Broadway SD’s ‘Rent’ Is Less a Musical Than a Concert — But Man, Those Tunes…
A lot of people think Jonathan Larson, creator of the rock musical Rent, died of AIDS. In fact, Larson suffered from an undiagnosed aortic dissection, which means that a surge of blood eventually separated his aorta from the rest of his heart.
New York state medical investigators said Larson’s docs chalked up their patient’s symptoms to the flu or stress. They concluded that if he’d gotten proper treatment, he probably would have lived.
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Mess with this cast, and San Diego Story staff and management can’t be held responsible for the outcome. Photos 1 and 2 by Carol Rosegg.
The show, which had its West Coast debut at La Jolla Playhouse, has spawned several national tours in its 20 years, the latest Broadway San Diego turn among them. The dancing and the tunes here are as brash and exuberant as ever, and the social issues in the script, like AIDS and capitalist greed, were of obvious importance to Larson. But for all its earnestness, and with all due respect to Larson’s obvious talent, Rent often looks and feels like a concert instead of a musical.
If you like it (and I do, very much), it’s the music that drives Larson’s legacy and your affection. As often as not, the script doesn’t necessarily follow suit.
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As a fateful year takes hold, Mimi and Roger (Skyler Volpe and Kaleb Wells) have a fight on their hands.
Ditto computer whiz Tom Collins and drag queen Angel Schunard, both of whom are HIV positive. Benjamin Coffin, their landlord and onetime friend, eschews the group — he married money and now champions everything this motley crew stands against. Even so, this fanciful retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Boheme (1896) ends on a hopeful note as death begets life.
As originally directed by Michael Greif, Rent is a gritty nod to income inequality before the idea ever became fashionable. In the local entry, Evan Ensign magically wrests order out of chaos as the volatile characters indulge their emotional frustrations on any number of whims they choose. If they were a street gang, they’d storm the East Village for booty (the cha-ching kind), and woe betide those who trespass against them.
[The songs] often sacrifice the libretto’s larger plot points in the process.
But Larson didn’t always finish what he started. Druggo Mimi, for example, uses only once, and that’s just to illustrate a tune (“Light My Candle”); songwriter Roger’s angst propels his idealism but tells us nothing of his past (“One Song Glory”); Tom’s thoughts about leaving New York in winter seem rooted in a fleeting moment of escapism and little more (“Santa Fe,” which is decidedly out of place here). The 32 songs illustrate the individual characters’ raisons d’etre, and sometimes they do it beautifully, but they often sacrifice the libretto’s larger plot points in the process.
One perfectly appropriate tune (“Another Day,” my favorite Rent song) is signature to Roger and Mimi (an excellent Kaleb Wells and a very watchable Skyler Volpe), while Danny Harris Kornfeld defines his Mark with a hangdog, nerdy, very interesting mien. Everybody else delivers as they take ownership of the tunes, although they often do so to a fault (Larson’s). Conductor Samuel Bagala’s five tight musicians rock out on Paul Clay’s cluttered delight of a set and dress a lot like costumer Angela Wendt had in mind (think shabby-chic). Jonathan Spencer’s lighting design is OK, but several set areas seem underlit at the wrong times.
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Jonathan Larson: The good die young. (Public domain photo)
Martin Jones Westlin’s e-mail address is [email protected].
This review is based on the opening-night production of Jan. 11. Rent runs through Jan. 15 at the Civic Theatre, 1000 Third Ave. Downtown. $22.00-$90.00. 619-570-1100, broadwaysd.com.