''Rent: Live'' is an American

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

that was broadcast by

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

on January 27, 2019. It is a partially live production of the 1996

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

-winning

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

'', which tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

's East Village in the thriving days of

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

Alphabet City, under the shadow of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

Cast and characters

* Jordan Fisher as Mark Cohen * Brennin Hunt as Roger Davis * Tinashe as Mimi Marquez * Brandon Victor Dixon as Tom Collins * Valentina as Angel Dumott Schunard *

Vanessa Hudgens Vanessa Anne Hudgens (; born December 14, 1988) is an American actress and singer. After making her feature film debut in ''Thirteen'' (2003), Hudgens rose to fame portraying Gabriella Montez in the ''High School Musical'' film series (2006� ...

as Maureen Johnson *

Kiersey Clemons Kiersey Nicole Clemons (born December 17, 1993) is an American actress. She is known for her role in the 2015 comedy-drama film '' Dope'', playing Cassandra "Diggy" Andrews. Subsequently, she went on to co-star in '' Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ...

as Joanne Jefferson *

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...

as Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III

Soloists

Keala Settle Keala Joan Settle (born November 5, 1975) is an American actress and singer. Settle originated the role of Norma Valverde in '' Hands on a Hardbody'', which ran on Broadway in 2013, and was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk ...

as Cy (a gender-flipped version of Paul from the original, also combined with soloist 1), Homeless Person, Vendor, Roger's Mother * Jennifer Leigh Warren as Homeless Woman with Bags, Mrs. Jefferson, Sue, Vendor, Police Officer, Mrs. Cohen *Debra Cardona as Homeless Woman 2, Ali, Vendor, Police Officer, Cook, Angel's Mom, Mimi's Mother *Matt Saldivar as Mr. Grey, Salvation Army Santa, Gordon, Drunk Santa 1, Vendor, Security Guard *Alton Fitzgerald White as Police Officer, Mr. Jefferson, Support Group Member 2, Homeless Man, Vendor, Cook, Drag Queen, The Pastor *J. Elaine Marcos as Police Officer, Pam, Vendor, Homeless Woman 1, Coat Vendor, Server, Alexi Darling, Angel's Sister, Halloween Costume *Bryce Ryness as The Man, Police Officer, Cook Owner, Support Group Member 16 *Emerson Collins as Police Officer, Steve, Drunk Santa 2, Junkie, Host, Halloween Costume *Fredric Odgaard *Benjamin Douglas Rivera *Darius Crenshaw

Ensemble

*Robert Roldan *Morgan Marcell *Khori Petinaud *Mia DeWeese *Fred Odgaard *Tilly Evans-Krueger

Dancers

*Hannahlei Cabanilla *Sasha Dominique Mallory *Ty Wells *Jessica Lee Keller *Lenin Fernandez Jr. *Nick Lanzisera *Benjamin Douglas Rivera The original Broadway cast, including

Daphne Rubin-Vega Daphne Rubin-Vega ( Vega; born November 18, 1969) is a Panamanian-American actress, dancer, and singer-songwriter. She is best known for originating the roles of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical ''Rent'' and Lucy in the Off-Broadway play ''J ...

, Anthony Rapp, Fredi Walker,

Adam Pascal Adam Pascal (born October 25, 1970) is an American actor, singer, and musician, known for his performance as Roger Davis in the original 1996 cast of Jonathan Larson's musical ''Rent (musical), Rent'' on Broadway theatre, Broadway, the 2005 Rent ...

Jesse L. Martin Jesse Lamont Martin ('' né'' Watkins; January 18, 1969) is an American actor and singer. He originated the role of Tom Collins on Broadway in the musical ''Rent'' and performed on television as NYPD Detective Ed Green on '' Law & Order'' and ...

Taye Diggs Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs (born January 2, 1971) is an American stage and film actor. He is known for his roles in the Broadway musicals ''Rent'' and '' Hedwig and the Angry Inch'', the TV series ''Private Practice'' (2007-2013), ''Murder in the ...

, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, and

Gilles Chiasson Gilles Chiasson (born November 1, 1966) is an American producer, director, composer, writer and actor. While he first came to prominence as an actor, particularly in the original cast of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning Rent (musical) ...

made cameos in the special.

Musical numbers

Act 1

*"Tune Up #1" – Mark, Roger *"Voice Mail #1" – Mark's Mom *"Tune Up #2" – Mark, Roger, Collins, Benny *"Rent" – Mark, Roger, Joanne, Benny, Collins, Ensemble *"You Okay, Honey?" – Angel, Collins, Homeless Man *"Tune Up #3" – Mark *"One Song Glory" – Roger *"Light My Candle" – Roger, Mimi *"Today 4 U" – Angel, Collins, Mark, Roger *"You'll See" – Benny, Mark, Roger, Collins, Angel *"Voice Mail #2" – Joanne's Mom, Joanne's Dad *"Tango: Maureen" – Mark, Joanne *"Life Support" – Cy, Gordon, Steve, Ali, Pam, Sue, Angel, Collins, Mark *"Out Tonight" – Mimi *"Another Day" – Roger, Mimi, Ensemble *"Will I?" – Company *"On the Street" – Homeless Man, Carolers, Homeless Woman, Cops, Mark, Collins, Angel *"Santa Fe" – Collins, Angel, Mark *"I'll Cover You" – Collins, Angel *"We're Okay" – Joanne *"Christmas Bells" – Company *"Over the Moon" – Maureen *"

La Vie Bohème "La Vie Bohème" (french: The Bohemian Life) is a song from the 1996 musical ''Rent''. It is a celebration of bohemianism, especially the type present in 1980s Alphabet City, Manhattan, which begins with a mocking of the character Benny's stateme ...

" – Company *"I Should Tell You" – Mimi, Roger *" La Vie Bohème B" – Company

Act 2

Seasons of Love "Seasons of Love" is a song from the 1996 Broadway musical ''Rent'', written and composed by Jonathan Larson. The song starts with an ostinato piano motif, which provides the harmonic framework for the cast to sing "Five hundred twenty-five thou ...

" – Company *"Happy New Year" – Mark, Roger, Maureen, Mimi, Joanne *"Voice Mail #3" – Mark's Mom, Alexa Darling *"Happy New Year B" – Mark, Roger, Maureen, Mimi, Joanne, Benny, The Man *"

Take Me or Leave Me "Take Me or Leave Me" is a song from the musical ''Rent'', written by American composer Jonathan Larson. In the original 1996 Broadway production, the song was performed by Idina Menzel as Maureen and Fredi Walker as Joanne. Film version In the ...

" – Maureen, Joanne *"Without You" – Mimi, Roger *"Voice Mail #4" – Alexa Darling *"Contact" – Company *"I'll Cover You eprise – Collins, Cy, Mark, Ensemble *"Halloween" – Mark *"Goodbye Love" – Mark, Roger, Mimi, Joanne, Maureen, Benny, Collins *"What You Own" – Mark, Roger *"Voice Mail #5" – Parents *"Finale" – Homeless People, Mark, Roger, Collins, Maureen, Joanne, Mimi *"Your Eyes" – Roger *"

Finale B ''Rent'' is a rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's 1896 opera ''La Bohème''. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Low ...

" – Company *"Seasons of Love (Finale C)" – Company, Original Broadway Cast of ''

'' Several of the songs, notably the various "Voice Mails," "Christmas Bells" and "Finale A", were shortened to fit the run time. "Seasons of Love B" was cut entirely.

Production and broadcast

Marc Platt,

Adam Siegel Adam Siegel (born March 9, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and graphic designer (he has provided artwork and design for several releases by L.A. groups) from Venice, California, United States. KISS, B ...

, Julie and Al Larson (Jonathan's sister and father, respectively), Vince Totino, Scott Hemming, and Marla Levine are credited as executive producers. On January 26, 2019, during the Saturday dress rehearsal, Brennin Hunt, who plays Roger, broke his foot. Fox announced in an official statement that despite his injury, the show would air as planned using both pre-recorded footage from a previous dress rehearsal and live footage. On January 27, the show was performed in its entirety with limited physical activity before a studio audience as scheduled, with Hunt performing in a wheelchair. The simultaneous telecast consisted almost entirely of the prerecorded dress rehearsal from the prior night; only the final 15 minutes of the program, which consisted of the songs "Finale", "Your Eyes", and "Finale B", as well as an encore performance of "

" featuring the original 1996 Broadway cast, was broadcast live. The choreography of the final act was modified to accommodate Hunt being in a wheelchair.

WNYW technical issues

A technical fault at the start of the show occurred with

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

's Fox flagship station WNYW and its direct fiber connection to cable providers

Optimum Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfi ...

and

Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors i ...

, resulting in those viewers missing the first five minutes of the special, including all or part of the musical numbers "Tune Up #1," "Voice Mail #1," "Tune Up #2" and "Rent".

Reception

Critical reception

The special received mixed to negative reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it holds a 27% approval rating from 22 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. The critical consensus reads, "Despite the show's earnest intentions, ''Rent Lives clumsy production and pre-recorded broadcast render it an underwhelming 'live' musical event." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which calculates a weighted average of review scores, the special holds a score of 49 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating a "mixed or average" reception. Much of the criticism focused on the production's failure to hire understudies for the main cast in reference to Hunt's injury, as well as the decision to broadcast a prerecorded performance for a program marketed as live television. Daniel Fienberg, writing for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', wrote that the network "could have quickly strategized a live concert setting with a limited staging around Hunt and then aired the dress rehearsal at some point during the week." Aisha Harris, reviewing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', echoed these sentiments, writing "How do you measure three hours of chaotic visuals and middling audio most of us were never meant to see and hear?", and calling the camerawork "overwrought." Extensive edits to profanity and sexual references in the musical's lyrical content, made in order to meet network broadcasting standards, was also the subject of criticism, with '' Variety'' critic Caroline Framke questioning if a broadcast network was an appropriate outlet for a production of the show in the first place. However, the cast's performances (particularly Fisher, Dixon, Tinashe and Hudgens) were generally praised, and the production design of the program was also well received. In a mostly positive review for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'', Caroline Siede wrote that the special "did what these live musicals are supposed to do—reimagine a beloved musical with a new aesthetic, new performers, and new staging choices," and praised the show's finale featuring the 1996 Broadway cast.

Ratings

The telecast received a 1.4 rating among adults 18 to 49 and 3.42 million total viewers, making it the lowest-rated live musical broadcast as of its airdate. In markets where ratings were available segment-by-segment, viewership fell dramatically after the opening segment.Pergament, Alan (February 1, 2019)
WGRZ is storm coverage ratings leader; Pro Bowl rating tops NHL All-Star game in Buffalo
''The Buffalo News''. Retrieved February 1, 2019. " Viewers knew something was up when Fox announced it was prerecorded before the program began. The rating plummeted (...) after the first 15 minutes of the program."

Awards

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, LGBT, Music, Television, Theatre, United States 2019 LGBT-related films 2019 television specials 2010s American television specials African-American LGBT-related films American live television shows American English-language television shows Films set in 1989 Films set in 1990 Films set in Manhattan Fox television specials HIV/AIDS in American films LGBT-related musical films American musical television films Musical theatre television specials American LGBT-related television specials Jonathan Larson