Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway [Blu-ray]

No experience quite matches the thrill of a live Broadway spectacular seen up close and in person. Now, this stunning performance shot in High Definition puts you in the front row as the smash hit RENT brings down the curtain on its history-making, 12-year run! You've never had seats this great...never seen and heard each character so intimately...never shared every emotion in such a personal way! After winning four Tony Awards® and the Pulitzer Prize, Jonathan Larson's powerhouse musical tour de force entered the record books as the 7th-longest-running show in all Broadway history. In this unforgettable theatrical experience - made possible by special arrangement with the Broadway producers and Actors Equity Association - take an intimate journey through a single year in the lives of a small circle of friends and artists living their dreams, battling their demons and celebrating life on the streets of New York City's East Village. Meet would-be filmmaker Mark, sweet transvestite Angel For passionate fans of Rent--the popular Broadway rock musical that updated La Boheme with electric guitars, steel drums, strippers, and drag queens--Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway is a must-have.Written and composed by Jonathan Larson (who died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm just before the show premiered), Rent follows an absurdly clean-cut gaggle of hipster artists who, after having been squatting in a run-down building for a year, are now being told they have to pay that rent by the building's owner, a former friend. At least, that's the plot point that launches everything; really, the musical is about modern romance, grappling with AIDS, and celebrating the creative spirit. This film documents the last performance of the Broadway production, which ran for 12 years. Though the aggressive camera moves and sometimes frenetic editing seem intended to make the film feel less stagebound, this Rent first and foremost captures the stage experience. The production's raw set and self-conscious theatricality (which highfalutin' theater folk might call "Brechtian") creates genuine show-biz razzle-dazzle and helps distract from some of the cliches in the musical itself. There are no famous faces (the closest is Tracie Thoms, who played the same role, the lesbian lover of a performance artist, in the movie version), but the cast is solid and exuberant, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the show's unapologetically sincere paeans to life and love. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (Click for larger image)

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