Friday, October 19, 2007
Did Critics Enjoy Visiting the West End's Remixed Rent?
london.broadway.com: "Jonathan Larson’s 1996 musical phenomenon Rent has had two previous West End productions. It has now been “remixed” by pop stylist and creative director William Baker (best known for working with Kylie Minogue) for a new generation. Did critics enjoy visiting the remixed Rent?"
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7 comments:
As i read this article my opinion of the Rent Remixed completely changed. I started out asking, why would any artist mess with a perfectly good show, but then remembered that Larson himself took La Boheme and made Rent.
It is so important for work to be constantly rethought, as there are no original ideas, just new and innovative ways of presenting them. And for the new and chic british club version of Rent, it sounds awful, but all the power to them. It could just be a step in another revisioing of the same classic tale.
i agree that it makes sense to revisit and revise shows. but with rent, they are saying they need to update it for a new generation. but, i believe the original rent was still written for this generation. maybe what they mean is a different section of the generation.
I agree, I think it is definately important to revisit work and revise. However, it may be a bit too soon for rent. Various opinions aside, it was a bold move and I will at least commend them for their effort.
it is very important to revisit old text and create new things out of it because as all know there is 'nothing new under the sun.' but if i were to revamp a show it would definitely not be Rent. nothing suggests this would be a good time to revisit it and it is still accessible. something only needs to be remixed when the points are applicable but no one can listen to them in their current form because they aren't accessible anymore.
I can understand wanting the revamp Rent, but the music does not really have to change. The songs in the show, particularly the finale, still evoke the same emotions from me that they would have if I were in the audience in 1996. What could use some updating in the show is the costumes, set, and possibly the Maureen "Over the Moon" piece, but the other songs should not have been touched.
I remember reading a book which is about culture, and "breaking" culture to create more things.
In a world where more and more things are already invented, we continue to invent. The courage to be able to 're-invent' and improve on things that are already created is a big and brave step.
Like Peter said, I don't think that its time for a new rent. I wasn't aware that we had come a generation since 1996. I think this is just another example of the shortened attention span of people today. I wish that people would come up with new exciting things instead of constantly looking to the past.
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