five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes..

I KNOW that all of my loyal readers have seen RENT, even if they won't admit to it. (Aunt Becky--you have been put on notice) And most of you have probably seen it before me, but STILL I must leave my two cents worth. I finally got to see it last night, in the pouring English spring, and lemme tell you, it was worth it. Despite his best efforts, Chris "Screwed Up Harry Potter!" Columbus managed to not mess up RENT. The weirdest thing, I think I speak for everyone, was the way they rearranged the songs and had people speaking some of the songs instead of singing, but when they did sing--oh my, look out. I was impressed the most with newcomer Rosario Dawson, who played Mimi, and Jesse L. Martin who needs to sing and dance more!! Man!!! There's a hundred little things, but I think the thing that made the best transition to the big screen was Mark's character, with his camera mounted on a bike. Oh-yeah, and "hey, we have a budget now, howsabout we stick Roger out in the middle of New Mexico so he can be angsty on top of some mountains?!" Random!!! The thing I missed the most was the voicemail messages--although Alexi Darling was exactly as I pictured her.

There's so much more I could say about RENT. As I journaled yesterday: "RENT really was sort of the transition from a pock-marked, four eyed, Andrew Lloyd-Webber OBSESSED Phantom freak with a mask on her backpack into the suave and well-read musical theatre geek I am today. [who can twist Hedwig lyrics to her own purpose.] Seeing the movie was more nostalgic than gritty and urban and NOW, but it's nice to see the show getting some recognition. When they flashed 'THANK YOU JONATHAN LARSEN' at the end of the credits, I applauded." Yes, thank you Mr. Larsen to waking me up to the potential of what a musical could be, and paving the way for me to become interested in shows such as "Floyd Collins" and "The Ballad of Elizabeth Sulkymouth."