RainbowJude
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Fantasy Poll: All-Star RENT TributeThinking about the last year's Hair concert and the anniversary tribute albums for West Side Story combined with thoughts of the upcoming Chess concert made me think about Larson's Pulitzer Prize winning musical and how the songs never really displayed any dramatic crossover appeal in the pop music market despite the fact that the score is characterized by several crossover musical styles. In some ways, this is not surprising, as - while they work in the context of the show - the songs aren't really chart material.
So here's the task for this poll: pick 10 songs from RENT that you think might possibly work as singles, select ten artists from the pop music market to sing them and construct yourself a fantasy pop tribute album, placing the songs in an order you that you think would work for such a project.
Here's mine:
1. Seasons of Love - Whitney Housten, with a choir
2. What You Own (with decontextualized lyrics) - Bon Jovi
3. One Song Glory - Robbie Williams
4. Out Tonight - Avril Lavigne
5. Another Day - American Hi-Fi featuring Pink
6. I Should Tell You (reworked as a solo) - James Morrison
7. Take Me Or Leave Me (reworked as a solo) - Christina Aguilera
8. Without You (reworked as a solo) - Will Young
9. Your Eyes (reworked as jazz or blues) - Jamie Cullum
10. I'll Cover You - FreshlyGround
Looking forward to seeing yours.... 
Later days
David
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wicked_boy
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If RENT was properly staged in London (non of this remixed business), I think Seasons of Love will be mega pop hit.
Like "No Matter What", "Memory", "Over the Rainbow", and the rest.
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musikal_geek
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| wicked_boy wrote: | If RENT was properly staged in London (non of this remixed business), I think Seasons of Love will be mega pop hit.
Like "No Matter What", "Memory", "Over the Rainbow", and the rest. |
Which "No Matter What?"
There are a few songs with the same title...
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wicked_boy
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From Whistle Down the Wind.
Boyzone did it, it's terrible come to think of it, but everyone knows the song.
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RainbowJude
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But it was... | wicked_boy wrote: | | If RENT was properly staged in London (non of this remixed business), I think "Seasons of Love" will be mega pop hit. Like "No Matter What", "Memory", "Over the Rainbow", and the rest. |
RENT was "properly" staged in London the over the 1998/1999 season. It wasn't nearly as successful as it was in the USA and "Seasons of Love" didn't become a mega pop hit.
Later days
David
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Mungojerrie_rt
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I wouldn't trust your average rock/pop singer with a musical. Look what it's resulted in in the past.
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musikal_geek
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| Mungojerrie_rt wrote: | | I wouldn't trust your average rock/pop singer with a musical. Look what it's resulted in in the past. |
"If I were a rich girl,
la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la"
And don't forget Wind it Up.
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Belle
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Re: But it was... | RainbowJude wrote: | | wicked_boy wrote: | | If RENT was properly staged in London (non of this remixed business), I think "Seasons of Love" will be mega pop hit. Like "No Matter What", "Memory", "Over the Rainbow", and the rest. |
RENT was "properly" staged in London the over the 1998/1999 season. It wasn't nearly as successful as it was in the USA and "Seasons of Love" didn't become a mega pop hit.
Later days
David |
Rent was also in the Shaftesbury Theatre - a VERY unfortunate venue, combination of awful location, less than successful management and pissy neighbours. It's quite remarkable that Hairspray appears to be flourishing there now!
Rent also had a UK Tour, and two short West End stops. The tour and first stop did well, the second London stop kinda failed, partly because they spent about £10 on it, most of which went to casting Caprice as Maureen!
Rent's still not had a proper crack at London... They need a fresh production that's not being done by Kylie's underwear shopper - but someone who understands the show. But done with a proper budget, decent publicity, a good, strong, non-stunt cast.... just done properly!
I dunno if "Seasons of Love" would chart these days... "Out Tonight" could tho?
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RainbowJude
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Come now... | Belle wrote: | | Rent's still not had a proper crack at London... |
The run at the Shaftesbury Theatre over 98/99 was of the original staging when it was still relatively new and featured members of the original cast. How much more do you need for a "proper crack"? It didn't make the impact it had on Broadway then and a new production wouldn't have any more of an impact now. This is likely for any contemporary production - for example, the original South African production last year struggled to find audiences and had small houses where many people left at interval.
There are reasons for this:
(1) The tragic circumstances of Jonathan Larson's death overshadowed the original production of the show and audiences were more willing to overlook the problems in the show at the time in the light of that event. This was not the case in London as the immediacy of that event had passed as it had by the time the film was made and as it has for any new production of the show.
(2) The show has definite problems in terms of its structure and in terms of its representation of HIV/AIDS and homosexuality and if you notice those before the show makes an emotional impact on you, then the show will be lost on you. Generally speaking, British audiences approach theatre with a greater literary understanding while American audiences approach theatre with a greater sensory understanding. Musical theatre is often more sensory than it is literary and this is particularly true of RENT. Thus, the problems with the text of RENT may have been a factor.
(3) Attitudes to HIV/AIDS change from year to year and the context of HIV/AIDS is different in different countries. RENT walks a dangerously fine line in its romanticism of the pandemic and also attempts to reflect an attitude that is specific to mid-nineties New York. Neither of these ideological frameworks automatically transfer from country to country or across the boundaries of culture.
(4) The show isn't as universal as it markets itself to be. The further audiences are from that central hub of NYC, both culturally and geographically, the more alienated they feel.
Now none of these reasons on its own makes a production of RENT not click as a whole and the show obviously has a remarkable effect on individuals as there always seem to be dedicated fans of the show in various parts of the world. But the mass appeal of the show outside of the US is a percentage of what it is in NYC and in the North American tour and the way these reasons come together is a part of that. And so the show will never have the same impact in the UK as it did in the original Broadway production, which is finally coming to a close this year. Even in this case, there has been a steady decline in its grosses and while the show sometimes has great weeks with 80%+ of the seats sold, more and more often the audiences are less that 60% of the capacity of the theatre. But as the show is less expensive to run than, say, Wicked this hasn't forced it to close in a great hurry.
Later days
David
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Belle
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The very fact that the 1998/99 run was in the Shaftesbury is reason enough for it to need another chance!!! It was poorly advertised - I vaguely knew there was a show called "Rent" but at the time I knew nothing about it and no reason I should see it. these were the days before I had internet... The Shaftesbury Theatre is the most wretched venue. Even Hairspray's not guaranteed to run there - tho I suspect they will transfer not close.
The UK tour and first London stop did very nicely. But the London stop was not an open run, it was a very limited season.
Also, the London Audience is not primarily made of Londoners. The audience is mostly tourists seeing a show, and mostly foreign tourists. Likewise, I believe that most of the audience in New York is not locals.
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wicked_boy
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Agreed with Belle.
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