TeenTix Blog

Something I almost forgot, to the cast of rent: be proud of the work you did. Don't let any of this negitivity get to you and keep doing what you love.

To all the people who gave glowing reviews: this was certainly not the best thing on the entire planet and I could venture to guess that you are all friends or family of the cast or the cast themselves. To all the people who gave negati ve reviews: let up on these people. This was a WORKSHOP, not a broadway performance. This was an extremely difficult piece to perform and I think these guys did a really good job. It was not perfect and I didn't enjoy every moment, but there were some great moments and some real talent coming out of that group (Angel and Collins). They did the very best with what they had. I cannot deny that the whole cast worked extremly hard to put the show on. Of course it had it's faults, but to say it was horrible is uncalled for. To person a: thank you for the honest and wonderful review.

Personally i thoroughly enjoyed the comment about crayola tattoos, after walking backstage and thinking exactly the same thing. It was apparently supposed to be a guitar. As for the flaming debate currently raging, Rent may have not been the best show i have ever worked on, but it was a pretty damn decent show. If you had seen those poor actors their first day on the set you would be incredibly surprised how far they had come by the time opening night swung around. It is incredibly low to bitch about this show because you think you could have done better. Just take the show for what it was. I'm not gonna lie, there were times when we thought that the best way to fix some actors voices was to lead then into a corner and quietly dispose of them. Please, keep in mind how little rehearsal time these actors were given, and what they managed to pull off despite of it. It was not Anthony Rapp and Adam Paschal, but it was pretty damn decent.

Reposting comment from FBLeah Menzer: this is the supreme bane of my existanceAugust 5 at 12:07am

Reposting comment from FBNiki Stoykovaseriously: people are too busy making videos to put on youtube rather than enjoying the actual experience of a concert. Its quite annoying!August 4 at 4:08pm

Thank you @Americans4Arts for drawing my attention to this cool blog and today's excellent post on TV politico Rachel Maddow's comments on dance and the value of art in American society at the Jacob's Pillow dance festival. Some choice quotes:"I know nothing about dance. I am a fan. I am a fan of dance and of Jacob’s Pillow and a fan of people who know nothing about dance going to see dance."Photo by Allison Slater"Not just in wartime but especially in wartime, and not just in hard economic times but especially in hard economic times, the arts get dismissed as ‘sissy’. Dance gets dismissed as craft, creativity gets dismissed as inessential, to the detriment of our country. And so when we fight for dance, when we buy art that’s made by living American artists, when we say that even when you cut education to the bone, you do not cut arts and music education, because arts and music education IS bone, it is structural, it is essential."Read the whole post here.

Review of Das Barbecü by Anna B.Das Barbecü (don’t forget the umlaut) is all good fun. Really, it is. If Wagner’s epic 15+ hour opera (known as Der Ring des Nibelungen) ran full tilt into Texas, this musical was the result. Stern and somber Teutonic gods, made over with the addition of a guitar, fringed vest, and cowboy hat, suddenly blend in with the desert scenery. Add some twangy country music, thick accents, and a bit of two-step and that’s Das Barbecü. It’s an amazing show—confused fiancés, meddling parents, dancing triplets, a spiteful dwarf—these all make for quite an entertaining plotline. It even won over the skeptical redhead I invited to attend with me.Jennifer Sue Johnson, Carter J. Davis, and Billie Wildrick (The Norn Triplets) in Das Barbecü photo by Chris BennionBut this is just Das Barbecü by itself. If you look slightly deeper then the surface (i.e. deeper then the "y’alls" scattered liberally throughout the play), Wagner is still there. His themes of true love, nobility and sacrifice resonate throughout the play, and the humanity of his gods and men remains. Das Barbecü does not mock Wagner’s Ring, despite the Texas twang. It presents the same passionate saga, it's just more accessible (and funnier, too). This musical really is the Ring—despite the immense barbecue in the middle. And though you may not have a cynical redhead to provide occasional sarcastic commentary, you still can find much amusement in Das Barbecü. Siegfried and Brunnhilde will win you over soon enough—despite the, erm, familial issues with their relationship.- Anna B.Thursday, August 6thDas BarbecüACT TheatreThrough September 6thDid you see this show? Leave a comment and tell everybody what you thought!

to the cast and crew of RENT shcool edition, you were all absolutely fabulous. You've raised the bar for summer drama school theater. This one will be very, very hard to top. I was totally impressed by all the kids in this show and the energy everyone of them brought to it. My heart swells with joy to see such wonderful young and talented people put so much effort into creating something that was authentically moving. Unless your veins are filled with ice water, how could you not be moved when seeing all of those young actors on stage singing Seasons of Love with all of their hearts? Yes, there were a few rough spots. Thank god! Otherwise I would have wondered if these kids were actually human. I think most who saw the show would agree that the stage was filled with talented teens from the lead roles to every member of the ensemble cast. I loved the message machine moms and agent. I loved Maureen's Over the Moon. It was over the top with the TV screens and that girl can sing. Her and Joanne were phenomenal in their duet Take Me Baby. Those two girls have got some pipes. Everyone was terrific. Tom and Angel moved me to laughter and then tears. Mark was well cast and very well played. Just a terrific job by all involved. I'm surprised by some of the comments left on this page. My feeling from reading them is that someone didn't get selected to be in the show and is very bitter about it. I would be disappointed too if I had not been selected to be a part of this cast and this show. The real reveiws came from the audience. A standing O.

I'm 14 and have done some childrens/teen theatre here. I am really sure this person is not telling the truth. If some kid my age was getting paid and doing productions in two weeks, I think I would have heard of it. The theatre community is pretty tight. This person probably just enjoys making feel bad, and they are probably like 10 and is just making up stories.

I think we should let up on this "14 year old kid". Obviously, he or she has serious issues. We all know they are lying. If something like what he or she was taking about actually was real, don't you think it would be all over the news? Don't listen to this person, he/she is full of lies and is probably some creepy 40 year old man who gets a thrill from speading hate over the internet. We should all ignore this mentally ill person and just review the show. They probably just do it for the attension anyway.

Rent Cast: Don't take the bait. There is no such thing as a musical theatre event on the scale of what you did with the equivalent choreography and character development anywhere in Seattle that is done in two weeks. Even if the deck is fully stacked with adult equity talent whom by the way would not have the time to rehearse 24/7 to pull such a show off in two weeks. Maybe in concert but that is it and that rarely involves kids. It's a non-starter. This is nothing but smoke and bravado at play here. Likely many of you have worked with him/her before because the theatre community in this town is pretty tight. Do you know any 14-year-old that could have done a significantly better job in two weeks that you did? Thought not. Be confident and happy with what you showcased. It was terrific. Bravo!

To the SCT Rent Cast: As a 20+ year theatre professional, including many Broadway shows, you have done an amazing job with Rent. I thoroughly enjoyed it. That said, the blog comments are actually giving you a great lesson in showbiz: You could be great, and you'll have harsh critics no matter how great you are. Just keep doing what you love, and work your butt off while having fun. Get your high from the positive comments, and learn from any mistakes to do even better next time.To the 14 yr old theatre "pro" who's commenting from the peanut gallery: Fine, you added your perspective. But I truly hope you're getting similar feedback from any show you're in, since we all know your sh%*$t stinks just like anyone else. If you don't believe me, try it as a science experiment.

Sorry, I'm writing on a blackberry and I keep making spelling mistakes. Sorry for the grammar issues.

Adrian, that solo you sang was amazing and I thought the production was great. At first I did'nt really like it, but the most I thought about it, I realized I was being really stupid. I was expecting it to be exactly like the OBC and that was a really dumb thing on my part. No prodution is exactly like the the OBC, and that's what made it awesome. You guys were great and I wish I could have been in it! It was great!

Woah, let's calm this down. this is not about actors or other shows. This is about this show, which was great. So let's stop calling people untalented, tools or immature and just focas on the actual show. I think that sounds resonable.

to the 14-year old who thinks he/she knows enough to challenge and insult fellow actors, who are also many years older....you are a complete tool. if you are 14 and take part in professional adult theater, that obviously means you are only cast because you are childish enough to play young roles that adults can't play. back off, and stop spending so much time criticizing us, you are making it painfully clear that you have absolutely no life, except surfing blogs reviewing teen productions...

Ummm... Okay. In the show I did in two weeks, we completly revamped the score and made all our own style. Oh. Wait, that was a paid show at an adult theatre. Whoops. I really shouldn't compare our professional prodution to your little workshop. My mistake.

i liked it. and whoever wrote that bitch comment is a noobie

first bad reviewer, the 14 year old actor kid, uhm im pretty sure that your two weeks of rehearsals spent on huge RENT-like productions was probably just spent memorizing what the actors sang and did on the broaday OBC CD not developing your own characters and style. We had only 70 hours of total rehearsal time to put this show together, 3 1/2 hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks. And to mr 'un-authentic', we were'nt trying to put on the broadway show, we were trying to put our own flair to it. I felt we put on a great performance with the cards we were dealt. If you wanted to see the actual broadway show with the same set and choreography they've used for twelve years you should buy a plane ticket and go watch the touring show at the Akasaka ACT Theater in Tokyo, Japan.

I never want to see a teen production of RENT ever again. It was so terribly un-authenic.I wish SCT would have picked something they could have acually pulled off...