Last night we went to see Rent live at the Fletcher Opera Theater in downtown Raleigh.  It was my first live stage show probably since high school when I saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway.  Being that it was a high school trip, we had pretty terrible seats so most of the on-stage effect was lost.  We were fortunate enough to score tickets on the second row orchestra right, literally 6 feet from the stage.

Karen's forced me to watch the Rent movie about a million times, so that's where my familiarity with the story comes from.  Seeing it on stage there were a lot of differences, almost all good.  The dialogue seemed much more in depth and really explained a lot of the details you didn't get from the movie (re: Roger's ex-girlfriend, etc.).  Larson wrote the play extremely well I have to admit.  It's Christmas carol interludes and phone calls fit in perfectly to move the story along and were lost in the movie.

I found at times there was too much going on stage at the same time.  This likely happens on all stage shows, but I found it hard for me to pick up on every thing going on and to focus on the active characters at that time.  Not a big worry just an observation on my processing.

Overall a very good show and a great venue.  I'd like to go to other events at the Progress Energy Center as well.  Gotta keep a watch out.