Review: Rent

(photo credit: John Jones)

Remember the Love

While dated, RENT proves it has staying power

by Stuart Munro

You know you’re getting old when that hot new show you were obsessed with as a teenager is now being presented as a period piece, but that’s what Sheridan College has chosen to do with their production of RENT, now on stage at The Panasonic Theatre. The opening monologue gives us a year (1989) where there never was one before. This is not really a bad thing. After all, New York’s East Village is no longer the shady, dangerous neighbourhood it once was, and AIDS, while still horrifying, is no longer an epidemic or death sentence in North America. Yet both these realities are central to the late Jonathan Larson’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical. So if raising a glass to “people living with . . . not dying from disease” is no longer the revolutionary comment it was back in the early 1990s, does RENT still have a message to get across and a place on today’s stage?

The large cast may seem like an odd decision, but when those thirty people open their mouths to sing...

I suspect the company at The Panasonic Theatre would scoff at such a question, and spend the next two and a half hours showing you exactly why RENT still deserves to be performed in the 21st century. Rarely have I seen such energetic, enthusiastic, committed and talented performances. By placing the action at the end of the last century, this production allows you to forget (or at least accept) that the music is maybe a bit dated and that certain plot points are a bit out of time. RENT, a modern adaptation of Puccini’s La bohème, is the story of a group of young artists suffering from every affliction imaginable: they’re poor, they’re sick, they’re artistically unfulfilled, and (as one of my former teachers put it) some of them are even Gay. It’s a high stakes world filled with high emotion, worthy of its operatic forbear.

This production of RENT was first presented last December as part of Theatre Sheridan’s season. It was so successful that it was decided, for the first time in the college’s history, to bring it to Toronto for a commercial run. It’s my understanding that this incarnation has incorporated all the members of the graduating class, even those who weren’t in the original run at Sheridan. This has a created a slightly unwieldy, cast of thousands approach (there are about thirty people on stage) that doesn’t necessarily fit with RENT’s M.O., but director Lezlie Wade has done her best to minimize the potential damage. The pacing only suffers on a few occasions, typically in the few scenes where a large portion of the cast is being assembled on stage. Generally this isn’t an issue, but it’s noticeable at key times, especially before the funeral in Act II. There’s a lot of time spent running up and down the stairs and through the doors of Brandon Kleiman’s multi-leveled set, and a few other odd choices (for example, why does Mark look away from the giant skylight when he mentions it in his opening speech?), but these discrepancies are few and far between and don’t really distract from the production. The large cast may seem like an odd decision, but when those thirty people open their mouths to sing, the wall of sound that hits you is one of the best I’ve heard in a long time, making this one of the most extraordinary RENTs I’ve ever heard.

It’s no secret that Sheridan is regarded as one of the top music theatre performance programs in the country, and this production shows that that reputation is well earned. Joel Gomez as filmmaker Mark Cohen has the nerdiness of Johnny Galecki and the artistic intensity of Anthony Rapp. His voice is powerful and versatile, giving us multiple levels of depth. Michelle Bouey delivers a sexy, dirty Mimi Marquez. Her drug-induced fervour during “Out Tonight” is electric as she hits every note and every dance move. Just as captivating is Jacob MacInnis as Collins, the rogue computer genius. Mr. MacInnis has a powerful high belt and a soulful baritone voice which combine to break our hearts during his reprise of “I’ll Cover You.” Julia McLellan as Maureen Johnson, Jaclyn Serre as Joanne Jefferson, and Brett Schaller as Benjamin Coffin III all give terrific performances. Only two roles seem somewhat miscast. Andres Sierra’s Angel never really exploded the way it should and his voice seemed tired after only four shows into this three week run. Aaron Hastelow as Roger Davis seemed a little too clean cut, his rough edge never really coming through. Mr. Hastelow has a terrific voice, but it’s not being used to the best of its ability here.

...for anyone unfamiliar with the show and wondering what all the fuss is about, Sheridan College’s production is an excellent introduction...

I don’t envy the challenge in front of any creative team attempting to stage a show as iconic as RENT. Director Lezlie Wade takes just enough inspiration from the original production to give it a familiar feel without ever copying outright. Marc Kimelman and assistant Robin Calvert’s choreography is subtle and unobtrusive, which is what this show needs—it is always expertly performed by the ensemble. As mentioned above, music director Robert Foster has done an amazing job fine tuning every single note. Only two elements really give away that this is a college production. The first is Brandon Kleiman’s costume design which looks as though it came from Sheridan’s warehouse. There’s nothing out of place, but the design (at least for the ensemble) lacks cohesion. The second issue is ethnicity, or lack thereof. This is the whitest RENT imaginable, and for me, that’s a problem. Now, I understand that the casting is, in a way, pre-determined by the make-up of the class. But RENT is a show about all people and for all people. That vision is harmed with an, essentially, all-white cast. Was it enough to wreck my experience? No. But it certainly stands out.

Die hard RENTheads may not be able to fully detach themselves from the original production to fully appreciate a new take on it. But for anyone unfamiliar with the show and wondering what all the fuss is about, Sheridan College’s production is an excellent introduction to a show that helped redefine (and reintroduce) Broadway to a new generation. Its central message, to measure your life in love, comes out loud and clear.

Rent runs to June 3