~Thursday~ Tonight Robert and I saw Rent staged by University Theater at Stewart Theater at NC State University.
I first saw Rent on December 27, 1997, a trip that inspired this poster of mine, Will & Ned’s Excellent Adventure, which has now been used in many corporations around the world for diversity education.
I saw it again on March 5, 2002, a touring version at what was then the “BTI Performance Center,” and which is now the “Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts.”
My thoughts on tonight’s production:
- The way seating was done was an unmitigated disaster. They had some reserved seats and some general admission seats. The reserved seats were not marked (or if they were, people couldn’t tell), so people sat in them thinking they were general admission seats, and then they were told to move as the start time approached and the people with those seats arrived. And by then, the choice of seats that the displaced people had to choose from were the least desirable seats of course.
- The introduction by the head of the University Theater program was too long.
- The quality of the voices varied widely, which is to be expected from a student production.
- By far, my favorite scene was Maureen’s rendition of Over the Moon.
- The guy who played Tom Collins was absolutely adorable.
- More than anything this production left me looking forward to listening to my soundtrack of the Broadway cast the next time I’m walking.
- These are my favorite songs from Rent: