Cameron Jackson, Hanna Stauginger and Blake Rosier (Photo by Corran Villalobos)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Jaxx Theatricals
Through November 2
RECOMMENDED
Moving from off-Broadway in 1996, Rent became one of the longest running shows in Broadway history, garnering a Pulitzer Prize and several Tony Awards along the way.
Sadly, Rent’s creator, Jonathan Larson, who had workshopped the musical over the course of several years, died of aortic dissection the day before its off-Broadway opening. That tragic event took on even greater significance considering the show’s prevalent themes of the brevity and impermanence of life.
Rent is loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Bohème, but instead of tuberculosis, the plague in Puccini’s day, the scourge in this case is AIDS, which has decimated the ranks of the young Bohemian artists on New York’s lower East side.
It’s Christmastime, but things couldn’t be bleaker for impoverished roommates Mark (Blake Rosier), a filmmaker; and Roger (Brennan Eckberg), an AIDS-afflicted musician who longs to create at least one perfect song before he dies. Their already marginal existence is further compromised by their former roommate Benny (Tyler Parks), who married money, bought the building, and is now dunning Mark and Roger for a year’s back rent. Mark and Roger’s drug-addicted stripper neighbor, Mimi (Keyanna Cardenas), is also suffering from AIDS, as is Angel (Jabari), a drag queen who ministers to Mark and Roger’s professor friend Collins (Kyler Wells) after he is mugged near their apartment. That meeting results in a doomed romance of unfortunately brief duration.
Mark is currently getting over a breakup with the sexually omnivorous Maureen (Hannah Staudinger), who is now in a steamy new relationship with Joanne (Cameron Jackson). The deeply depressed Roger remains shattered by the loss of his girlfriend, who committed suicide after her AIDS diagnosis. Convinced that his illness prevents any possibility of sexual connection, Roger initially rejects Mimi’s advances, but of course this is a love story, so . . .
When a show has passed into theatrical legend, it seems hubristic to offer a retrospective evaluation. That said, the complicated skein of plot is difficult to unravel — a problem not helped by Jamie Humiston’s uneven sound design, which makes it difficult to hear essential lyrics.
The character of Mark is ostensibly the narrator, but Larson’s book underutilizes that function, leaving us to struggle along the gritty alleyways of the labyrinthine plot. Boning up on the cast album before seeing this could help (although it’s probably a good idea to avoid the 2005 film, a misfire that did poor service to its source material.)
As for the production itself, director/choreographer Jeremy Lucas and a vigorous cast remind us of why Rent remains an important theatrical milestone, even after the shadow of AIDS has been largely dispelled by life-saving medical advances.
Lucas ingeniously maximizes the small playing area, which has dancers leaping and kicking within inches of the first-row audience. Although that proximity can feel a bit rough, it’s nonetheless a logistical feat, while Justin Kelley-Cahill’s effectively stripped-down scenic and lighting designs amplify the constricted space. Assisted by music supervisor LC Powell, music director Jill Marie Burke, conducts the onstage band and wrangles her singers into impressive cohesion. And the striking costumes, by Lucas, JD Morabito and Keny Marine, seem the authentically scruffy stuff of dumpster dives.
As for the cast, they are spirited, plucky and energetic, both individually and in the aggregate. Rosner is nicely laid back and underplayed in his lynchpin role, while Jabari ‘s glitzy, poignant Angel emerges as the moral center of the piece. Of course, the spectacular second act opening, “Seasons of Love,” always elicits chills, but Jackson and Staudinger are particular standouts in their wry duet, “Take Me or Leave Me” —another showstopper in this moving and entertaining evening.
Jaxx Theatricals, 5432 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. October 19, 25, 26, 31; Nov. 1 and 2, thru Nov. 2. Showclix.com/Event/Rent-Jaxx 2 hours 30 minutes with intermission.
