RENT at rockdale or penrith?

Time to set the record straight... I saw all 3 productions of RENT recently (Canberra, Rockdale and Penrith - yes - i am that much of a geek!) and by far, BY FAR, the best was Rockdale.

Congratulations to Rockdale for an amazing triumph - I was one of those that gave the standing ovation at the Saturday matinee.

My summaries of all 3 productions

Rockdale
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LOVED: The depth of character that ALL members of the cast brought on stage - even the lesser used members of the chorus looked like the had their own back story - eg The "Sirius Black" homeless guy that was eating bugs out of the scaffolding during 'Rent' and falling over at the end of 'Xmas bells' - amazing! Also the Sqeegieman and the Prostitute - hilarious!

LOVED: The amazing vocal talent from almost every member of the ensemble - particularly those that had solos - the 'Will I' Soloist and the Steve/Gordon interchange were chillingly good, as was every single principal - Wow! what a pool of talent Rockdale must have to pull from.

LOVED: The lighting - Bloody brilliant :)

SPECIAL MENTION: The accents! Wow! I could not fault a single one :) Particularly Mark - I would actually place a bet that he is a Yank...

HATED: The staging was a little to similar to the professional production to be coincidental, except for the weird clock on stage left? What was that for???

HATED: There were some bad harmonies in some of the duets - particularly 'Tango: Maureen' (Joanne) and 'I'll Cover You' (Collins) but not bad enough to distract from the over sound of the song - the harmonies might not have been correct sometimes, but at least they stayed in the same key!

HATED: Some of the Tempos were way too slow - particularly in 'Seasons Of Love' and 'Rent'

HATED: the fact it is still not playing!

Canberra
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LOVED: The band - AMAZING - and the cast did not even acknowledge then with a bow or anything - I went up at the end and made sure they knew how good I thought they were.

LOVED: The wire fence flown in for the end of 'La Vie Boheme' - very nice touch - but then it was gone for the beginning of Happy New Year???? WeirdÂ…

HATED: Mark - he was a 4 foot nothing long haired reject from Menudo (go look Google them if you donÂ’t know who they are!) that had a perma-smile attached FOR THE ENTIRE DAMN SHOW! EVEN DURING 'HALLOWEEN' and 'WHAT YOU OWN!'

HATED: Mimi, she trounced around stage during 'Light My Candle' like a Chihuahua on heat having Schmakos withdrawals - not really trying to seduce Roger at all - so she would have no reason to want to go back to him for 'Out Tonight!' What the???

HATED: Angel - OH MY GOD - they had 8 ANGEL backup dancers come on stage for 'Today 4 U'! Wearing the exact same Santa outfit that angel was supposed to have made as a One-Of-A Kind piece! The ANGELettes also came back on for 'Out Tonight' - WTF???

HATED: The Script changes: From what I could tell - they had an extreme lack of male ensemble, so there was no Priest, No Cops. Also, I guess they couldnÂ’t afford a tree, so the line in 'You Okay Honey?' was changed to "Collins, Tom Collins. That's Me". 'On the Street' was changed to "Smile for Ted Coppell, Mr Collins" and the priest scenes were cut altogether!!!

HATED: SONG Deletions! YES!!! They cut songs! 'Seasons of Love reprise' was gone! Excised! ARRRRGH!!!!!

HATED: ROGER didnÂ’t play the guitar once! He had picked it up for the prologue, but had put it down well before the line "This won't tune!" (it became "That won't tune!") and didnÂ’t pick it up again for the entire show! During 'La Vie Boheme' when he plays the snippet of Musetta's Waltz, and even in 'Your Eyes' - HE PLAYED AIR GUITAR!! YES!!! I DON'T LIE!!!

HATED: ANGEL lying in his death bed UNABLE TO MOVE for all of 'Without You', THEN gets a sudden burst of energy to sit up and sing in 'Contact' then falls over and dies! Cliché city! Wile ROGER looks on all emotional, like it was HIS boyfriend instead of Collins'!

Man - there was so much I hated about Canberra's 'interpretation' that if I keep going, I'm sure to kill myself. Let's leave them there.

Penrith
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LOVED: Mimi - What an amazing voice! Her light and shade is AMAZING

LOVED: MAUREEN/Joanne - AMAZING in 'Over The Moon' and Awesome voices in 'Take Me Or Leave Me'

LOVED: The spinning staircase in 'Out Tonight' - what a brilliant piece of direction - gave the show a lift into the 'Rock Concert' realm that it should reach as certain points in the show

HATED: The spinning staircases in 'What You Own' - too much like West Side Story and when they came together on the word 'connection' and the 2 guys crossed over to each other's? Kill Me.

HATED: The LACK of commitment of most of the principals to their characters. And I'll go into detail:
Mark: looked like he was bored with the whole production
Roger: Looked PETRIFIED to be playing such a huge ballsy sing - and not having the voice to do it! His rule of thumb must be - if you can't sing it - YELL it - because he yelled most of the songs, especially the highs and louds that his wee little voice just could not get to.
Angel: OH-MY-GOD-Kill-Me-Again. Spent the entire show (except when he was collapsing randomly from some unknown illness ( no flames about "IT WAS AIDS you idiot", because you donÂ’t die from AIDS, you die from the secondary infections)) flouncing around like a clichéd Pilipino drag queen, looking like a bobble head figurine you stick on your car dashboard! Angel's Santa coat was hideous - black lace trimming? Gimmie a break!
Benny: (aka. Look at me! I'm a dancer!) If he did that cross-foot-spiral-twist (Usher's U-Turn move) move one more time I was going to leap out of my 3rd row seat and slam his head into the ground!

HATED: The fact that Collins had the VERY AWKWARDLY get down off the scaffolding twice. YOU HAVE MOVEABLE STAIRS! USE THEM!!!!

HATED: The Techno Tempo of most of the show! GAWD! WAYYYYY to fast.

HATED: The Aussie accents that permeated almost every member of the chorus, particularly the 2 female cops, that were also dressed in Australian Cop outfits - talk about displacing your audience!

HATED: Probably the WORST piece of direction in the entire show - Angel's ghost rising up the staircase behind the cast singing 'IÂ’ll Cover You (reprise)', raising his arms out to hold the shroud out like bat wings, and the entire cast turning around to raise their arms up to him for the final notes of the song? GIMME A BREAK!!! I laughed out loud at the hideous piece of staging! Horrid!