iTunes Exclusive Episode Rent 20

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If you are hearing the sound of my voice right now, it means the following conditions
have been met.
At least once in your life, you have listened to the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday
night.
7 Eastern 4 Pacific, we are your one-stop shop for all things pop culture.
But it also means if you hear my voice right now that you subscribe to the show on iTunes
because it is time for another...
At least once in your life.
The 238th one of these things, getting closer to another milestone.
Welcome!
My name is Rob.
Executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and really looking forward to this particular
episode.
But I'm not alone as I very rarely am for these things, joining me across the desk as he
tends to do is my co-hosts.
And a man has lived in an apartment or two in his time.
He is Chad.
Welcome sir.
Yeah, you could say that.
Also joining us is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who currently lives in an apartment.
You may know him as fond Don Go but his mom and even Don Ford I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
For about the last 20 years that is true.
Am I back condo next year though?
Hey, now who knows?
Whatever we do one of these things it is to review something this is no exception.
This particular episode, we are reviewing a stage production.
And what a stage production it is.
If you aren't feeling old enough as you're listening to this show, let me help you out
there.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the musical rent.
And it changed the game on Broadway a little bit when it debuted 20 years ago.
Kind of a different format than your average musical tackling issues that musicals didn't
really tackle at that time.
Even issues that's socially, we weren't really prepared to tackle at that time.
A lot of people would call it the Hamilton of its time.
You know, it is a reworking of Puccini's L'Aboim.
The boy.
The boy.
The boy.
The boy.
The boy.
The boy.
The boy.
The whole thing.
Yes, sir.
We have to think our great friend who we loved to death, Cindy Evans, AT&T, performing our
center.
Yeah, you don't want to fear the windspirer opera houses.
Oh, that's so cool.
We love her.
Now everybody there.
Thank you so much for the invite.
Okay, I don't really want to go too deep into the plot, but here's what you need to
know.
It covers about a year span of time, about 16 different characters in this thing, mainly
some people play more than one role, dealing with being a 20 something, living in the
East Village in New York in the late 90s and all of the social morays and, uh, dilemmas
that come there in, I think that's pretty much as deep as we should probably need to
go on this.
I mean, like, if you don't know what rent is, like, first of all, welcome back from
the 50s.
I did hear, I did hear a story today about a couple in China who, like, I'm, I'm, I'm building
literally living in a cave for 54 years.
So it's happening there.
It could happen.
It could happen here.
And my uncle, my in Wyoming is probably doing the same thing, but I'll be honest with you.
I knew nothing about rent except it was a play till the last night.
Yeah, I, I really couldn't help myself when Darn, right before Curtin, he's on says,
so what's this about?
I just, I, I, I, it was one of those moments that you kind of just have to look at the
guy to go, it's about a bunch of people they ran, but he's gonna pass me too much, sometimes
the comedy writes the stuff.
But, but I want to thank you guys for holding back last night for special, I was like,
we helped that.
Okay, all you did.
We were just attired to do anything, yeah.
Well, I don't, I don't really like to go deep into a plot line of a play, what a bunch
of people that are sitting around me, maybe just as naive as, yeah, is anybody else
in, they, they made, I want to just, certain aspects of this music, which also has been
made into a film with the majority of its original cast intact.
People like the great Jesse L. Martin, I'm just saying, uh, there's certain aspects
of this plot line that I really don't want to go into, right?
As if you don't know, I want you to be able to go through it yourself, right, because
it is a, an experience to say the least.
Now, I will tell you that there's a really, I'm looking at my program from last night
when we wouldn't saw this, then there's a really nice flow chart for you as that tells
you how I put it a spider web.
Yes, that tells you how everybody is very Kevin Baconie, yeah, so let's just not even
bury it here.
We have been reviewing stage productions as a unit for, for creeping up on two and a half
years now.
You are going to be hard pressed for me on the whole to find a more complete production
than we saw the night before we were close to a joke and like we've seen shows that
had strong performances, we've seen shows that had amazing set design.
We've seen shows that had beautiful music.
We've seen shows that were just directed well.
This is all of the above.
And I stumbled across a copy of the production that they filmed off the plot, well, it was
basically like the final show on Broadway that they broadcast in movie theaters.
It was on Broadway for 11 years or 11 or 12 or something like that.
And it's the 11th longest running show Broadway history, the brand for 12 years.
And the numbers mixed.
I caught a glimpse of the stage design and it was identical to what we saw in the
gorgeous.
I mean, we walked into the Windspir Opera House and I was like, this is fixing to be a
thing, bro.
Yeah, because you hit the corner before we did your like, dude, the set of, I can't see it
from where I'm standing.
Sometimes I forgot to have a bit of a height advantage.
Well, at least you were at a better angle, you could see around the corner we couldn't
see it yet.
The orchestra in the pit, it was a live band on stage, which weren't really well.
But what I thought was really cool about that is you knew the band was there, but you
forgot the band.
Right.
The way the set design works, they just kind of blend into the ceiling.
Yeah, they become the background, which I thought was really neat.
And the fact that they did that, not only did the, did the set do it, they did it for themselves.
Like for instance, the guy playing the keyboard just really the only guy you can actually
see from where we sat.
Yeah, it's back to us full time.
Yeah.
So you never saw his face, which because it was kind of like, yes, we want you to know
we're here, but we want your face over there, right, which I really, really dug a real quick
fact check, 5000 120 here, three performances on Broadway for over 12 years.
Yeah.
Yeah, 2000, I mean 1996 to, except for 70, 2008.
And this, this tour, I looked it up, Dallas is the third stop on this tour.
Yeah.
It's going to go deep into the spring.
And some places, like I saw that they're actually going to be in Midland, Odessa, which
is out in West Texas, one night only.
Yeah.
There's a lot of these one-off stops on this thing and we're going to, there's a reason
I'm saying this that we're going to talk about when we get to the final analysis.
But this is a full-blown tour.
And for this being the third stop on this tour, you know, week, I didn't think there
were a lot of kings.
I mean, it's show that they have this down.
No, I thought this thing was, oh, yeah.
This thing was.
I mean, I meant to say there were a lot of kings when they were there.
It's gold, never said it's tight as a tiger.
No, I want to, if, if you go to my written review at www.clubasspacast.com.
That's our website.
Okay, I want it.
This, I'm going to bury the lead on this whole thing.
No, you're not going to bury the lead.
Well, bury the lead.
You're going to say it later.
Yeah, I'm going to, okay.
Here's the deal.
Don's a little tired.
Yeah.
I'll point last night.
Okay.
This production, which I loved about it so much, broke all the rules.
Every, most of the productions we see are musicals.
It's about one or two lead characters.
There was, there was no real lead character.
No, it was more about the experience.
There was about like eight major characters, which I really loved,
which didn't put the emphasis on one or two people.
It was a great plot that flowed through.
It was a modern day thing.
It wasn't this thing about a hundred years ago.
And it's a predictable plot where it's a bunch of music.
And they don't care about the plot.
The plot kept me in interest at the whole time.
The music broke all the bolts.
This production broke the bolts on everything.
From like you said, the subject matter to the music, to the production,
to the staging, to the acting, to everything.
I was so into this in the music.
How one song led to the other, to the other, to the transitions.
And how you can have an upbeat song, and then the next song,
will tear you to tears.
There were about three or four times where I'm just like,
Oh, okay.
And I said to Chad as we were leaving last night.
I said, Don's review on this is going to be the one I'm going to be interested to see.
Because Don is not afraid to say that he doesn't necessarily have the level of
cred that Chad and I do when it comes to things of a pop culture nature.
And make no mistake.
Rent is embedded in the pop culture of our society.
Oh, yeah.
Because everything he just said is absolute honest to God,
bonafide a hundred percent true.
And I also like something that he said in his written where
if friends were to be made into a Broadway musical with a more serious tone.
That's a connection that I wouldn't have made.
And when I started reading his review, because I read every review,
you do because I edit them before we put them for that.
And I saw that.
I was like, You know what?
That's a good point.
It's a little bit of a reach, but I can see it.
And not really.
I don't get that much of a reach because this is definitely a product of its time.
I mean, it's got the 90s.
Oh, that's the rich.
Absolutely.
But they were there were some slide references in some of the lyrics that
like whenever he said, I max 3D something or they're like,
Okay, that's obviously not a 90s reference because it wasn't that prevalent in the 90s.
But that you're the fact that you're looking at this particular set of characters
through one guy's lens, literally through his lens.
And that you see his perspective on how life goes on around him.
And it definitely felt like something that could accept that of us out of something
on NBC in the 90s.
But for me, it was a bit of a reach, but the more I read it,
the more I was like, You know what?
That actually kind of makes sense.
It's not a connection I would have ever made.
You know, I can roll with it.
And I would have thought that you would have made that.
This was such a breath of fresh air.
It was something that I could really.
It's a breath of fresh air, but let's make no mistakes.
This musical for those of you that don't know is not rainbows and butterflies.
Oh, no.
Which I loved about that also.
I mean, there's got so many twisted relationships.
It reminds me of some of my tap past getting into it.
I think we can all relate to at least one or two of the people.
And how my biggest difficulty here is how do you evaluate performance?
I couldn't because this cast, and I said it in my written review,
which is conveniently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Which is our website.
This is an ensemble in the truest of senses.
Okay.
Everybody in this thing understands the given take.
There's such a flow to it that there's the old saying of a chain is only as strong as
as it's week as link.
There isn't a week as link.
Even the people that are, you could consider, I guess, chorus players.
Just the ensemble in this.
Yeah.
I mean, and nobody ever took away from anybody else.
You knew exactly where your focus needed to be the entire time.
And I was gauging my entire evaluation of this on the way.
On the way, act 2 was going to start.
Because the one song, I would say there's two songs that really everybody knows from this.
Light my candle.
And seasons of love, right?
Seasons of love was what I was going to base my evaluations on.
Because if you screw that song, the whole thing shocked.
Yeah.
Because especially in act 2, because number one, it starts act 2.
Number 2, it is the theme of act 2.
Exactly.
And they came out and destroyed that room.
Yeah.
It broke your jaw.
Yeah.
It's not gonna punch you and break your jaw.
I mean, the harmonies dead on every person who goes to the sound people for getting
an exact balance every time outside of one half second I caught.
That was their bike was quite high enough.
Yes.
Yeah.
That was only one time.
And it was that fast.
You're really digging for it.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
You really had to dig.
And the only reason I noticed is because I noticed those things.
Because I am an audio file.
There's nothing about this production.
I didn't absolutely love, but again, if you don't know about this, this is not a family
show.
Oh no.
There is that one point towards the end of act 1 that there is a full moon.
And that's all I'm saying.
Yeah.
And I even turned my eyes to be respectful.
There's just nothing about this thing.
I can't find fault in it.
And that's the beauty of it.
And the chemistry between.
Absolutely.
There's such a great work by this entire cast.
And the thing that shocked me the most about the cast is that whenever you go through
the program and you see what other productions they've been involved in.
In a lot of cases.
This is their professional debut on this tour.
But it's also both extremes because if you look at the guy that played.
The preacher.
No, the guy that played Roger.
The filmmaker.
This is his sixth swim through this production.
And I thought that was the guy that played the preacher.
He played like a couple of roles.
That's I thought it said Roger.
John Devaro.
Mr. Jefferson preacher.
It says I'm performing in six.
You're right.
Yeah.
He was one of the smaller roles.
So I'm guessing he probably played one of the more major roles in the earlier part of
the tour.
I worked as a mentor to the kids.
You're getting hate me for asking this.
No, no, no.
If you had to choose one who gets the shining star.
I can't.
I don't know if I can.
I know there's one voice that continuously grabbed me throughout the whole thing.
Was that Mimi or was it?
Harrington.
Aaron Harrington.
Aaron Harrington.
Yeah.
Very pure voice to him.
The girl that played Mimi for me, Skyler Volpe.
And Moreen played by Kila Mark.
I mean, they're such strong personality that are required to play these characters.
But they also get to give and take, which makes it work better.
Yeah, I mean it's it's emotionally a very heavy production.
Absolutely, especially act two.
But the character of marine is really your first real, real, well angel I guess.
I guess give you some some light at the end of all, you know, throughout all this darkness and bleakness
but
The performance art piece was killed over the moon over the moon. I was just about to say over the moon
Was it was a really nice
Just kind of break away from the heaviness when you can get an entire
theater to move back at you you've accomplished something especially when they've been down
That emotional journey already. You know, I give one word of advice a lot
It's a couple times especially lately is if you're gonna go on a first date
Never go to a movie or a show because you don't get to know that person go out to dinner or get to be able to talk
This is the one I'm gonna give the exception to because because you did
Yeah, but it worked. Yeah, that's what he's saying, but you know this on a foot this is even for
I even for first date. This is awesome
And I see never go to movie on the first date because you don't talk to him
You don't get to know the person you just send and watch a film
This one still broke the mold and did it somehow and
It doesn't masterfully. Yeah, I would almost say if I have the choice
To go back in time and watch the original run or watch this run. I think I still pick this run really
There's just something about this production
And not taking away from the original cast because if you look through that original cast
There were some heavy hitters in it. Yeah, we we saw an original cast member and something in the within the last year. This is one of those things
That
Absolutely will take your breath away. I hope they do a cast recording with this cast being that it's a 20th anniversary tour
I don't really hope they do. I would think so. Maybe halfway through the run. They'll take a break or something and just throw it down
Man, I hope so because this this on song and it's amazing. I've said on this show many many times my biggest problem with frozen. It's too much singing
Not unless one don't have a problem with it here because there's not a whole heck of a lot of dialogue if at all in this one
It's been noted in the past of my reviews house. I've said so many of these productions is song song song
20 minute plot which is just brainless and they'll even care about the pause just a bunch of singing
This one had a ton of singing, but it worked. Yeah, I know they they changed a lot of the singing to dialogue and the theatrical release
And then but they do the movie release which makes sense because you're gonna kind of lose people if you don't right
Because this is a different kind of audience, but I don't know I think in this day and age
I could probably put this particular version on on film when I think it would go over like gangbusters
Maybe as a blue ray release or something. Yeah, I think so all right
Are we ready for the final analysis? Have we did we said everything we used to say we keep in the phrase on this thing because we could probably keep going forever
The way we do the final analysis on this show. It's kind of different if you're joining us for the first time first of all. Welcome
We're not gonna give you thumbs-up thumbs-down. We're not gonna give you letter grade stars numbers
Pictures of puppies whatever this is not how you get
He's lost his money. I'm gonna ask these boys up to two questions question number one is
Would you see this production again if the answer's no then we're done here now since this is a stage production
It's gonna be a little bit different our spectrum is going to tell and because I'm not gonna give you the whole spectrum
When we do stage production because it's real simple
If the answer is yes
Then the question is
When we would you talk about how far you're willing to go where do you want to set because that'll dictate to you Empire member or members
How much money would be willing to spend on this so dial them on a start with you
Would you see the 20th anniversary tour of rent again? Yes, all right, where do you want to sit?
I'm gonna give my answer then give a little praise my first answer little more praise
anywhere
See this thing full price to just get in and see this thing. Okay now
I'm gonna say something which you're not only me expect now, but
Once has always been my setting bar
This gives once I run for too many wow
I mean once was the best stage production I've ever saw this is getting up there and this is competing with once
You know what you know that standard to me. Oh, yeah, I know I was there. Yeah, Chad
You want to see it again? Yes, where you want to be? I'm with Don
Whatever it would cost to get me in the building
I mean if I got a
Sell good fillings out of my teeth. I don't care. I've got to see this thing again
It's not fires. I really want to see this thing again. It is now
It's probably in my top three of all time
All the history of ever in the history of ever. Wow. I mean it's like it kind of varies in my top three of where they fall between
Phantom
Wicked in this because I didn't see it as a clean sweep
I would definitely see this again
I'm gonna go even a step further than both of you
I don't care if you have to sit in the lobby and watch it on a monitor that's gonna be
I don't care if you're parked out on the lawn and you're looking through the window up there
Just so you can see in like you used to do in your kid for the big-
The screen in the restroom absolutely
Pull up a bar stool and enjoy the evening. That's what I'm saying. This is that good
Before we end this thing and it's just gives a much praise
We have to again think city events everybody at ATT back in the wind spirit. Thank you so much for the invite great facility great room great presentation
this
For everyone involved in this congratulations on a job amazingly well done for everybody that was in the audience last night
That will be in the audience tonight and will be in the audience every night until October 2nd here in Dallas
Congratulations on getting be able to go. I don't care how what you have to do with this is not coming to your city
If you go to the website all the dates are there
I don't care where your city is if you have to get on a plane to fly to a city to see this
You could fly at first class and you still would feel like you didn't pay enough
That's how good this is we're getting a really long run here like an unusually long. Yes
We are comparison
This thing started a week ago and we're the third city and we've got it for almost two weeks
Exactly and then what you see it a desk it gets like one day again
For there's a lot of things are only getting a one night only run
So go to the website because you don't if you've got a one night run on this thing
You're good enough want to get your tickets going to go
Don't fall down
Allegedly allegedly
That being said if you have to it on let's go ahead and go ahead and get before Don gets us in any more trouble
Let's go ahead and do the plugs
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I'm at fondango and you can email me at dawn at the clubhouse podcast.com email dawn for information how we can come to a live show for you
We're gonna be we got quite a few live shows coming up in the next couple of months. Yeah, so keep an eye on our our social media for that
You email don't for information how we can add you to our schedule
You can email me if you'd like questions comments concerns tell me to go pound say and I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast
dot com I am Chad at clubhouse podcast dot com Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we're morally obligated to say that and
My plus one Sarah Schurler Carter had a wonderful time
And she wanted to make sure I said that because she couldn't be here with tonight and I mean normally
I would ask what jules thought but I was there
So my plus one really like to
And she's also in the room just being at my my plus one is the first time being there. All right
Yeah, our normal show every Sunday night
7034 Pacific is your one stop shop for all things pop culture so for Don for Chad for the empire
I'm Rob clubhouse's closed for New Palm Beach so put her in it. I'm just saying
You