June 1999. My best friend and I were roaming around Leicester Square in London trying to decide on which West End show we should watch to celebrate our graduation. A little colourful flyer caught my eye - it was an aerial view of a group of twenty-somethings walking down the street. “Let�s go watch Rent. I think I saw a short segment on CNN on the musical two Christmases ago. It�s supposedly good”. We didn�t know what we were getting ourselves into. There were so many other musicals to choose from: Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Chicago. Les Miserables.. all huge famous West End productions, and we settled for Rent - a relatively less popular show compared to its well-known cousins. We weren�t sure what the musical was about, we travelled hundreds of miles down to London and was about to blindly spend GBP 45 on the tickets - it was a leap of faith, sorta.
I have never watched a proper musical theater (the university�s production of Jesus Christ Superstar didn�t count, although the girl who played Mary Magdalene was the absolute shiznits), and watching Rent at the Shaftesbury theater that night totally blew me away. It was a perfect introduction to musical theaters. The music was very edgy (for a musical), the message was strong and the cast was top notch brilliant. No other musicals I�ve watched after that even come close - Cats, Fame, Whistle Down The Wind - they all pale in comparison. So it was really not a big surprise that I make yet another pilgrimage, this time down to Singapore, to catch Rent performed on stage again on it�s first leg of the 10th Anniversary World Tour last weekend.
I’m supposed to write a lengthy review of the performance.. I’ll probably do it later (this is the worst streak of writer’s block I’ve had this year) so now I’ll just provide a Cliff Notes version of the performance that evening (Saturday 3rd December 2005 Matinee Show)
The Good
1. It’s RENT. Duh. Every RENT performance will always be a special occassion.
2. Uber excellent performances from Daryl Brown (Benny), Jeremy Kushnier (Roger), Caren Lyn Manuel (Maureen) and of course, Andy Senor (Angel)
3. Encores by the band
4. No matter how often I watch the performance or listen to the soundtrack, I never fail to shed a tear during I’ll Cover You (Reprise) which is a testament to how powerful RENT is.
The Bad
1. It was the first leg of the 10th Anniversary World Tour, and yet they didn’t even provide tour programmes (let alone other little souvenirs and titbits)
2. Some people mysteriously disappeared after the intermission. I don’t blame them since no announcement were made after the end of La Vie Boheme and no tour programmes were avaiable to inform the newbies that the show consisted of TWO separate acts. They probably thought it was the end of the show and not an intermission.
3. However, we were reminded to redeem our free RENT CD after the show, in exchange for our ticket stubs. Turns out the CD given out was Karen Mok’s CD instead - which I didn’t bother.
The Ugly
1. Oh this one’s easy. It’s Karen Mok. Plain and simple. She was horrible and terrible and abyssimal and horrendous. I don’t hate Karen Mok. But I really hated her performance. I’m not complaining about her dictions. She speaks (or ’sings’) good English (except for the one time that I think she pronounced “There’s only yes” instead of “There’s only us”). But I swear to GOD, she was a terrible terrible singer that day. TERRIBLE. It really had me wondering how she got the part in the first place. She also tends to overact on stage. It was as though she was doing a Senario skit instead of giving a theatrical performance. Seriously, Erma Fatima don’t know what ‘OVER’ really means unless she’s seen Karen Mok’s awful performance. The thing that bugged me the most was, she’s actually frontlining the World Tour and they are promoting her for this tour. I wasn’t expecting a lot from her.. but oh god.. seriously, I’d rather hear tortured cats screeching than her dismal performance. It was bad it was bad it was bad and I’m not exagerrating. I don’t really have any strong opinion on Karen Mok before the show. She might be a good actress, or a good singer. But she is a god awful terrible musical theater actress. She almost killed RENT for me. Almost.
With that said, was it worth it? Of course. If the show stops by Bangkok next year, will I go? For sure. Despite Karen Mok’s performance? Absolutely. But I’ll be sure to bring my iPod to drown out her solo bits in the show. But yeah, even with her on the show, I would definitely go see it again in a heartbeat. Viva La Vie Boheme!
