Rent: Live forced to broadcast pre-recorded rehearsal after star breaks foot
Brennin Hunt, who plays the central role of Roger, injured his right foot during one of the show’s dress rehearsals
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Your support makes all the difference.Fox’s planned live broadcast of the Broadway musical Rent instead aired previously recorded dress rehearsal footage, after one of its stars sustained an ankle injury.
Brennin Hunt, who plays the central role of Roger, injured his right foot during one of the show’s dress rehearsals, the day before Fox’s three-hour broadcast on Sunday, 27 January. The injury took place during the final commercial break and not while Hunt was onstage.
The actor was taken to a local hospital following the rehearsal and confirmed on Instagram that he had broken his foot. The role of Roger in Rent saw Hunt not only dance, but frequently have to rush up and down the set’s maze of staircases.
There were no understudies for any of the show’s stars, which included Vanessa Hudgens, Tinashe, Kiersey Clemons and Valentina.
“We actually don’t have stand-ins,” director Alex Rudzinski had previously said (via The Hollywood Reporter). “What we do have is a backup recording from the night [before].”
“The night before we do a full dress rehearsal on camera to tape, so should the metaphorical meteor hit the studio, we can switch to that backup recording, and it’s with an audience, and so there is a degree of backup there.”
Fox made the decision to air pre-taped footage, with the exception of a newly choreographed final act that included Hunt, wearing a plaster cast, and the original Broadway cast – featuring Frozen star Idina Menzel – in a curtain call performance of “Seasons of Love”.
Rent, loosely based on La bohème, tells the story of impoverished young artists living in New York City’s East Village under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
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