Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

no day but today

AOL Moviefone has an exclusive preview of the movie version of “rock opera” Broadway musical Rent, due in theatres this November. They’ve taken the unusual strategy of making the trailer basically a music video of sorts for “Seasons of Love” (iTMS), with no dialogue or deep-voiced narration. (Although perhaps that makes sense, given that the movie’s still in production right now.)

Looks like they brought back a number of the original Broadway actors — including Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel (who met while working on the Broadway production of Rent and later married) — for the big-screen version. Notable cast change: Rosario Dawson replaces Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi.

(Also interesting: There’s an official Rent movie blog, featuring entries from the actors themselves.)

I’m looking forward to seeing how the play translates to film. I saw it in college when the travelling Broadway production came to Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, Ariz. My roommate and I had the cheapest of cheap seats and the acoustics were horrible, so I didn’t actually get a great handle on the play and it’s wonderful music until afterward, when I bought the soundtrack and was able to decipher — and appreciate — the dialogue and lyrics.