 HISTORY
... biography casting,
credits, Season of love, history and so on... |
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NEWS UPDATE: 22.01.00
Skin, the
lead singer of the rock band Skunk Anansie, has been chosen to
sing Seasons of Love in the soundtrack of Rent.
The singer
will also attend the opening night in Milan, on 4th February
2000.
A video
has also been filmed in Cesena, where the set of the show is
mounted. |
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 CHRISTMAS UPDATE
As we speak, rehearsals of
Rent Italy are taking place in Cesena.
While the cast is busy rehearsing the II Act, Blake Burba has
arrived from New York to start his work with lights.
In
view of the opening night in Milan, on 4th February 2000, the
whole cast is getting ready for some TV appearances on Italian
television. They will appear in some of the most popular entertainment
shows of Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, as well as in
other TV program at different times of the day. So, for all those
with a satellite dish or cable TV.. From January 2000 on stay
tuned on Italian television… you might catch a glimpse of
our dear cast!!
On a fashion note.. The cast will
wear the same costumes as in Broadway and London, except for
some items like jeans or t-shirts, which will be provided by
Diesel, the sponsor of the show.
And now.. The
last news, but maybe the most important one!!
By the end of January 2000, the Original Italian Recording of
Rent should be ready!
Well.. I think that's it
for the moment!! |
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RENT ITALY
By Jonathan Larson
Director: Michael Greif
Choreographers: Marlies Yearby, Fabrizio Angelini
Production: DUKE International by Nicoletta Mantovani
Rent will finally
hit the Italian theatre's scene! It will make its debut on 4th
February 2000, date of birth of Jonathan Larson, in Milan. It
will play there until the end of March and then it will move
to Bologna. At the present time there are no other towns included
in the tour, but the producers hope that the show will have enough
success so they will be able to extend it to other places in
the country.
Rent will be
sung in Italian. Translations of Jonathan Larson's lyrics are
by Michele Centonze, who is known here in Italy as the producer
of Jovanotti.
The cast of
Rent Italy is made of young and talented artists coming from
Italy and other countries, such as Cuba and United States. Some
of them will make their theatrical debut with Rent; others have
already worked in productions of Grease, Cats, and A Chorus Line.
One of them, Alan Mingo Jr., has already worked in Rent. In fact,
Alan comes from one of the US touring casts of Rent, the 'Angel
Tour'. There, Alan played several roles and most recently the
role of Collins. Alan will reprise his role as Collins in the
Italian production of Rent. |
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SO INTENSELY ROCK
By Elisa Vaccarino
MILAN - Rent,
the American musical that broke Andrew Lloyd Webber's record,
that had 10 nominations at the Tony Awards and won a Pulitzer
Prize after the death of its author Jonathan Larson, will make
its debut on our scenes, in Italian version.
But, what is this 'Boheme' of the end of the century?
An amazing work which costed only 250,000 dollars in off Broadway
but which earned 6 millions dollar only in the first three months
before moving to 41st Street, where stars like Tom Cruise and
Nicole Kidman where queuing to see it.
The attic of Rodolfo and Co. is now a loft in the East Village,
where we find Roger, a guitar player looking for fame with a
'glorious song', maybe the last one of his life and Mark, filmmaker
who 'hides behind his camera'. They don't have money to pay the
Rent while an ex-roommate, now wealthy, claims for dollars threatening
them with eviction.
The other friends around them are penniless, multi-racial, Hiv+,
pushers, and cops. Within them sneaks in Mimi, a drug addict,
looking for a match; she pronounces the famous 'They call me
Mimi', the 'Tutti mi chiamano Mimi' by Puccini.
Love and death, like in Boheme, move the big emotions, but here
the musical is rock in all its variations, with the calls to
the answering machine, the tango steps for the self-centered,
unfaithful, and bisexual Maureen, who wants to become a star
(the eternal backstage of the American musical) in memory of
Angel, the drag queen who lost the battle again the disease.
New York triumphs and wants the actors to rap, to talk about
sweat, about excitement, about the danger of exchanging body
liquids.
And for this there is the need of angelic and harsh voices, blues
and overwhelming like Tina Turner, and energetic translations
will be necessary; they'll have to consider the fast and discontinuous
metrics of Larson, died at the age of 36 without being able to
enjoy the fame of his Rent, a show that talks about places and
people very similar to him, with a truth that will be difficult
to render in a language and a culture so different from the American
one.
Now, the question: is Milan similar to New York? |
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WE BEGIN…
My 'first time' with
Rent wasn't exactly one of the best… I bought the CD two
years ago, after a friend's suggestion and, well… I admit
I sobbed a little while reading the synopsis but when I started
to listen to the music I said: 'What the…??' It wasn't a
musical! Where were all the typical sounds of a musical? Angel
was a man or a woman? And..what was the meaning of those messages
on the answering machine?
Well, the CD went immediately on the shelf, together with others.
And then it's time for one of my usual trips to London. Time
to see new musicals! Rent had just opened so I said to myself:
'Ok, let's go and see it, just out of curiosity.'
It was the 27th May 1998. It has been a cold shower. I found
myself there, in the stalls, and I didn't know what to say, what
to think. I only wanted to scream. I could only feel the energy,
and a whole of emotions, still hard to describe… I walked
out of the theatre in a tremendous state… I wanted to laugh
and cry and in the underground, at the restaurant, at the hotel,
I kept on having flashbacks of the show… Mimi on the bars.
Angel in Santa drag, the voice of Roger that filled the whole
theatre. I came back to Bologna with my Rent book and something
new inside…
I saw Rent again in august and there I met Anthony Rapp, the
actor who played Mark. I must say that that was THE MEETING.
The words he told me that night and afterwards, even though they
might have been not so special for someone else, gave me the
'ideal hand' that I needed at that time.
…And I kept going to London. I was becoming a 'Renthead'.
I have discovered a whole new universe of people… Persons
with whom I could talk, to listen and to be listened. People
from different corners of the world, with different stories but
the same passion that was able to keep us all together.
And it was amazing to see the enthusiasm surrounding Rent. It
was so great to meet the actors hugging you, happy of being part
of such a wonderful thing, and discover the joy they had to make
such a show. It was my happy island.
I spent whole days on the pavement of the Shaftesbury Theatre…
I met people from all over the world.. United States, Japan,
Canada, Germany, New Zealand, France and from various corners
of England…
I could go to London and be myself, without my usual fears..
without worrying of 'appear' instead of being myself.. without
the fear of being rejected for what I was, for the dreams I had,
for the standards I didn't fit in.
Rent has given me the opportunity to know those that are my best
friends now, but above all, it taught me to listen to the people,
and to share the happy and sad moments of our lives.
For me Rent is not only a great musical… it's a whole of
things, of people, that helped me through a difficult moment
of my life. There are still a lot of things that I have to learn,
but I feel stronger now.
The experience that I lived in London was unique, but maybe not
unrepeatable. Now I have a chance to share all this with new
friends here in Italy and I hope that something new and exciting
will grow here as well.
In Seasons of Love, Jonathan Larson wrote:
You got to remember the love
Love is a gift from up above
Give love, share love, spread love
MEASURE YOUR LIFE IN LOVE…
Thank you for the past, for the present, for the future.
Cristina |
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News
& stuff…
It seems that Rent Italy will
receive the set previously used in the London production, which
closed on 30th October after an eighteen months'run.
On
30th November the cast will be in Milan to attend a press conference
at Diesel.
On 1st December tickets will be on
sale. |
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RENT ITALY
Rent Italy
will open again in 2001. Here's an anticipation of the new tour
dates
TORINO
Teatro Colosseo
from 6 to 10 February
MILANO
Teatro Nazionale
from 18 April
BOLOGNA
Teatro delle Celebrazioni
dates not yet defined |
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