Message Board Post
November 12, 2000

[person 1]
I have seen Rent in Holland but i think it is a bad musical

[person 2]
Define 'bad musical'

I have seen Rent both in Holland and in London. The two productions cannot be compared. The Dutch production is completely different from the original. The set is more raunchy, it's a functional mess (Imagine not having cleaned up in your house for the last 6 moths but you can still find everything you need :-).  There are more - and more effective - (live) projections on the back wall and there is more action on the stage.

But the big difference lies in the direction. Ivo van Hove directed it. Van Hove normally directs 'serious plays'. He directed Rent from a completely different angle. And to be honest, I was completely confused. But after discussing it with some - also confused -friends, I found that his way of approaching the story actually is brilliant. It's more provocative than the original. It's more chaos, it's more direct and -

Spoiler:

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His choice to let Mimi die at the end (without changing music or words) is really a smart one. In the original, the way Mimi comes back is a bit of a cheap Hollywood ending. in this production we see Mimi's deathmask on a TV while we hear Mimi talk about Roger's song - is there life after death? I'd like to see it as a tribute to Jonathan Larson).

True, Rent is not your everyday musical - especially not the Dutch version - but to call it a bad musical sounds to me like you didn't understand it.