[bigblue]

the movie version is already out in the US. with mosts of the original cast coming back for it, except a couple, eg. ms vega, where she is replaced by rosario dawson. anyway, it will be out in HK (and the rest of the world) in april 06. co-incidentally, april 06 is the actual 10th anniversary of rent. the musical is ending this sunday in singapore and will be coming over to HK from 13th to 25th dec.

[Apple Pie]

I just saw the last performance in Singapore tonight. It was fantastic. The cast was super talented and wonderful... except for Karen Mok. She's a fine singer... but her talents in acting do not follow through. She is awkward onstage, and she totally missed the spirit of the fabulous musical. It was very upsetting.
Even the ensemble members outshined her performance. She didn't fit in with the cast.

A real let down on Karen Mok's part.
I'm rather upset that the production took her on.
But the rest of the cast was stellar.

[nugrahar]

hmm this is my first mail. i'm looking for friends to see rent. since i'm new to HK
and i really would like to see that play. before the movie is released of course.
i'm a fans of broadway play. even though i hardly seen any. Last year i saw mamma mia.
anybody want to company me.. at least to make sure i won't feel like a lost kid when i see that play...

[nugrahar]

wow. i saw karen mok yesterday in rent.
aaaaaah to me she is not really good lah. honestly speaking, she might be a good singer outside, but her voice is always going down esp on the long notes.
and seems like she needs more sport in order to keep her fit while dancing and singing. that is broadway play goes. dancing, singing, of course acting.
karen was not really good in acting too. i'm not saying she is tottally bad, but her emotion didn't really exposed. you won't cry to hear her suffers when roger is leaving her. diferent than collins when angel died ( sorry...)
Maureen is wonderfull. she is the one i give my biggest applause.
the other one is the Angel. he is absolutely great. he can dance, and his voice is so high, even he could not reach the bottom notes, but he is a "two thumbs up performer"
well anyone who hasn't seen it, you have to see it. but don't expect this to be the greatest one i guess

[rani]

hey, a group of us saw it lastnight too! it was torture! Karen cannot act. Quite a few of the cast didn't sing clearly either and we had no idea what was going on. Angel was definitely the best and we saw him after the show and told him. The entire cast (except for Karen) was at Devil's Advocate after the show.

[hiyadance]

i saw the first show here on 13 Dec too. kinda disappointed of the performance as a whole. The cast didn't sing as well as i thought. mike was ok. but roger was quite bad on both singing and acting. when he dueted with mimi, there's no chemistry between two and seemed they were trying hard to remember where should they stand or dance on the stage. on the contrary, tom and angel appeared to be a very nice and lovely gay couple. angel was the best among all. i was touched by the final scene in which he's dying on the table. he didn't sing and speak in that scene at all but did grabed my undivided attention. karen mok had some difficulties in singing solo and acted unnaturally on the stage. but she's not really bad in a way other actors were not really great too. i saw my first one in NY and it's a superb musical, good script, good songs, good performance, good prodcution. i've paid HK$700 for this one and i think it worths just half of it. feeling sorry for bringing my friends there too coz they had no ideas what's going on and were so bored most of the time. maybe... it's just the first show...hope the latters would be good.

[KnowItAll]

Doubt it will improve.

I'm glad I did not get talked into going. Doubt my reviews would have been as generous as yours.

[HKPhooey]

I went and saw it tonight and it was terrific. Karen will obviously be seen as the weak link because a) she`s singing in a foreign language and b) she doesn`t have the experience of the other cast.

However, the show was very funny and quite touching and Karen did a terrific job. They all got a standing ovation at the end, so lots of other people enjoyed it too.

RENT is immensely enjoyable and should be seen IMO.

[Tiffyathome]

I have had the Original Cast Rent CD for years and I saw the musical itself for the first time last night.

To be honest, I'd reckon that as a musical, Rent is really not top-notch. But it was Larson's first and last musical, whose death was both unexpected and pre-mature. There are a lot of sentiments that people attach to this musical, which I can totally identify with.

Karen Mok's performance was disappointing, quite expectedly so. For musical lovers like me, I usually don't appreciate celebrity's amaturer performances. Mok tried really hard, but she felt out of place, unprofessional and awkward. The most frustrating thing was her voice, she has never established herself as a strong vocal artist (more of a SKII spokesperson), her singing was weak and forced. It really was a mistake casting her as Mimi.

[smart_angeltse]

Karen Mok is a gimmick for the HK show anyway. Believe she has tried her best in the show, but she isn’t a professional player in the theater after all.