Is Fox’s ‘Rent’ Live? Musical Starts With Special Message
“Rent: Live” isn’t quite as live as Fox hoped it would be. Sunday night’s broadcast started with the caption “previously recorded” due to an actor’s injury.
Brennin Hunt is playing Roger Davis, but the actor broke his ankle during Saturday’s dress rehearsal.
Before the show’s first commercial break, the cast gathered to explain that Hunt injured himself, and most of tonight’s footage will be from Saturday’s dress rehearsal performance, which included a live audience.
However, not all of the three-hour broadcast will be pre-recorded. In the cast’s message, they revealed that the final act will be live. They reworked the last scenes of the show to include Hunt despite his injury. The ending will also include the original Broadway cast of “Rent.”
Unlike Broadway shows, live TV musicals typically do not have understudies.
News of Hunt’s injury broke on Sunday, just hours before the performance began. “Last night during a live performance of Fox’s production of Rent, one of the actors, Brennin Hunt, was injured. But in the spirit of Rent, everyone — producers and cast, original and current — is dedicated to ensuring that tonight’s broadcast must, and will, go on,” a statement from Fox read.
Audience members present on Sunday revealed the Hunt is present and performing from a wheelchair for the attendees while the telecast plays on screens.
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