"Rent" vs. "Rent"

"Break a Leg" is going to have new meaning for Brennin Hunt, the unfortunate actor who brought the old adage back in stunning form for the live performance of "Rent" on FOX.  While the show may go on it mostly didn't, with the bulk of Saturday night's final dress rehearsal used for the Sunday broadcast.  I didn't mind the fact that it wasn't "live" per se.  I don't like commercials interrupting the narrative and always record these things anyway.  The company rallied, as they do, and the show did indeed go on, with the final scene being presented live, Mr. Hunt left sitting throughout.  What is sad is that his broken foot was the least of the problems in this production.  Not that there weren't gallant tries.  Vanessa Hudgens' tremendous vocals matched those of Idina Menzel, with flexibility in her dancing which would make a Cirque du Soleil performer jealous.  Tinashe's throaty belts gave a gravitas to Mimi and James Leyva's Angel almost made you forget Wilson Jermaine Heredia.  But therein lies the problem.  Remaking "Rent" is almost like trying to remake "The Sound of Music".  The original cast was iconic.  They didn't just create the roles, they embodied them.  The live "Jesus Christ Superstar" made me forget all previous productions.  This version of "Rent" made me think, a lot, about the original cast.  Brandon Victor Dixon blew me away as Judas in Superstar.  He was great here as Tom Collins.  But he wasn't Jesse L. Martin, who has a smoothness like sherry which simply cannot be replicated.  To his credit, Mr. Dixon didn't try, and made the role his own.  They all did, but it wasn't good enough.  Yes, I had my tears, often, but the whole thing was burdened by production issues.  Okay, it was a dress rehearsal, but actors were left in the dark (lights, please?).  The weird set left too many narrow spaces so blocking was tight and unnatural.  It was a show not for the live audience, who couldn't see many scenes, or for the TV audience, who were still blocked by backs on several occasions.  A bizarre habit of using overhead cameras gave TV viewers some shots the live audience couldn't see and were jarring -- they broke the fourth wall and took the "performance" element away.  I can't help but think that FOX was trying to replicate the huge success NBC had with Superstar and they got it all wrong.  The live audience can work, making TV viewers feel like they are the audience of a live stage production, but the overhead shots, and shots of the audience, remind you that you aren't really there.  The whole "screaming audience" thing was also a fail.  In Superstar it worked because Jesus was a hot commodity, that isn't the case with "Rent" as most of the characters are alone, even when around others.  There is also an argument to be made about adopting successful film changes.  The Superstar film added a song "Can We Start Again, Please?"  It was a hit, and added to the stage play.  "Rent" the movie changed a number of things (including the controversial decision to recast Rosario Dawson as Mimi, over the original cast member Daphne Rubin-Vega) but some of the film changes were for the good.  Jesse Martin singing the reprise of "I'll cover you" with Angel in his arms, dying, was way more powerful than the theatrical "Contact".  Angel's death was typical of this production as a whole -- no clear audience, no unified creative guidance on what it was supposed to be.  Thankfully, performers and Jonathan Larson's incredible score made it palatable, but I'll take the film any day.  FOX must have agreed, as the entire original cast was brought on at the end.  You know what you don't want when you do a faint copy of a terrific original?  The original cast showing up to remind folks of how good they were.  Nice try Fox, but you get a C- on this one.