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[personal profile] frankiecat
Well I've done it... I have finally seen Rent with Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp... Truly a wondrous experience...

Left yesterday morning at 8:30 am and got to the border around 10:30 am. The roads were fine till I got to Fort Erie and then there was snow on the 403, but not that much... The border wasn't that busy, but I did get stopped. The guard told me to stop my car and open the trunk, so I did... There's only my mother's beach chair in the trunk, he searched, opened the compartment for my spare tire and then told me I was fine to continue on... Not as exciting as the last time, when they searched my car with the drug sniffing dog, but it wasn't the same border crossing either :P

Got to Buffalo, and sort of got lost... But that was fine, the downtown is not that big, and it was basically dead... It didn't take me that long to find the theatre, but it was interesting because there isn't street that you can do down at the front, because a metro line goes past. I went to this *mall* (tiny little place with only four stores) to get something to eat and go to the bathroom. The food was cold, but the bathroom was clean and the parking was free and indoors. And some random guy waved at me as I was walking down a staircase, and asked me if we could go and sit somewhere... I said no... And left.

I walked down the block to the theatre, went in to the box office and asked if they had any rush seats left, they didn't... But they were selling upper balcony for the price of lower balcony, and then seating us in the lower balcony. I started to get more excited then. Two Rent performances eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..........

So then I went and moved my car closer to the theatre and then waited for the performance to begin. I walked through the theatre and didn't realize till then that Cary Shields is a swing on the tour... I burst out laughing at that one... I still have to check siteforrent to see if it's his picture still on there as Roger :P

At 10 to 2 I started to get little prickles of excitement... 10 minutes to Adam and Anthony... It finally got to 2pm and the show still didn't start, the conductor(? I can't remember his exact title for the show) hadn't even sat down yet... One of my pet peeves is shows starting on time, so I started to get a little impatient. But guy finally sat down, and Adam and Anthony (Roger and Mark :P) finally entered, and they were off. It was truly amazing to see them perform their roles live. Anthony sounded like he was stuffed up (I was thinking to myself that he should have blown his nose before stepping on stage). Adam was amazing, I didn't realize that he is such a *touchy-feely* Roger, and not nearly as angry as I expected. I thought Anthony was great, he has this pout that he does quite a lot, which I didn't realize either. I really liked Lexi, Michael, Nicolette and Haneefa. Justin didn't do much for me, but the Angel actor hardly ever does, neither did Jacques, his Benny no impression on me at all...

I spaced just before One Song Glory and wasn't sure if I heard the line about April's suicide... Adam's performance of that song was truly worth the whole show... I didn't realize that they talk to Mark's camera during "You'll See " (unless that was brand new?) They changed the line in Tango: Maureen when Joanne answers the phone and says, "you never call me pookie," and then Mark makes an *uh-oh* sound.... Collins doesn't say "he'll be back, I guarantee it," he leaves off the *it* which actually makes Angel's next line rhyme... For the life of me I can't remember what it is now though. Adam doesn't do the new choreography for Light my Candle (for the handcuffs parts), and as I expected Anthony doesn't do the new blocking in La Vie Boheme. He doesn't make like a bicycle, or Toto, or lifting the camera at his crotch... The only part he does do is lifting the table for *Mucho Masturbation*. That and Nicolette landed in his lap, and I'm pretty sure Maureen has ended up with *Rock Star* girl at this point. He basically did his *spazz* moves during the number...

Second act was awesome... Seasons of Love, Gwen's solo, blew the roof off the place, she is amazing. During Happy New Year, Anthony pointing the camera at Nicolette's crotch, Lexi acting really drunk, priceless. I wondered if Anthony would sing Jersey instead of Hicksville during the song, he did... It seemed like it took longer for Adam to get off stage at the beginning of Without You, most of the Rogers I've seen are gone pretty quickly. Lexi truly killed that song. The look on Anthony's face during Alexi's voice mail, seemed a little off (he wasn't *quite* disgusted)... Also it took Anthony longer to throw the sheet at the beginning of Contact, which seemed a litle *off* to me. I still wonder, to this day, what Mark's doing under there, consider he has no partner, *ahem*. The change in Angel's funeral (the only major change, I did see the minor changes too, some of the musical arrangements and the garland around the Life Support meeting), wasn't too jarring, different, but not entirely bad. Anthony did say *the Statue of Liberty too*. I'll Cover You (reprise) Michael blew the roof off the place too, and hearing Gwen sing some more, amazing...

Goodbye Love seemed a little off to me. Mimi didn't push Roger, that hard, Roger wasn't that angry, and Mimi did not enter in time to hear most of Mark and Roger's conversation... Which makes when she says she heard *every word* just off... Every show I've seen, Mimi is on stage during at least half of Mark and Roger's conversation.

What You Own, was worth the entire show too... Seriously, Adam and Anthony could go on tour just singing that song and people would go to see them in droves. I don't get why Collins was wearing shiny pants at the end though... That was kind of jarring... Anthony seemed bound and determined to carry Lexi to the table at the end (interesting considering he could barely lift Caren during La Vie Boheme)... Adam's crying seem kind off to me too... Like he was forcing it, that was strange to me, because in the movie, what made me buy pretty much the whole thing is his face during Mimi's death scene... I totally agree with Chris Columbus choice to play Mimi's death in his closeup, because as Chris says in the commentary, Adam's reaction is what makes you buy the entire thing. So yeah, but I was impressed Adam played the guitar for *Your Eyes* (I'd only seen Declan play the guitar live for that part before).

They finally got a reel of this cast for the end. Not surprisingly, it featured mainly Adam and Anthony... They had two films playing at the end though, which I think was on the last tour... One film (which was from the projector on stage) is Anthony with a camera directly in front of him, being basically hurtled down a street, nothing else...The other was the rest of the cast, the frame was smaller (read harder to see), basically the same set up as the reels used in the other shows. That reel feature Adam heavily. Then Angel came out and that was the end. Just the standard two bows and they were gone...

So I went outside then and it had been snowing (not too surprising for Buffalo), and wondered where the stage door was... I walked down the block, saw a sign for it, and then heard a cheer go up and followed it... Anthony had just come out... He is really small and really pale (paler and smaller than I thought he would be), he stayed out the longest... I got his autograph by asking the guy to hand him my playbill with his. Lexi came out for a little while, and one of the black guys (not sure which one though, I wasn't close enough to see). Adam never came out, we waited and no sign of him.

I do have a second part, but this is just a few incidentals... I couldn't pick out Jed or Karmine or Cary on the stage. Caren Lyn Manuel goes by Caren Tackett now? She must have gotten married.

Oh and the icon? In honour of my favourite A A Milne character :o)

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-19 12:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lionessvalenti.livejournal.com
Jed, Karmine, and Cary, unless they were understudying for someone, wouldn't have been on, since they're swings. They only go on if someone calls out.

And Caren's been married, she has a baby, too, but only now has started going by her married name professionally. It surprised me, too, lol. I was like "Wait, wait, hang on." Her husband is one of the guys working the merch booth. Getting him a job was the only way she could bring the family along and have the tour pay for their rooms and stuff.

Justin's just boring, I don't blame you. I was hoping that the three month break would do him some good, but he's putting on the exact performance he did on Broadway, and... further proof he's just going through the motions on stage.

Oh, and for black guys at stage door, it was probably John (Mr Jefferson), he came out stage door every day in Cleveland.

And they never start on time. 6 after is standard, but I noticed them starting later in Cleveland. I don't know if that's just David (the conductor, whom I adore, he is seriously the world's sweetest man, except for maybe Tim Howar) or what, but yeah, they were starting really late.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-01-19 03:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frankiesblue.livejournal.com
I was thinking that about Jed, Karmine and Cary, but I honestly wasn't sure...

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May 2009

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