#1
Posted: 1/14/09 at 10:26am
From The Buffalo News. I'm seeing the show for the first time on Friday...
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Message in Rent carried well by music
By Jeff Miers
NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
On Tuesday, the musical "Rent" proved that it could not only outlive its record-setting run on Broadway, it could also carry deep resonance with audiences well beyond its immediate milieu.
Though the play was initially conceived, in the late 90s, as a sort of Generation X interpretation of Puccini's "La Boheme," its power remains undiminished even as its characters face their 40s head-on, and the era of blossoming artistic curiosity, hopeful experimentation and willful naivete that marked that era begin to seem like keepsakes from another lifetime.
“Rent” closed its Broadway run after some 5,000-plus performances last September, and various touring productions of the dramatic musical have been crisscrossing the country pretty much from the beginning. The run that kicked off Tuesday in Shea’s, however, boasted much to make it unique.
As the first full post-Broadway run of the show, the onus fell on this particular company to prove “Rent” still had legs. It did so, handily.
Three of the original cast members signed on for this particular jaunt — which counted Buffalo as its second stop, after opening in Cleveland earlier in the month — and they lent a deepened sense of continuity to the production. Reprising their roles as down-and-out slacker-artists roomed together in freezing East Side loft space were Adam Pascal (Roger) and Anthony Rapp (Mark). Together, the pair anchored the show, acting as tour guides through the personal dramas, relationship trials and social interminglings that form the action of “Rent.” Gwen Stewart, another original Broadway cast member, reprised her several roles as well, and her solo during the ensemble’s “Seasons of Love” was a highlight.
Puccini’s ode to the avant garde and the uncompromising artist is a skeleton key to “Rent,” of course, and though the latter’s transportation of characters and setting from 19th century Paris to late 20th century Alphabet City might seem a stretch, it works, principally because the plight of the artist remains relatively unchanged from that time and place to this one.
“Rent” is about many things: facing looming responsibilities, dealing with the appetites that can often arrive disguised as personal freedoms, living with dissolution and death, finding some sort of lasting love while simultaneously trying to figure out exactly who you are. The unifying thread — and the main reason “Rent” continues to ring true — is a stubborn insistence on a life that rises above the commonplace and an existence that maintains some semblance of integrity and dignity over time.
How to pack this into two-plus hours without getting long-winded, preachy or boring? That’s where the music comes in.
Tuesday’s production hit the ground running. By the time the company assembled to offer the ensemble theme bearing the musical’s title, it was clear this was the genuine article. The live band crackled and kicked, or moved elegantly through the ballads. The set— balconies, brick walls and a towering metallic sculpture-art Christmas tree — was austere, but striking. The dancing was impeccably timed.
This all combined to allow us to concentrate fully on the songs, which were often undeniably magical.
Pascal’s Roger singing the aching “One Song Glory” movingly encapsulated the struggle of the independent artist; the Roger/ Mimi (a fiery Lexi Lawson) duet “Light My Candle” illuminated the fresh-faced hopes of new love; “Santa Fe,” given voice by Michael McElroy’s Tom Collins, hinted at the ever-present promise waiting just over the next hill; and when the company assembled for “Rent’s” most well-known number, “Seasons of Love,” the “seize the day and live in the permanent present” theme of the late Jonathan Larson’s original book was delivered poignantly.
Viva bohemia.
Theate Review
“Rent”
FOUR STARS
Opened Tuesday night and runs through Sunday in Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St. For more information, visit www.sheas.org.
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Message in Rent carried well by music
By Jeff Miers
NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
On Tuesday, the musical "Rent" proved that it could not only outlive its record-setting run on Broadway, it could also carry deep resonance with audiences well beyond its immediate milieu.
Though the play was initially conceived, in the late 90s, as a sort of Generation X interpretation of Puccini's "La Boheme," its power remains undiminished even as its characters face their 40s head-on, and the era of blossoming artistic curiosity, hopeful experimentation and willful naivete that marked that era begin to seem like keepsakes from another lifetime.
“Rent” closed its Broadway run after some 5,000-plus performances last September, and various touring productions of the dramatic musical have been crisscrossing the country pretty much from the beginning. The run that kicked off Tuesday in Shea’s, however, boasted much to make it unique.
As the first full post-Broadway run of the show, the onus fell on this particular company to prove “Rent” still had legs. It did so, handily.
Three of the original cast members signed on for this particular jaunt — which counted Buffalo as its second stop, after opening in Cleveland earlier in the month — and they lent a deepened sense of continuity to the production. Reprising their roles as down-and-out slacker-artists roomed together in freezing East Side loft space were Adam Pascal (Roger) and Anthony Rapp (Mark). Together, the pair anchored the show, acting as tour guides through the personal dramas, relationship trials and social interminglings that form the action of “Rent.” Gwen Stewart, another original Broadway cast member, reprised her several roles as well, and her solo during the ensemble’s “Seasons of Love” was a highlight.
Puccini’s ode to the avant garde and the uncompromising artist is a skeleton key to “Rent,” of course, and though the latter’s transportation of characters and setting from 19th century Paris to late 20th century Alphabet City might seem a stretch, it works, principally because the plight of the artist remains relatively unchanged from that time and place to this one.
“Rent” is about many things: facing looming responsibilities, dealing with the appetites that can often arrive disguised as personal freedoms, living with dissolution and death, finding some sort of lasting love while simultaneously trying to figure out exactly who you are. The unifying thread — and the main reason “Rent” continues to ring true — is a stubborn insistence on a life that rises above the commonplace and an existence that maintains some semblance of integrity and dignity over time.
How to pack this into two-plus hours without getting long-winded, preachy or boring? That’s where the music comes in.
Tuesday’s production hit the ground running. By the time the company assembled to offer the ensemble theme bearing the musical’s title, it was clear this was the genuine article. The live band crackled and kicked, or moved elegantly through the ballads. The set— balconies, brick walls and a towering metallic sculpture-art Christmas tree — was austere, but striking. The dancing was impeccably timed.
This all combined to allow us to concentrate fully on the songs, which were often undeniably magical.
Pascal’s Roger singing the aching “One Song Glory” movingly encapsulated the struggle of the independent artist; the Roger/ Mimi (a fiery Lexi Lawson) duet “Light My Candle” illuminated the fresh-faced hopes of new love; “Santa Fe,” given voice by Michael McElroy’s Tom Collins, hinted at the ever-present promise waiting just over the next hill; and when the company assembled for “Rent’s” most well-known number, “Seasons of Love,” the “seize the day and live in the permanent present” theme of the late Jonathan Larson’s original book was delivered poignantly.
Viva bohemia.
Theate Review
“Rent”
FOUR STARS
Opened Tuesday night and runs through Sunday in Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main St. For more information, visit www.sheas.org.
Updated On: 1/14/09 at 10:26 AM
Here's hoping I get to see it.
. After seeing this show, I COMPLETELY understand what they were talking about! Never before had I felt the emotions of what the characters were going through as strongly as I did last night. You could feel the heat and sexual tension and fear between Mimi and Roger. You could almost see the sparks flying. You could feel Collins's pain for losing Angel. I never cry during I'll Cover You (Reprise) because I'm just too familiar with the material for it to get to me. Yet last night I found myself choked up. I could go on and on, but you get my drift. 
