‘Rent: Live’: Dancing, singing, life and death
LOS ANGELES – For a theater nerd, visiting the set of a live TV musical sounds like a treat. There will be singing! There will be dancing! There will be unbridled joy!
At the Fox lot where “Rent” is being rehearsed this month, there was plenty of each. But also a somber undertone. And references to death, including a near-death scene being practiced from a loft-like stage.
“Mimi!” yells Brennin Hunt (as depressed rocker Roger), holding the lifeless body of the exotic dancer and junkie, played by singer-actress Tinashe. He places her body on a metal table as the other “Rent” players gather: Joanne (Kiersey Clemons) holds her teary girlfriend Maureen (Vanessa Hudgens). Mark (Jordan Fisher) swoops in to offer support for Roger, who sings desperately for his dying lover.
That’s when you remember that, oh yeah, the exuberant, Tony-winning “Rent” is about friendship, love and the impact of the AIDS crisis in ’90s New York City. It was written by Jonathan Larson, who died before he could see his 1996 show succeed on Broadway and be adapted as Fox’s latest three-hour live event Sunday (8 EST/ PST).
“Rent” is a more adult-themed departure from Fox’s previous adaptions of “Grease” and “A Christmas Story.”
“It is definitely different. It is a musical drama. The stakes are life and death,” says producer Marc Platt, who was behind those previous musicals, along with NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.” “As the years have gone by with ‘Rent,’ and while there was a very fine (2005) film, there was a question of whether it could be given a new context and revitalized in a way.”
Tinashe’s Mimi literally is revitalized in the rehearsal. She takes a breath, sits up – and wait, everyone, stop. Michael Greif, who directed the original Broadway run, has a few notes:
Can Hunt put his hand under Tinashe’s head tenderly? Can Tinashe put her arm on Hunt when he sings the word “moonlight”? They run the scene a dozen more times, and the moments are more devastating each time, even as actors check their phones, do crunches and laugh at inside jokes between run-throughs.
It’s not as difficult as you might expect to adapt “Rent” for a broadcastTV audience. (The telecast starts an hour later than previous Fox musicals).
“Light My Candle,” a song about falling for someone (and hiding a stash) was deemed OK. “Drugs are unfortunately so much a part of the world that they’re a part of television,” Platt says. But don’t expect a Mimi striptease for “Out Tonight.”
“We tried it, we couldn’t get it past
(censors),” he jokes. And the F-bombs were subtracted from the song lyrics.
Updating the script
Platt promises a story that sticks closely to its source material, with some “sharpening and tweaking.”
There’ll be more context about the AIDS epidemic, using title cards and voiceovers that will be helpful for “a lot of young folks who love the music of ‘Rent’ and love the story (but) aren’t really aware of how pervasive (AIDS) was in the world.”
Some characters are getting a slight refresh, too: Fisher is proud to play the first Mark of color.
The idea that the lead of “Rent,” a character first played by Anthony Rapp, could be played by someone who isn’t white “could have been challenged long ago,” Fisher says. “I know people of color who are Jewish. I know people of color who were born into privilege.” Mark is all of these things. “Beyond that, just the melanin in my skin, I loved the idea of playing somebody I felt very close to,” says Fisher, who’s known for “Hamilton” and “Dancing With the Stars.”
Fisher first sought the role of father figure Mark 15 years ago, when he watched a bootleg copy of a Broadway “Rent” recording. Coming from a small town near Birmingham, Alabama, “I was kind of always the kid that was supposed to be somewhere else. And that is Mark: the outsider looking in but living in the nucleus of all of us.”
Fisher’s Mark is “more tortured than we’ve seen in the past, at least that’s been my idea of him,” he says. “Mark breaks.”
Hudgens, who plays Mark’s ex, artist Maureen, also hopes to refine her character. The biggest concern: Maureen’s “Over the Moon” number, including a performance piece about nursery rhymes, demonization of art and something about the darkness versus light.
“It’s very abstract. But I think the way that me and Michael (Greif ) have been exploring it makes a lot of sense to me, and hopefully will make a lot more sense to everybody watching,” she says.
Immersive experience
Fisher and Hudgens, who co-starred in “Grease: Live” (broadcast partly from an outdoor studio lot) are grateful that “Rent” will be staged in a round theater indoors.
The set of metal and wood is sparse, featuring signs that drop from the ceiling. A live band will perform from an elevated stage.
“The exciting thing about musical theater and doing it live is, there is no second chance,” Hudgens says. “When it comes to life, and it’s breathing and moving and all the thoughts are flowing, it’s blissful.”