Ode to bohemia should fill crowds with glee

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This article was published 24/06/2010 (5906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The rock musical Rent, about young bohemian artists struggling to survive in New York’s East Village, is more evocative snapshot than musical-theatre extravaganza.

There are no big dance numbers or set changes in Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 show, inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème and set in the late 1980s.

It has an ensemble of only 12: eight main characters and four performers who switch among smaller roles.

So Rainbow Stage, which opened the first local production of Rent in Kildonan Park on Tuesday, has wisely altered its venue to create more intimacy and immediacy.

Tall black curtains block off more than two-thirds of the 2,300 seats, creating a 700-seat theatre. And the stage has been built out, extending 20 feet closer to the audience. It works extremely well.

Rent, which owes debts to Hair and A Chorus Line and closed on Broadway in 2008, may not be familiar to today’s teens and young adults. But anyone who likes TV’s Glee is likely to adore this gritty, impassioned ode to friendship, romantic love, remaining true to one’s ideals and living in the moment ("No day but today").

Rent‘s most famous song, the gospel-pop anthem Seasons of Love ("Measure your life in love") is a gorgeous heart-stirrer.

Other irresistible highlights are La Vie Bohème, a funky, funny salute to the touchstones of the counterculture life; the lilting Santa Fe, about the dream of escaping to another existence; and the love duet I’ll Cover You.

First-time director/choreographer Jeremy Kushnier remains faithful to the Broadway production while adding a few effective touches, such as more humour in the performance-art piece Over the Moon.

The set, with an elevated fire escape, effectively renders the artists’ grungy factory loft and the lot next door, frequented by squeegee kids, bag ladies and pushers.

Rainbow Stage has put the meaningless warning "Under 13 must be accompanied by an adult" on the show. (What kid would attend without an adult?) The reality is that it contains lots of swearing and sexual content and depicts street-drug use and death from AIDS. It’s not suitable for children.

All 12 performers bring strong vocal chops to the rock, pop, gospel, Latin and soul numbers, accompanied by a five-piece band tucked onto the stage. The cast is studded with reality-show finalists, including Marc Devigne (Canadian Idol), Maiko Watson (Popstars), Jeremy Koz (Rock Star: INXS), Lisa Bell (Canadian Idol) and Alexandra Frohlinger (Triple Sensation).

Watson is too tentative as an actor and mover in her portrayal of Mimi, a fragile exotic dancer who has AIDS. Her solo Out Tonight ought to be an electrifying rock scorcher. She needs to amp up her confidence and take command of the stage.

Erik Fjeldsted is capable, if too easygoing, as Roger, the other half of the show’s central romantic duo. He’s a troubled musician who also has the fatal disease and is supposed to be imprisoned by despair.

Joseph Sevillo has all the right strutting, girly moves as drag queen Angel, though his light voice and imperfect enunciation sometimes make him hard to hear in the din (the production needs to tone down the blare in some scenes).

Baritone Thom Allison, a Stratford-calibre actor who was so terrific as Aldolpho in MTC’s The Drowsy Chaperone earlier this year, is in a class by himself here, bringing warm humour, powerful presence and deep feeling to Tom, the anarchist who loves Angel.

Frohlinger, a tiny powerhouse as the lesbian performance-art diva Maureen, is sensational in Over the Moon. But her voice is unpleasantly piercing in the second act, and Bell’s earthy style proves more appropriate in their soul duet Take Me or Leave Me.

The show has some amateurish lyrics and over-romanticizes the lives of starving artists. It’s youthfully naïve in its condemnation of "yuppie scum" who evict artists in order to gentrify neighbourhoods for profit.

Some of the story points are hard to follow, largely because at least 20 per cent of the time, the band drowns out the lyrics (let’s hope that’s corrected).

Yet Rent‘s reminder of how AIDS devastated the artistic community in its early days is still poignant and resonant. And its message to live each day as if it’s your last is timeless and inspiring.

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

Theatre Review

Rent

Rainbow Stage

To July 9 in Kildonan Park

Tickets $35-$51 at 989-0888 or www.rainbowstage.net

4 out of five stars