Like a movie rendition that steals passion and imagination from the book, the movie soundtrack to "Rent" steals the emotion from the original Broadway show soundtrack.
Back in 1996, when "Rent" hit Broadway, the play became one of the biggest fads in the New York City area. For the next six years, every girl living within an hour of a theatre district knew the words to all the songs on the unforgettable soundtrack.
Now, in an attempt to relive the glory days of "Rent," movie producers have done what all movies do to a perfect specimen of literature.
They sucked the emotion out of it.
There is an obvious lack of passion on the movie soundtrack. In the theatre, actors are forced to become their character. There are no second takes or cuts. In the case of the "Rent" movie soundtrack, the perfection is painfully unreal.
The vocals on the movie soundtrack are too clean-cut, too polished, thus lacking the passion that the original soundtrack possessed on songs like "Seasons of Love," "One Song Glory," and "Light My Candle."
"Rent" is a quirky soundtrack with conversations between cast members. The resulting product lacks in emotion and is so annoying that it takes several sittings to listen to in its entirety.
The problem with the "Rent" soundtrack doesn't solely lie with the songs themselves. The lyrics are great and the music is well produced. The problem comes in the adaptation process. All that was great about the music of the play is completely absent from the soundtrack. Adaptations like "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Chicago" are similarly lackluster film adaptations with an inadequate soundtrack when compared to the original stage version.
