#really funny to me that i saw la boheme literally in the hall next door in the same building like. two months ago. lmao

[supercantaloupe]

rent in concert thoughts

rent has never sounded this good musically speaking. HUGE fan of the symphonic orchestrations. bro they got a harp and an english horn in there. in RENT! it's perfect

plus the sweeping strings and big brass sound reminds me so much of the orchestrations of the golden age and mid-late 20th century musical theater orchestration style and i have such a soft spot for that, i really really enjoyed that much

conductor was a ton of fun to watch he was just grooving up there on the podium the whole time

i love that they did a short orchestral medley as an overture at the top of the concert. do not love that the audience chattered away during the whole first part of it but i haven't yet perfected my mind powers to be able to shut them the hell up yet. alas.

dear gd when the audience started to clap along at the beginning of la vie boheme i was like. SHUT THE FUCK UP. thankfully it petered out fairly quickly but like what were you guys THINKING

actually i think opera has spoiled me a bit now because the audience needing to stop and clap and cheer for So Long after Every Single Number. kind of exhausting lmao. let's get on with it guys.

performance wise ali stroker was the star. i went in expecting that. and i was right <3 her delivery of "'THE ONLY WAY OUT IS UP!!!' she whispered." or whatever the line was in over the moon was genuinely funny. hard scene to pull off without being extremely annoying about it but ali stroker manages to pull it off! go queen!

there were a lot of wheelchair users in the audience tonight i noticed and i have no doubt a big reason why they were here was to see her. good for them tbh

okay i normally don't like to rag on performers much but i really. did not like the guy who was playing benny LOL. i just did not like whatever he was doing vocally, he sounded like a dollar store jason derulo to me. actually funnily enough my first thought was "he's giving mj the musical" and then i checked the digital program and he was in mj the musical on broadway...lmao. anyway not the vibe for benny imho

also while i don't think the guy playing collins was at all bad, i wish he had more Presence in his low register. the vocal cast as a whole was missing that low bass-y tone and i expect more of that from collins especially which i was very much missing here

very very glad to finally go to a musical and not absolutely need my earbuds to get through it. it did get a little loud at points especially towards the end but nothing that i needed hearing protection for. thank you national symphony orchestra

(of course i went into it as an Orchestra Concert whereas everyone around me went into it as a Musical Performance so. i'm better than them (joke))

although the sound balance was not the best? there were a lot of times it was hard to hear the actors singing clearly over the orchestra. now i understand that it can be tough to mic a singer loud enough to carry all the way over an entire symphony orchestra, and i'm honestly glad they didn't try to solve that problem by upping the amps to an earsplitting level. and honestly with this performance in particular i'm not even upset that the orchestra is covering the singers a little bit because the orchestra is really what i came to hear (besides ali stroker) and the orchestra is just sooooo good here.

still, worth bringing up, especially in the moments where everyone is singing all together, especially multiple lines simultaneously as in will i, christmas bells, and la vie boheme. especially for the ensemble singers, whom you could barely hear at all

i liked the lighting overall too. decent key lighting on the actors. attractive use of color and textures. for a concert performance it was good and surprisingly not obnoxious

also there was a surprising amount cut from the script for this. i've seen in concert performances of things before and i know it can vary a lot from show to show and performance to performance whether it's just the songs or if any of the scenes are kept as well; rent in concert hewed closer to the former in spirit. almost all of the dialogue was cut, as were a few of the "less important" musical numbers (most of the voicemails, we're okay, etc). even a couple of sections within larger, important musical numbers were cut (notably in christmas bells, which disappointed me bc i actually really like that number and was excited to hear the FULL thing with the orchestra. i feel cheated.)

which honestly leads to some. weird plot pacing? like if we're cutting all the voicemails out of act i that's fine but then they have alexi darling's voicemail from voicemail #3 there in act ii (but still none from the parents anywhere), and it comes out of nowhere. joanne's mini-reprise of we're okay in happy new year A doesn't really land the same when we're okay was cut entirely from act i too. and the entire collins and angel relationship is like ??? when they cut the scene of collins getting beat up in the beginning (but they kept angel meeting and helping him, of course), as well as cutting their section in christmas bells. like ??

honestly the near-complete excision of dialogue is really funny to me cause it feels like they were trying to solve the problem of rent having a messy plot by just. removing the plot entirely. and gd help you if you were watching and weren't already intimately familiar with the plot of rent as it's supposed to go because it was IMPOSSIBLE to follow from this version lmao. and yet they somehow managed to make the little bit of plot (loose as it is) that remains even more confusing and weirdly paced. incredible. zero notes

anyway tldr ali stroker good national symphony good LOVE these orchestrations and i hope that overture/medley becomes a pops concert staple or something