Trust Tommy

The reason for my going to Boston was of course because I wanted the visit my brothers. The reason I went when I did, however, as opposed to any other week, was because in nearby (a mere 58 miles away) Providence, Rhode Island, RENT, the Broadway Tour was performing. I’d fallen in with RENT over the past few months, and would often pine over the Tour Schedule, wishing they were coming near Boston, before someone on MSN mentioned their wish to roadtrip across America when they were old enough. This sent the cogs of my mind whirring – ok, my brain thought. There was none directly in Boston, but could we drive to one of the other places? Let’s see.. it’s going to be in Madison, Milwaukee, Toronto, Providence, San Francisco..

“What was that last one?” asked another voice in my head.
“What? San Francisco? Wrong side of the country..”
“The one before that! Providence! That’s up in the north-east like Boston, am I right?”

A quick Google Maps search showed me that they were close. That was it – I was going.

I quickly typed an email to Patrick, that went something like this..

Hey,

Remember everyone jokes that I should come and visit you in Boston? Yeah, well, RENT’s nearby, and I really wanna see that.. I can haz visit you?

Don’t forget I’m your favourite younger brother

That was the gist of it – it was actually a 600 word email in the end. I got my reply the next morning:

Patrick Collison: redefining short and sweet since October 27th, 2009. :)

And that’s what we did. I booked my flight and 3 tickets to RENT on the Saturday night. The journey to Providence with Patrick was rather hilarious. The route is simple enough.. deceptively so, almost. We got all the way into downtown (they call it downcity, though) Providence before we made a mistake; we didn’t exit the motorway when we should have. Hardly a terrible mistake and easily rectified by taking the next one off.

When we filed into the theatre at 19:40, I saw the familiar stage set up:

I knew from background reading that the show’s creator, Johnathon Larson had said that theatre was too top-hat and tails and that RENT should appeal to the younger generation. He did all he could to achieve this, including selling the tickets for the front two rows of seats at 20$ each in a rush lottery 2 hours before the performance. Also, he made his show quite informal. The large metal structure in the right of the picture represents a Christmas tree in Act 1, and a church steeple in Act 2. Finally, instead of a grand opening with ornate curtains and everything, what you see in the picture was how everything was set up, and crew-members (this was in the stage directions) milled about and walked across the stage informally. This was interesting because it was different. Also, you had the problem-that-wasn’t-really-a-problem of not knowing when to clap, because you weren’t entirely sure when it was starting. It was quite funny to watch people start applauding as someone came onstage only to realize it was only a stagehand, and stop.

Finally though, Adam Pascal strode onstage (to monumental applause) and starts strumming, and is quickly followed by the cast.

The show itself was fantastic. Despite seeing it before both live and on DVD, is was a fresh experience to see it in Providence. The acting was top class and set was stunning. The music would be the only fault I would find. Even though I thought I’d never hear myself say this, the drums were too loud, which drowned out the vocals. Songs like Rent and Out Tonight were almost ruined by the overzealous drummer, or the screw up of the sound technician in charge of the actor’s microphones, making them too low.

I wanted to take a video of one of the songs, to show here and to have a piece of the show with me when I went home, and originally had my eye on What You Own, a thundering rock ballad. However, I feared the drummer would ruin the song, so settled on one that didn’t have drums in it: La Vie Boheme B:

MAUREEN
Are we packed?

ALL
Viva la Vie Bohème

In closing, RENT far from disappointing – and it was epic to see the two leads, Anthony Rapp (whom I got a picture with) and Adam Pascal in what’ll probably be their last times playing these roles. When the tour finishes – they retire from the show. Tour Schedule here

Note to RSS readers – there’s a youtube video here – click through to watch