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Sunday, August 8, 2010

525,600 Minutes of Measuring Up

Rent @ Hollywood Bowl 

 

How does RENT, a 14 year long standing rock musical sensation with an all star Bohemian cast, light up Hollywood Bowl's stage? For starters, it's definitely a unique Broadway show that brings in a lot of flash, crash, and crazy performances from better than average actors and actresses. Compared to the movie, the live show was a lot more hectic and the average RENT Newb might be lost in the scuffle of quick jabs and one sentence sinkers. The plot is rather complicated, especially in the beginning with so many characters that all live within the one block radius of the Lower East Side slums of transients, vagabonds, artists, and aspiring wannabes.  Despite the complicated plot, the energy on stage sustains the interest and allows us to get lost in the spirit of sing songs rather than analyzing the plot. Compared to the movie Rent, the play's enthusiasm for LA Bohemia is more lucid and unsurpassed by other versions, allowing for die hard Rent Fans to cheer, sing along, and laugh to the rhythm and lyrics.

What makes this show rather fascinating is that it juxtaposes the macabre with the lighthearted matter of fact ease throughout the play's tempo. Take the aspiring rocker nostalgic for his ex girlfriend who died of AIDS and longing to write that great "One Song Glory" before the "virus takes over, glory". Ironically, he falls for a heroin addict moonlight dancer, who seduces him through "lighting her candle". This is all set within the context of a HIV ridden community, when they confess to each other that they are HIV positive along with their homosexual, bisexual, and straight support group friends.

For the sober person, this is one hell of a "far out" ride--take Maureen's protest against corporate housing take over. In her solo, "Over the Moon", between talks of suckling milk from cow and a "suicidal Mickey Mouse", I was already lost in space. I guess it takes a few liberal La Vie Boheme conspirators and thinkers to get the inside joke. As for me, I am just fascinated by the dichotomy of love and lust, freedom and entrapment, the beautiful and the ugly all in packaged in hues of rainbow colors and catchy hooks. This is really one think outside of the box Broadway show--maybe so far out, you'd look back only to find the box looking like a dot in space.

  Transportation buses will take you to and from Hollywood Bowl. Just check your local metro bus stations.

  Parking $16 Stacked Parking. 10-20 minutes wait after the show is over.  Highland Ave on a Sunday evening @11:30pm

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