San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
25 YEARS LATER, BROADWAY HIT ‘RENT’ STILL TUGS AT HEART
It’s poetic that the 25th anniversary farewell tour of “Rent” winds up this weekend in San Diego. Jonathan Larson’s seminal rock musical, an adaptation of Puccini’s “La Boheme” that became a Broadway sensation, launched its first-ever national tour at La Jolla Playhouse in July 1997.
Now, a quarter-century and thousands of audiences full of “Rentheads” later, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is saying goodbye, with its final two performances today at the Civic Theatre downtown.
This touring production presented by Broadway San Diego is a reminder of “Rent’s” enduring appeal and its impact on American theater. It’s still an electric show, with the band onstage and a crowd that cheers the score’s loudest musical numbers with rock-concert approval.
More important, its new bohemians living one day at a time in New York’s East Village at the end of the Aids-ravaged ’80s mirror a diverse group of young people: Black, White, Latino, Latina, straight, gay, transgender or genderfluid. Larson, who died in 1996, gave a voice onstage to all, especially those largely underrepresented there beforehand. Twenty-five years later, the musical continues to speak to and for those who feel lonely, isolated and even frightened.
“Rent’s” libretto, of course, centers on Mark Cohen (J.T. Wood), a budding filmmaker from Scarsdale, and his loft roommate Roger Davis (Coleman Cummings), a musician whose spark for creativity and for life are ravaged by his drug past and his diagnosis as HIV positive. Mark is the never-say-die anchor (and narrator) of “Rent” — that ferocity resounds in the score’s title tune. Roger, on the other hand, is Mark’s despairing polar opposite. He’s looking for a reason to stay alive. Could it be that one elusive, as yet unwritten composition (“One Song Glory”)?
When:
p.m. Today at 1 and 6:30
Where:
San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown $70.50 and up (800) 982-2787 broadwaysd.com
Tickets: Phone: Online:
No. Roger finds his reason to survive in Mimi (Aiyana Smash, the life force of this touring production), a performer at the Cat Scratch Club who, in spite of her own drug addiction and Hivpositive diagnosis, pursues Roger with tireless resolve and with a plaintiveness that’s heard in the tender “Light My Candle.”
The character of Angel, presented as a drag queen, remains an audience favorite, and Javon King is first-rate. He is complemented by the rich-voiced Shafiq Hicks as his lover Tom Collins, whose second-act reprise of “I’ll Cover You” is heartbreaking. If you know “Rent,” you know why.
The side plot of “Rent,” about defying former tenant Benny’s (Jarred Bedgood) redevelopment plan, introduces bi performance artist Maureen Johnson. Lyndie Moe in the part is at full throttle and full volume for most of the musical. Her big tune “Over the Moon” is, by design, over the top.
“Seasons of Love” is “Rent’s” best and most beloved song, and it’s a through line for the darker Act 2. Cummings never seems to credibly connect with Smash, and the song Roger is finally able to compose for Mimi, “Your Eyes,” is underwhelming. Nevertheless, the fate of “Rent’s” focal relationship is never far in spirit from the “Seasons” refrain “How about love?”
If “Rent” is indeed bidding us farewell, that is the question to remember it by.