‘Rent’ as spectacular today as it ever was
DETROIT, Mich. –It’s hard to believe that Rent debuted Off-Broadway in New York 25 years ago. Where does the time go. The current tour to celebrate the Pulitzer-Prize winning musical’s anniversary is on tour in Michigan this month, and is at The Fisher in Detroit after a run at The Wharton Center in Lansing.
The show is based on Puccini’s La Boheme, but the story has been shifted to the lower east side of Manhattan, Alphabet City, which at the time the show was written by Jonathan Larson, was a sick bed of crack addicts and poverty-stricken AIDS patients.
But out of this misery and heartbreak, Larson wrote one of the most energetic and poignant stories and music, with the aid of Puccini as inspiration.
Roger is a guitar-playing addict with HIV and he meets Mimi, who also has HIV as well as the heart and hots for Roger. Mark is not an addict, nor is he HIV+, but he is living amongst these people making what seems to be a never-ending documentary about the life in Alphabet City. Angel is an HIV+ transgender who falls in love with Tom. Maureen is a bi-sexual performance artist who used to date Mark and now dates Joanne. It’s a stew of intertwined relationships. And let’s not forget that Mimi has an affair going with Benjamin Coffin III, the landlord who manipulates all these folks when he can with money and drugs.
For anyone who has not seen it, I won’t give away spoilers. It suffices to say that both Larson, who tragically died on the eve of the play’s opening 25 years ago, and Puccini dial in plenty of heartbreaking story turns.
But what really shines through in this show, always, is the amazing energy of the music and dance numbers – ironic because there is so much dying about from the AIDS epidemic, a disease that saps the strength of those suffering. It is a tribute to the human spirit that still rages on inside the heart and mind of someone whose body is under attack by a deadly virus.
It is the sheer force of the script and talent of the actors that keeps this show relevant and watchable even as AIDS has retreated to being a managed disease in the U.S. and in many places abroad. Whereas most of us know people who died within months or a year of contracting it back in the late 1980s and early to mid 90s, now it is not uncommon to know people who have lived with it for more than 20 years thanks to drug therapies that emerged.
This touring cast is nothing short of spectacular, and they carry the legacy established by the original cast incredibly well. In all the productions I have seen, I have always thought the most important character to get right is Angel. And David Merino is both beautiful and touching, making Angel’s transgender status move to the background, while her beauty as a person lights up the stage and envelopes our hearts. It makes her Act 2 transformation all the more gripping. Kaleb Wells as Roger and Danny Harris Kornfeld as Mark are both perfectly cast and Wells’ belting is as good as there has ever been in this role. Skyler Volpe plays the tragic Mimi perfectly, and with top-notch vocals.
From soup to nuts, and every head in the cast, this touring show was perfectly cast. And the script, story and music is as captivating today as it was 25 years ago.
Get a ticket if you can.