My Most Memorable Theatre Experiences: #3 RENT

I am not here to call myself a RENT-head as I was not a part of the cult following that originated with the show circa 1996 (I was about 8 years old then) but the Jonathan Larson's masterpiece touched me just the same. I am quite embarrassed to say that I saw the movie before I saw the Broadway production, but nonetheless, the movie was my gateway to the show. It was March of 2006 and my senior year of high school when I took a trip to New York with my mom. I was obsessed with RENT's score and we tried to get tickets to the show, but because of the movie's popularity, tickets were hard to come by. We waited in freezing weather at TKTS but the only thing available was partial view. We had recently heard about the show's ticket lottery and decided we would try our hand at that. Our hotel concierge urged us to purchase tickets because the lottery was "nearly impossible" to win, but we thought we'd try our luck anyway.

I remember this like it was yesterday. My mom and I both wrote our names on sheets of paper and anxiously awaited the drawing. I could tell that most of the other people there that night were huge fans of the show and their love for RENT was infectious. Now I am not what I would consider a lucky person, but on that day something just felt right and sure enough, the first name drawn was mine! I couldn't keep from shaking as I handed the box office attendant the $40 to purchase my two front row tickets.

Now I don't know what I can say about RENT that hasn't already been said, but never in my life had I felt so much love and energy in one room. I have now seen the show several times, always from the front row as a lottery winner and I would never want to see it from anywhere else. There is really nothing like it, you feel like you are on stage with the actors and their energy is kinetic. This is one of those shows that has meant different things to me at different points in my life and what spoke to me then was the message "no day but today". It was a difficult time for me as I was preparing to choose a college and transition into a new phase in my life and the show's message really gave me the strength to seize these new opportunities. My first time seeing RENT is an experience that I will never forget and of all the theatre lotteries I've won over the years, this was truly the luckiest I've ever felt.

Fun Fact of the Day: Broadway on a Budget

So I'm thinking of starting a new daily post (it may go weekly if I run out of ideas) where I give a fun fact of the day about theatre, dance, performing arts, etc.

Day 1: There are ways to see Broadway shows without pay $126.50 which is the current top ticket price. Consult this article on playbill.com for each individual show's policy for lottery, rush or standing room. It is pretty self-explanatory, but make sure to check the specific show you want to see before you go to the box office. Most of these policies generally require that you pay by cash so be ready with cash in hand when you get to the box office. http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/82428-Broadway-Rush-Lottery-and-Standing-Room-Only-Policies

Happy theatre going!!

Yip Up the Sun: A Tribute to the Broadway Revival of HAiR

For five weeks straight in the summer of 2009 I played the ticket lottery for the Broadway revival of Hair almost everyday. It seemed that I would never win the ticket lottery, oddly enough I rarely lose Broadway ticket lotteries, so I heard about the standing room tickets and decided to go that route. Now I would never recommend standing for a Broadway show because I feel that it takes you out of the performance but for this show, it does the exact opposite. Because the cast members, or the tribe, frequently enter the audience and perform in the aisles, I felt like I was truly part of the performance. As I stood behind the last row of the orchestra, Alison Case (Crissy) gave me a flower and an invitation to a "be-in," Will Swenson (Berger) dove over me to get to the last row of the orchestra, and Darius Nichols (Hud) picked me up and carried me around when he made his Act II entrance.

I really didn't know what to expect when I saw the show for the first time, even though I had heard nothing but positive reactions and I really enjoyed the TONY awards performance. Because Hair is more of a concept musical than a traditional plot-driven show, I must admit that I had a bit of trouble following the story the first time I saw the show and it did not strike me the way I expected it would as I could not find a way to relate to the 1960s characters. Nevertheless I had a great time and loved the energy of the performance, especially when I got to go onstage during the finale dance party.

In the days following the performance, I could not get Hair out of me head and could not stop listening to the soundtrack. Then it hit me that Hair was not just about the 1960s, but rather it was about the power that young people can have when they are united as one. I have never really considered myself an activist but the message of this show, "Letting the Sun Shine In" seemed to relate so closely to many of the issues facing our nation today and I felt so compelled to do something with the passion I felt for this show.

The second time I saw the show on Broadway I was completely invested in everything the cast was doing and the composers were trying to say and I really "got it". When Gavin Creel, Hair's original Claude, began to promote the national march for equality in Washington DC within the Broadway community, I knew I had to be there. Going to the march on the national mall on October 11th, 2009 with all of my theatre friends was one of the most elating experiences of my entire life and it was on that day that I learned what it really meant to "Let the Sun Shine In".

During this time I was also working on my own creative project as a tribute to the youth movement portrayed so artfully in Hair. I was inspired to choreograph Levitating The Pentagon for my Fall Dance Works 2009 piece based on my research of the youth culture of the 1960s. While my piece was not meant to be a direct representation of what I saw and felt from Hair, I wanted to capture the show's community and self-empowerment themes in a different medium: postmodern dance.

I saw the Broadway production of Hair for a third time recently with a new cast that was so much different than the original tribe while still maintaining the youthful energy and feeling of community. I was so happy to be back in the Al Hirschfeld theatre where I had been so inspired six months earlier, not only to create my own art, but to join a social movement. Seeing Hair with two friends who were new to the show was a particularly special experience as I again realized how magical this piece of art really is.

The Broadway production received its closing notice a few weeks ago and played its final performance last night on Sunday June 27th, 2010. While I, along with thousands of others, was so sad to see it go, I know that as this production embarks on its national tour it will continue to inspire new generations of starshines to become the change they want to see in their own world, whether that is in regard to politics, the environment, equality, or any other issue that they feel passion for. It begins in Washington, DC on October 26th, 2011 and I will be there to see the love continue.

When the original production of Hair premiered on Broadway in April of 1968, it was revolutionary and when this revival opened in March of 2009, it compelled an entirely new generation of hippies to stand up for their beliefs the same way that their grandparents did in the 1960s. So I would like to thank James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot for having the courage to write a musical that challenged the status quo and Joe Papp and the Public Theatre for believing that theatre could inspire social change. You have taught us all that our differences make us beautiful and that we all possess, within ourselves, the power to change the world around us.