National Tour Reviews (9/21-9/26)

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 5:29pm

RENT (San Jose, CA)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/performing_arts/9732684.htm

Chicago (Cincinnati, OH)
http://www.cincypost.com/2004/09/22/stein092204.html

The Producers Max Tour (Providence, RI)
http://www.projo.com/theater/content/projo_20040923_prodrev.9367f.html

Thoroughly Modern Millie (San Antonio, TX)
http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/stage/stories/MYSA092204.online.millie.review.13ecc76fe.html

Miss Saigon (Louisville, KY)
http://www.louisvillescene.com/2004/09/23/arts_saigon.html

Updated On: 9/23/04 at 05:29 PM

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 5:31pm

Can you guys access the Millie and Producers review?

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 5:33pm

you have to register in order to access those.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 5:36pm

OK. I set up the following PASSWORD for those.

PASSWORD: broadway
Email Address: [e-mail]

[insomniak]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 5:36pm

Same with Rent. Can you post it?

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 5:42pm

It should work now.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 6:04pm

Is the password working for all of you?

[musicalfandukie]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 6:27pm

Thanx for sharing! :) Updated On: 9/23/04 at 06:27 PM

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 6:31pm

Thank you much, hun. :) Password's working fine for me.

Actually now I'm not able to access Rent anymore. WTF?

Updated On: 9/23/04 at 06:31 PM

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 6:39pm

It is not working from the actual site, niether, so I cannot fix it.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/23/04 at 6:44pm

Luckily I just copied and pasted this, so here y'all go.

Thanks again, BwayTheatre11!

Giving 'Rent' its due

CUTTING-EDGE MUSICAL -- EIGHT YEARS OLD -- IS NOT AGING GRACEFULLY

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/performing_arts/9732684.htm?1c

Was 1996 so long ago?

That's when ``Rent' reinvigorated Broadway by updating Puccini's opera ``La Bohème' and moving it from Paris to Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Hailed as a cutting-edge, rock-opera nod to the '90s counterculture, it depicted squatting in vacant tenements as romantic, performance art as silly yet cool and love as something that could blossom among HIV-infected hipsters.

However, on seeing the new road version of the Jonathan Larson musical, presented by American Musical Theatre of San Jose at the Center for the Performing Arts, there's an inescapable feeling that ``Rent,' has become dated in the post-9/11 world.

The electric guitars still rock the house, and the cheeky exuberance of the characters occasionally inspires.

But the world of ``Rent' is now the stuff of time capsules. The setting, Manhattan's 11th Street and Avenue B, has been gentrified into a cluster of pricey, renovated condos. AZT, the pharmaceutical that its HIV-infected characters pop in a ham-fisted, ritualized scene, has been supplanted by protease inhibitors. And the show's portrayal of young New Yorkers without cell phones or iPods is like a shot of Paris Hilton without her Chihuahua, Tinkerbell.

At its core, ``Rent' is an ode to loyalty and love in a hard-knock world. Its music might not be to the liking of traditionalists -- a handful of older patrons in the orchestra section left at intermission during the Tuesday opening. But the whooping and hollering from the balcony indicated that ``Rent' still connects with some fans.

The opening got off to a bumpy start partly because of the performance hall's acoustic dead spots and a muddy instrumental mix that made the lyrics difficult to decipher.

It didn't help that the performers' energy level sagged until deep into the first act. Damien DeShaun Smith, who plays the cross-dressing camp vamp Angel, seemed to jump-start the show with ``Today 4 U,' his dance-club-style signature song. Suddenly, the other actors turned things up a notch or three, and the production started to hum.

The ensemble at the CPA isn't as strong as the casts in previous Bay Area road shows, but several actors rose to the occasion.

Dan Rosenbaum plays HIV-infected songwriter Roger Davis with a fine balance of vulnerability and aloofness. Andy Meeks and Adrienne Fishe, who play slacker filmmaker Mark and lesbian lawyer Joanne, coyly ratchet up their characters' frustrations over a lover (Ava) in the ebullient ``Tango: Maureen.'

Mark also delivers the line that is perhaps the most revealing about ``Rent' today. Consider that the show, once seen as the pinnacle of theatrical edginess, is part of an AMT season that includes ``Peter Pan,' ``A Chorus Line' and ``Chicago.'

So when Mark howls, ``Is anyone in the mainstream?' during the ``La Vie Bohème/I Should Tell You' number, the answer is clear. For better or worse, ``Rent' has become its generation's ``Oklahoma.'