lame. Love the stage show. Liked the film. But this. No. and I am usually a big defender of these live tv musicals no matter how imperfect. This definitely wasn’t the worst but most disappointing.
A ‘best label’ goes on Keala, Brennin, and Vanessa for the vocals.
I really feel for the actor who broke his foot, but they could have (and I think should have) called on a former Roger. Also, I really hope this wakes the tv people up about the importance of understudies.
They weren’t ever goign to do an understudy for a one night show. It’s just not a financial possibility.
Someone from the ensemble could have prepped as an understudy. It happens all of the time.
What production did you see? I’ve seen better community theater.
Thank you!!! I had to turn it off. I did watch Seasons of Love and Keala nailed it. I’m not sure what TV Line was watching, but La Vie Boheme lacked energy. There was something missing. Maybe because it was the dress rehearsal and people were holding back. But there was no excitement.
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This is why live musicals need seasoned Broadway performers. And a live audience who knows theatre etiquette.
The AUDIENCE! That was the worst part of the whole thing.
Agreed! “Let’s cheer while Mimi dies in Roger’s arms!” That certainly broke any emotional connection I may have been feeling during that scene.
Going to agree to this.
It’s weird that during the most part of Rent I felt as if I was watching a concert instead of a musical.
Referring to Mark and Roger’s “What You Own” scene… but I did like the dive part they did.
It was great but would have been that much better if they had cast talent instead of stunt for Angel. This was probably my favorite live staging though.
There’s an actual live staging that was recorded from a performance on Broadway. You can find it on Amazon. It’s way better with actual people who can sing.
Yup
There’s also the Hollywood bowl version of Rent where Vanessa’s Mimi and Skylar Astin is Mark 🙈
I thought in general the energy was lacking onscreen. Maybe it’s due to it being taped and not actually live, but it just didn’t capture me.
I agree about the energy level being lower than it should at various points (Viva la Vie Boheme!, for exmaple).
It was hard to get swept up into the story with the audience everywhere. The sound quality was hit and miss, the music and audience sometimes made it hard to hear the actors.The staging was…interesting. Lots of movement, maybe too much. Overall, however, I thought it was pretty well done.
Can we please have the crowd as one of the worsts!?
It was difficult trying to enjoy the any part of this when the crowd treated it like they were at a concert and not at a play. I heard more screaming and cheering from the audience there then I did of any of the actual play itself.
Amen to that!
Was it an actual audience, or were they hired to be there? I had the feeling they were paid performers as an audience.
The background music drowned out the performers….but who is that fantastic woman who sings with Collins at the funeral??? She was AMAZING!!!
Keala Settle. Broadway vet & played the bearded Lady in the Greatest Showman. You may have seen her on the Oscars last year singing “This is Me”
I found the “over enthusiastic “ audience annoying. I understand being supportive, mainly because the dress rehearsal crowd were friends and family, but the cheering in the middle of numbers and other scenes took away from the presentation.
I didn’t mind the pre recorded part, im sure they were all disappointed that it happened. But if they were going to use something recorded couldn’t they have drowned out some of the crowd? Fixed the volume? Man, they were obnoxious. I could barely hear some of the performers at points.
I struggled to get through the first hour. Then quit.
So far, and I’m half way through, not terribly impressed. This has nothing on the stage musical. Just like the movie, not enough dialogue. Dialogue that was sang on the live version was spoken in the musical. And yes, the crowd needed some theater etiquette. All the wandering was distracting.
The original Broadway version is a (mostly) sung-through musical, meaning there is actually very little spoken dialogue It’s not exclusively sung-through, but about 90% of the show is sung-through.
There was no spoken dialog in the original musical that was turned into song in this version. The songs were all exactly as they were in the original Broadway version, other than some changed lyrics for TV purposes.
It’s an operetta – there are few spoken words in the original (most of the ‘dialog’ is spoken in time over music). You’re remembering incorrectly.
Sodomy, S&M, masturbation are fit for the kiddies but no dildos or high holy day erectile dysfunction? Hmmmmm? Bodlarized version? #fitfortv
I thought the entire cast rocked and I lived the staying. Mimi & Marc & Collins & Angel hit it out of the park. Maureen & JoAnn were fabulous as well. I am an old RENT-phile and I loved it.
Wasn’t the term officially “renthead?”
I wouuld have enjoyed it more if the audience and music didn’t drown out most of the songs and dialogue. The finale was wonderful though.
I know it is how the leads’ songs are written – but it sure seemed like the ensemble players had stronger voices. Perhaps the larger stage and choreography made it harder to keep the breathing going.
I give the producers credit. Clearly the audience was already quite familiar with the show – and Rent is/was one of the more influential musicals (think Spring Awakening, Hamilton as part of its offspring) but it is of a time that I don’t know if many people can relate to anymore.
My husband and I started to watch it, but we changed the channel because we thought it was bad.
Worst goes to whoever wrote this article. Probably never even seen a real live performance of this or any broadway show. I’ve seen better community theatre. The fact that two of your “bests” were Mimi and Angel proves you have no place judging theatre. Get back to your Snapchat and leave the reviewing to those who know.
Thank you! I agree. Mimi and Angel are the two weakest performances. Angel was terrible. Mimi had lovely voice but she was miscast into the wrong voice type for Mimi. The harmonies with her and Roger didn’t sound as good as it should have been with a better soprano.
I agree. I would be very surprised to learn that the writer ever saw a live show on stage. The “actor” who played Angel was off-key and could not hit the notes. It was very off-putting. I saw the original on Broadway many years ago, and you could feel the passion and excitement of the people on stage. this whole production was lacking that. How could someone say La Vie Boheme had energy? As people have said, maybe it was because it was the dress rehearsal. But – as anyone has done theatre knows – that is why you give EVERY performance your all. I was very disappointed in this version.
I agree completely! Mimi was weak…she just didn’t fit the role. Although I can see she has talent, she lacked the range and passion Mimi needs. Angel was an absolute trainwreck. I guess that’s what happens when you cast an over-the-top drag race attention seeker who can’t hold a straight face, always with the exaggerated expressions. He (or she) might be great at the current RuPaul queen style of things…but that is not Angel at all, and the vocal range was lacking.
Frankly, I think about 75% of the cast didn’t have the vocal range for this, so I am surprised it wasn’t even worse. The ONE person who did their role justice was Vanessa Hudgens as Maureen!
I wholeheartedly agree with this comment. Mimi could not hit the high note on “Out Tonight”. She was fine otherwise. Angel was TERRIBLE.
I’d also mention how crazy sexy Vanessa Hudgens was in “Take Me or Leave Me”.
The two worst were Mimi and Angel. Those two have great songs and they stink it up? Angel flat out can’t sing? How we he/she chosen for that role anyways? Mimi can at least sing, but her voice was not sweet enough. They needed a real soprano for that role. Other than, I thought the show was good.
I feel bad for the guy who played roger, and it was a shame a broken ankle botched most of the ‘live’ show. It was okay, not great, probably because it was prerecorded The band was too loud they kept drowning out the singers. As did the over enthusiastic audience who could have turned it down a notch or ten. They didn’t need to cheer while the singers were preforming, I felt that that was rather rude to the actors.
However, I liked seasons of Love and the very end where the original broadway cast came out on stage.
I think I will stick to the touring production or the movie versions of Rent.
FIVE articles at once about this, TVLine? Hahaha why.
How did Take Me or Leave Me not make the best list? A highlight in the otherwise mediocre production.
Right? That was hands down the best of what was a very disappointing production. I don’t know if it was because it was a dress rehearsal and everyone wasn’t giving 100 percent of if the production values were just not up to par, but they squandered what little potential it had. Lots of bad casting choices combined with the absurdity of no understudies for the leads and it just made for a poor showing. I really did enjoy Vanessa as Maureen though, which was surprising for me. She really seemed to get into the character’s shoes and went all out, kudos to her.
Agreed. Take Me or Leave Me was FAR better than Over the Moon. Quite frankly, I hated Hudgens’s interpretation of Maureen’s signature performance art piece.
I hated her interpretation of it too, but there have been many different ones and i respect that. She was ON FIRE for Take Me or Leave Me. That was the best number of the evening.
The live production of RENT is an insult to all the RENTHEADS out there !!!
I didn’t think the production was horrible, the set was amazing, Mark and Roger Bailee their parts, Keala slayed, and seeing the original cast was a great bonus. Angel was by far the weakest link, the guy can do drag, he wore the crap out of those fabulous costumes, but considering he is a drag star, they should have had him lipsync the songs and had William Jermaine sing the part. I love Brandon, he acted the hell out of Collins, I just wish he had the sweet baritone to go with it. Mimi was ok, like with Collins I wish she were a true soprano for the sweet high notes Mimi has in the original music. The editing of some of the dialogue confused me, he totally could have said Pooh Pooh, and why say masturbation and not dildo? If they are going all out for Contact they could’ve worked with sensors for Pooh Pooh and dildo…but whatever… I still enjoyed it as a Renthead.
Could do without the screaming girls. Really impressed with Jordan Fisher. He was amazing!!!
Have you never seen a live musical? As someone who saw the original cast live 20 years ago, this was just sad. So was your Best list, all of which landed squarely in the Worst category.
And the fact that “Take me or leave me” was left out completely is proof that you have no business writing about this sort of production, as aside from the original cast-packed finale was the highlight of this whole ill conceived debacle.
It wasn’t left out! Did you leave the room to get a snack while it was going on? It was probably the highlight of this production!
oooooh…wait… you mean left out of the article! Never mind. I haven’t had coffee yet this morning!
Ha ha, no worries!