Brother Marvin Hinten, S.
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How to stage "Rent" differently?I recently came up with an idea to reconceptualize Rent without changing much of the subtext and story, and decided to share it with you guys here on MdN. It's fairly easy.
Don't get me wrong, RENTheads out there. The way it was done in staging on Broadway and worldwide by Michael Greif, masterfully conveying the avant-garde East Village aspect, was (IMHO) brilliant, but the reaction was like the world's reaction to Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell: you either really liked it or you really hated it.
When I heard about the London version, which I hear will be substantially restaged and reworked in the musical arrangements department, I was pretty surprised and began wondering for myself what I would do with the show, given the time to stage it.
I came up with this. Hope you enjoy.
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SET AND COSTUMES: Basically the same as all stage versions so far, the Broadway set, with some noticeable differences. There is a fairly midsized screen, big enough for the audience to view film on it, which can lower in front of the set. This will be important, because huge portions of the show rely on filmed material. The famed tables will be set up in such a way to leave a cleared center stage area that a lot of the actors will be able to perform in when needed.
As for costumes, everyone should be in clothing formal enough for their status in society to attend the funeral. With the darkness going on, there should be plenty of room for quick changes for spotlit vignettes. (More on this in a minute.)
MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS: I agree with what Monsieur D'Arque said in the thread about the London revival; it's time to upgrade the orchestrations. In 1996, they were wonderful and new, fresh, raw, energetic rock, a pointer to the way the new Broadway would be. Now they're out of date, just like the kind of musical theatre they once thought they could replace. The movie orchestrations have a fuller sound and it would be wise to introduce those for the songs included in the film, with the other songs remaining much the same as they always have.
In fact, some of the lyric edits might also be wise to include as well, because this concept of the show emphasizes that everything happens over the course of a year, rather than the original stage version, which is more allegorical in tone and made it seem like a portrait of two Christmas Eves a year apart, which, based on the other Rent lyrics, it is not.
CONCEPT, STAGING, AND SCRIPT: This is where the big and not-so-big changes come in, a change of some of the mis en scene, some would call it. The minor ones include the lyric edits, the "July" line from the 10th Anniversary Concert before "Contact," and that's about it.
First, the concept: the concept of the show itself is fine, but there is no real reason to be following the lives of these artists, which is why some strictly theatre people, IMHO, can't get into the show. What brought them together, something that they still don't really discover until the end of the show, is not emphasized strongly enough at first. This is what leads me to script changes. In several respects, with some differences, major parts of the script will go back to the NYTW 1994 workshop framework (sort of similar to the 10th Anniversary Concert).
As the movie famously did, the show would open in this version with "Seasons of Love," and as in the workshop and 10th Anniversary Concert, it would be sung at Angel's funeral; indeed, nearly the entire show would be structured as a flashback from that point.
As in the concert, Mark would take center stage and sing "Halloween," but a bit differently. Lights dim as "Seasons of Love" ends, and the choir (all the ensemble who don't play leads) sit down. The screen lowers, and Mark's film fades up on the screen. The scene proceeds as normal up until the line "Christmas! Christmas Eve last year..." At that point, his voice goes all reverb and echo, like we're hitting a time warp. And then we begin the original first scene proper on the screen, an abrupt badly executed cut, all shaky cam, old footage from a Bolex. We're seeing Mark's film in progress. Whenever there's a scene where Mark is present, it's film.
(For those who say, "Wait! There were parts where Mark wasn't there," there are either bits where Mark's presence is inferred because it's something he'd want in the film, i.e. "I'll Cover You," "Over the Moon," etc., or central scenes are shown on the set itself, i.e. "Light My Candle," "Out Tonight," "Take Me or Leave Me," some of the voice mails that aren't in their own apartment, etc., in spotlit vignettes and we switch back to the film when necessary. The major inference is that everyone remembers a lot of what happened during that "year in the life.")
"Contact" is very different, incorporating a new concept that I thought up spontaneously. See, since the show is sort of about Mark's film, it's also about his creativity, to a degree, and how "the man" has been stifling it (in the form of Alexi) up to now. "Contact," in this version, as staged, becomes his last gasp at creativity. Before the opening of the number, Mark improvises some new dialogue like, "About here, I lost touch with everyone. I felt like my soul had gone to the highest bidder. I needed to film art." On the screen comes a quote, almost scratched into the lens, and converted into quote HTML here for the reader's benefit:
| Larry Buchanan wrote: | | ...the important thing in film...is to make film, and if you can't make anything but 8mm porno, do it. Make film! |
Cut to Mark saying the "July" line unenthusiastically, and then "Contact" as staged, badly stylized porno. Mark's last gasp at creativity. None of the show's characters in particular. It could even be young Buzzline interns looking for extra cash because his check is bigger than theirs, for all we know. Mark is one of those who says, "It's over," with relief, but for obviously different reasons. On the last "It's over," screen abruptly cuts out and a spotlight on a doctor saying the line to Collins, who is sad, very sad, but resigned.
When we reach the tail end of Act 2, the "Angel's funeral" sequence featuring "ICY: Reprise," we see some very quickly shot footage of all of those who had something to say (the eulogy portions). To mark the end of the service, Collins sings the reprise, and that's it. Spotlight on Mark, who picks up "Halloween" much as he did in the 10th Anniversary show.
At this point, some might say, "Well, with this rewrite, the show should be over about here. It's a memory of Angel." But that's not true. Mark has been working on the film during the entire show. As the movie of Rent emphasized to some degree, Mark's film is the show. The rest of Act 2 happens because, conceptually, Mark's film is far from over - it doesn't show resolution for those we've followed. Angel brought them together, they fell apart without her, and now they have to learn to heal through love, which is sort of the message of this re-working.
From here on, the show is pretty much as it was, live, because that part of Mark's film is over; we're back in the present, so to speak. "Scenes from RENT" will still be projected on the wall as Mark's film at the end of the show, but as one can probably guess from this film-centric draft, it's more like a credits sequence, because the story is over, and so is the film, and thusly so is the show, as conceived here.
There is only one other addition made: as a curtain call number, to drive the point of this version of the show's message home, "Love Heals" (unused movie arrangement) would be included.
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So...tell me what you think!
BMHS
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