"RENT": Overdue

by Jack Craib, New Rep Reviewer

After twelve years on Broadway, a 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical and a Pulitzer Prize, a video of the final performance, a film version, and a recent Off-Broadway revival, it’s safe to say that the New Rep production of “RENT” is probably well overdue. At the time of its first production it was notorious for its upfront treatment of the AIDS epidemic as well as the fact that its triple threat creator Jonathan Larson (book, music and lyrics) died suddenly just before its first preview performance. He had loosely based it on Puccini’s “La Boheme”, exactly one hundred years after the opera premiered, substituting HIV for tuberculosis as the central crisis. “RENT” was then, and still is, considered a watershed for rock operas, with over three dozen songs and seven major characters.

That’s a lot of territory to cover in just over two hours, and therein has always been its most significant failing. With so many protagonists to follow, there’s not much back story time left in which to get to know or care about most of them. A production that doesn’t involve its audience can seem as though it lasts all of 525,600 minutes (the total time in a year as given in its most famous song, “Seasons of Love”). This is the fourth version this reviewer has seen, and it’s also the first to (almost) overcome the challenge.

Credit for the success of this production must first go to the extraordinarily fluid direction by Benjamin Evett and choreography by Kelli Edwards; their collaboration is certainly a marriage made in theatrical heaven. It’s the definition of the word “seamless”, as they managed to keep their sizable cast constantly moving as integral parts of the central action without upstaging one another. They are aided in large part by the versatile scenic design by Kathryn Kawecki and the incomparable musical direction by Todd C. Gordon. At times the far reaches of the set and the volume of the four piece orchestra can conspire to drown out some of the lyrics, but this is a welcome trade-off for the intrusive and distracting wraparound concert microphones used in most productions of the work.

Credit should of course also go to the enthusiastic performances by Robert St. Laurence as Roger, Eve Kagan as Mimi, John Ambrosino as Mark, Robin Long as Joanne, and Maurice E. Parent as Tom Collins. The incredibly versatile Aimee Doherty as Maureen shows off a totally new side (at one point quite literally), though her biggest number, the hilarious performance-art “Over the Moon”, literally stops the show, and not in a good way; she’s terrific, but the momentum of the plot is derailed. In the pivotal role of Angel, Nick Sulfaro comes closest to presenting a believable, fully realized person, emotionally involving perhaps more for his/her representing many victims rather than truly having had much opportunity to develop his individual character.

Those reservations aside, the musical surprisingly earned the Tony for best book, but less surprisingly best score. With songs such as “Without You”, “I’ll Cover You” and even a few gratuitous nods to Puccini‘s “Musetta’s Waltz”, as well as almost continuous recitative, it outshines most of its subsequent rock score imitators. There are some missteps (would these street people really break out in a song such as “La Vie Boheme”?) but Larson’s achievement is ultimately memorable. While this will never be this reviewer’s favorite musical, in New Rep’s version, fans of the work should feel that this “RENT” pays off.