Vanessa... The Door is That Way

I spent so much time today on Youtube watching every possible RENT actress perform "Out Tonight." Do you know how devastated I am that I have missed my small window of opportunity to see RENT live onstage? VERY DEVASTATED. They need to do a revival. Preferably with the original cast, but since that I am 99.99999999% positive that it's never going to happen, I'd genuinely be 100% (or perhaps 99.99999999%) content with any Broadway-worthy cast. By which I mean, a cast that can sing and act of a Broadway-worthy caliber. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to be famous to be on Broadway, but you had best be talented or else you're just a jerk.

Speaking of RENT revivals, I watched a most-likely-illegally-filmed clip of Vanessa Hudgens singing "Light My Candle" in the Hollywood Bowl production of the musical and it was crap.

I say that as objectively as possible. I'm no great fan of V-Huds' because she nearly ruined an otherwise PERFECTLY FINE, albeit extremely cheesy and also a rip-off of Grease, Disney channel movie. Yes, that's right, Vanessa: you almost ruined High School Musical. Now, HSM is no great theatrical feat and the two sequels were actually terrible, but it is the sort of thing that one could theoretically dance and sing along to on any given day. I don't know if you're annoying or if it was just your character that was annoying, but THE PERSON YOU PLAYED ONSCREEN KILLED MY SOUL.

However, I have no personal grudge against her.

So: she's an okay singer. There were some parts where she was on-tune and sounding fine - not exactly inspiring, but pretty good - but she could not STAY on-tune to save her life. I think she'd be a decent singer if she stuck to easier songs that are NOT SHOWTUNES (even rock-ish ones) because her voice is definitely not powerful enough to sing those songs anywhere other than in her bedroom, to herself. Plus she completely misread the character (Mimi), in my opinion. I understand that each actor interprets the character differently, but by most (read: all) accounts, Mimi isn't supposed to be angry during that scene; she's teasing, flirting, NOT about to rip Roger's balls off.

Then I learned that there's a filmed live performance available for DVD! Now I have something with which I can motivate myself to finish my summer work! (Other than the risk of, like, failing school.)

P.S., I also blogged here today (for the first time in a week) before I realized that it was Monday, so I have totally got BEDA in the BAG today.