Rent at Hollywood Bowl

I loved the casting as well. I actually adore NPH, so I trusted him with it. Especially, because not only did he once play Mark, but he is Anthony Rapp's favorite Mark. I absolutely LOVE Tracie Thoms. Did you know that she had tried to play Joanne on stage but never got the role until after she was cast in the movie? After that, she played the role on Broadway, and actually plays it in the closing cast DVD- Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway. The guy cast as Roger, Aaron Tveit, is also a favorite Broadway actor of mine. He played in the original cast of the show Next to Normal as well. I will admit that the casting of Vanessa Hudgens had me nervous, before seeing videos. I agree with you, in that she handled the role very well, in general. Sure, it was a little off, but I had to keep in mind that they had very little time to rehearse, there were limitations with the venue and changes to the play being made, so considering that....Yes, she did well. I was very shocked, actually, by exactly how well she did. Sure, she's no Daphne Rubin-Vega, Rosario Dawson, or Lexi Lawson (my top three Mimis in order of when they played the role), but she definitely deserved being cast.

Yes, I know about Tracie Thomas's previous attempt. She really earned it. It is so fascinating to compare her performance on stage to her performance on the film (I watch the film before watching the stage version, but the stage version was the intense experience). I suspected that Anthony Rapp (I saw him live at the tour!) blessed Neil's interpretation but I never realized Neil was in fact the favorite. I did happen to see Lexi Lawson live. She was amazing and emotional. Rosario Dawson's singing was auto-tuned and unstageworthy, but her acting is always terrific. And I would have loved to see Aaron Tveit after I watched the Tony performance of Next to Normal on television. If my New York trip was not canceled, I would have loved to see N2N.

:) The movie is amazing, not quite as amazing as the show, though. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, Rent is pretty emotion packed. Main character? You might mean Mark, but I'm not sure. There are eight main characters in Rent: Mark, Roger, Mimi, Maureen, Joanne, Collins, Angel, and Benny.