Rent: Live wasted the chance to make TV history after a cast member broke his foot

Vulture

After Brennin Hunt broke his ankle toward the end of Saturday's dress rehearsal, Fox decided to show pre-taped rehearsal footage. Meanwhile, a wheelchair-bound Hunt joined the cast Sunday in performing the musical live, but not for the cameras. "A television event of potentially glorious corniness and elemental showbiz bravery dropped into the network’s lap, as if from heaven above, and instead of seizing on it and making something magnificent from it, they ran from it," Matt Zoller Seitz says of the decision to avoid airing most of the live performance. "Imagine the bewilderment, disappointment, and annoyance of Rent fans who tuned into Fox anyway, loyal to the show and the memory of Jonathan Larson, knowing that one of the lead actors had broken his foot and that the network had decided to air a recording instead (apparently, and astonishingly, Fox’s live musicals don’t have understudies), only to learn, via social media, that another production was happening live, at that very same moment, in that very same space, with that very same actor performing the role in a wheelchair. The show must go on. Rings a bell, right? That’s what this was. One of the most amazing, out-of-nowhere, inspirational examples of 'The Show Must Go On' in the history of television. And we didn’t get to see it."

ALSO:

• Fortunately for Fox, Rent: Live wasn't the official title
• Rent: Live would’ve looked better as a "messier, on-the-fly, put-Brennin-Hunt-in-a-wheelbarrow show"
• Rent: Live felt listless in the taped performances because you could tell the actors were saving their voices and energy for the real thing
• The bond that Rent has forged with its audience simply didn't translate as well as hoped through the filter of TV
• Ad breaks were too long: "Over and over again, Rent squandered momentum because Fox needed to pay the rent"
• Fox would do well to release footage of the full performance that took place Sunday night, broken leg be damned
• How do you measure a show you were never meant to see?
• "Rent: Live to Tape" deserves praise: The musical "did what these live musicals are supposed to do—reimagine a beloved musical with a new aesthetic, new performers, and new staging choices"