Viva La Vie Boheme!

Normally I would put this kind of thing as a sidebar item in the "Express Lane," but this one deserved its own post.

Dearly Beloved
We Gather Here To Say Our Goodbyes

Here She Lies
No On Knew Her Worth
The Late Great Daughter Of Mother Earth
On This Night When We Celebrate The Birth
In That Little Town Of Bethlehem
We Raise Our Glass - You Bet Your Ass To -
La Vie Boheme

(commence shoulder bobbing)

Broadway's 'Rent' Will Close in June

While it's sad news, I can't say I didn't see it coming.  Being a geek (in more ways than one - theater and stats), a few times a month I find myself checking the weekly Broadway grosses over at the Playbill website and I was recently telling Todd that Rent's prospects were not looking too good.  While it got a nice financial bump this past fall with the return of original cast members, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal... since then, the show has been hovering at a sketchy 50% capacity... and I'm guessing the recent strike didn't help much either.

Though never having seen it on the Great White Way, we have seen the show three times, most recently last February.  Funny enough, the Mark and Roger from that tour (who were quite good!) are currently on Broadway (along with American Idol's Tamyra Gray).  While I was crazed about Les Miserables for a good while, I have to say that Rent is probably my all-time favorite.  Just last week, in a rare instance of channel surfing, we stumbled upon the movie version on were hooked into it for far longer than we planned... and I even added Seasons of Love to our Holiday iPod playlist... as it seems a perfect song to end the year.

Debuting on Broadway in April 2006 and shortly after the shocking death of its creator, 36-year old Jonathan Larson, Rent will notch just over 5,000 performances and end its run as the 7th longest run on Broadway (with the still running and supremely stunt-casted revival of Chicago breathing down its neck).

While the show may have been showing its pre-Millennium age of late (a recent London/West End "update" of the show didn't fare well), let's hope the spirit of the show lives on...  in our busy lives, take a breath and remember to "measure your life in love" and "forget regret or life is yours to miss"....

There's only now
There's only here
Give in to love
Or live in fear
No other path
No other way
No day but today
No day but today

UPDATE:  Thanks to Jeff and Jen (keep 'em coming!) for their very cool RENT-centric memories.  Jason Clark posted his Top 5 Memories over on EW's PopWatch Blog... and #2 certainly echoed my most memorable moment, though it was on my first time to the show: 

This show turns grown men into wusses. My third trip was with my mom, who observed that both I and the giant, 6'4" football player-type dude to her left, sobbed like babies when rock 'n' roll Roger sang "Your Eyes" to a dying Mimi.

Comments

[Jeff]

Aww. I remember buying the cast album when I was a sophomore in college and listening to it almost constantly all year. Hard to believe it was more than ten years ago...

Since then, I think I've seen "Rent" about five times in various places, including once when I was on vacation in Italy! It was playing in Milan when I was there, and of course I had to see it. And the added bonus was it was all sung in Italian!

[jen maiser]

I have seen this gads of times, and listen to it -- still -- probably on a weekly basis. My favorite Rent story is that in 1996 I was on a terrible fishing trip in Alaska (open ocean, 15 foot swells, I was seasick) so on the ride back into the harbor I stood on the deck (everyone else was inside) and sang the entire album in order to occupy myself.

My obsession wasn't helped by the fact that a friend of a friend was in the cast (she's now singing with the divine miss m).