Oh hey!

I know I know.. we’ve been slackin…and if you’ve been hanging out in our forum or those sites who thrive on hits and Google standings – you’ve probably seen most of these reviews and videos on Vanessa’s take of the iconic Mimi Marquez of RENT at the Hollywood Bowl.

But in case you haven’t or you want to check them out again – here are the ones that we think you’d like to bookmark, or at the very least give some additional love.

REVIEWS

from LA Times:

“Light My Candle,” the charmingly simple song in which Mimi puts the moves on Roger, was handled in a wavering manner. Hudgens’ voice took some time to kick in, and her transformation into a street-savvy bad girl seemed a bit strenuous at times, as though she were more concerned with remaking her image than understanding her character.

But Hudgens’ acting and singing eventually gained traction, and there’s no telling how good she might be on stage with more experience and a fuller rehearsal schedule than the Bowl can provide. The electric current that passed between her and the audience (especially when she paraded out in hot Spandex) is a resource that producers will surely will want to tap, so count this amiable mixed performance as part of her undergraduate musical theater education.

from Variety.com

As there are easier ways to break out of “High School Musical” blandness than taking on crack ho Mimi, Vanessa Hudgens gains points for holding nothing back in her high-octane singing and erotic dancing ordinarily not seen outside the confines of a gentlemen’s club. (Thanks to Jamal Sims and “Dancing With the Stars” champ Scherzinger, this is arguably the supplest “Rent” ever.) Hudgens reminds one of Linda Ronstadt in “Pirates of Penzance” two decades ago: clearly a bit out of her depth, but so winning and vulnerable you’re inclined to cut the gal a break. And her acting requires no apologies.

from EW Popwatch

She didn’t suck.

Yes, for all the sturm und drang surrounding Neil Patrick Harris’ decision to cast shiny High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens as drug-addled, HIV-positive stripper Mimi in his Hollywood Bowl production of RENT — you know you’ve hit a nerve when former NYU theater school student Perez Hilton sincerely freaks out — her first performance last night wasn’t an embarrassment for anyone.

Vocally, her performance was competent, if not stellar; more Glee than Broadway, but with no need for Auto-Tune. And though Hudgens doesn’t come anywhere near the necessary emotional heft or possess a visible understanding of what it means to be homeless, penniless, strung out, and dying of a terrifying disease, she does, at least, look 16. (Or as Mimi might sing, “I’m 19, but I’m old for my age.” Hudgens is 21.) She flung herself wholeheartedly into the wall-to-wall choreography of “Out Tonight” (which left her panting), and brought an endearing sweetness to the love songs, transforming Mimi from a baggage-carrying basket case into an eyelash-batting romantic. It occurred to me as I watched her skip off stage after the curtain call that her wide eyes and eager energy were possibly less a character choice and more a reaction to the thousands of people packed into the Bowl. I’m as fierce a defender of RENT as they come — I graduated from NYU’s theater school a few years before Perez, and let’s just say you did not want to be near me after I saw the movie — but against my better judgment, I liked Hudgens, and I like that she took this chance.

VIDEOS (updated with high quality videos from YT’s “SkylarAstinFan”)

Light My Candle

Out Tonight

Another Day

Christmas Bells

La Vie Boheme

I Should Tell You

Seasons of Love

Happy New Year

Without You

Contact/I’ll Cover You (Reprise)

Halloween

Goodbye Love

Finale A, Your Eyes, Finale B