Over the Moon

Rent at New World Stages

           There’s a surprise or two in everything.           

           For one, I had no idea that Jonathan Larson’s Rent was an opera.  Or almost an opera.  The music takes over the stage so powerfully you can barely tell if there are smidgens of dialogue in between numbers.  I also was surprised to find that Adam Chanler-Berat, who plays the filmmaker Mark (who, in this production has lost his scarf and glasses—so ‘90s), was the original Henry in the spectacular musical Next to Normal.  I didn’t know that every song in the show was so overpoweringly good, if a little overwhelming at times, and I didn’t know I’d carry the tunes in my head the next day of songs I’d never known before.  (Turns out Seasons of Love is about 30 seconds long.  Hmm.)

           You don’t need to know anything about the original Rent to love this one, although it helps.  When Angel appears in his red dress at the beginning of Today 4 U, the audience roars, and when Maureen Johnson encourages the onlookers to moo with her, they low appreciatively—and loudly.

           Yet, it’s likely a whole new generation will get to know Rent in a whole new way, and that’s as a historical piece of theater.  When Rent first appeared in 1994, and later on Broadway in ’96, the AIDS epidemic raged around it.  It was happening.  Now, younger viewers can look back at it with horror and  queasiness. The smash hit The Normal Heart was written this way, and Rent,unintentionally, has become the same.

           The great thing about the show, though, is that it doesn’t rely on the epidemic for pitying viewers.  No, it veers from the topic as often as possible (though keeping it in the background as what can be termed the villain of the piece), branching out to romance and solidarity and withdrawal.  This is what draws the audience in now, as it did then—that it can be funny, and loud, and brash, and musically brilliant, without losing the backbone of the performance: that everyone keeps pain within, whether physical or emotional, and that everybody must face up to their own pain in order to survive.

           For those of you who don’t know anything about Rent (how has it been living under that rock for these past 15 years?), it’s a modern rendition of the opera La Boheme, about the early bohemians, who aren’t really that different from the artists who squatted in abandoned lots in Alphabet City in the '90s.  They took part in many of the same activities (as referenced in the powerful, fun number, “La Vie Boheme”).  They each had their problems, and they each solved them in entertaining ways.  I guess we’re lucky they do it in front of us, because somehow the show manages to be very entertaining, despite its dark themes.  There are bright, bouncy songs enough to keep the mood high.  The audience laughs itself into a stupor as it gets ready to cry.  The show explores deep enough themes, too, to keep the audience constantly interested throughout.  And it is deep, too, because there are almost an unlimited amount of levels Rent can evidence.  It is truly a beautiful show, perhaps one of the most beautiful.
           How is the new cast, you ask? It’s hard to imagine, for me, Mark as anyone but Chanler-Berat, his performance is so gratifying.  However the part of Maureen seems righter for Idina Menzel than it does for Annaleigh Ashford, and there are a few other parts it’s easy to imagine played by other characters.  All in all, the cast isn’t overly impressive, but it’s impossible to even consider that a factor in the case of this show, because it would be impossible to make Rent bad.  The best musicals don’t rely on their casts.  Rent, being one of the best, wouldn’t be left out.

           If you were looking for a good time in New York and can’t get Book of Mormon tickets until late 2012, Rent is a desirable and relatively inexpensive alternative.  There’s nothing keeping you—unless of course you’re reading this in some frozen part of the tundra, in which case, sorry about that and good luck finding good theater over there!