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The Muny’s “Rent” Reveals That Choices Come with a Price
The Muny’s “Rent” Reveals That
Choices Come With a Price
by Pat Lindsey
“Rent” is a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning pop opera, written by Jonathan Larson, that has an incredible fan base that began growing 27 years ago. Some of those people would be in their sixties today. It still resonates with younger people, but the older generation might find the music too loud, the subject matter too uncomfortable, and the lifestyles unrelatable.
“Rent” is about the human condition. The eight main characters live in the East Village of New York and face daily struggles to use their artistic talents to earn money for shelter, heat, and food and deal with other issues like drug addiction and AIDS. Mark (Lincoln Clauss) and Roger (Vincent Kempski) are roommates in a loft that has no heat. Their wood-burning stove is vented out through a skylight and their electricity is dangerously bundled in an extension cord. Mark is a wannabe film-maker and Roger is trying to be a songwriter while he lives with AIDS. Their former roommate, Benny (Tre’ Frazier), has married into wealth and is now their landlord. He is demanding his rent.
The story covers the months between one Christmas Eve and the next or 525,600 minutes, as sung about by the entire company in “Seasons of Love.” We meet the eight friends when they get together for some Christmas cheer and we learn about their personal struggles through song and dance and the documentary of their lives that Mark films.
Mark has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, Maureen (Lindsay Heather Pearce, ), who has fallen for Joanne (Anastacia McCleskey). There is a lot of conflict within the love triangle, but suffice it to say both Pearce ( dark hair in photo wearing black slacks ) and McCleskey can really belt out a song. Their duet is “Take Me or Leave Me.”
The brightest and most tragic star of the show is Angel (Adrian Villegas), who dazzles in a red-sequined Santa suit as Christmas personified. She is a drag queen who falls in love with Tom Collins (Evan Tyrone Martin). The audience goes wild for Angel, especially when she falls into a split from several feet above the stage. Together, Angel and Tom sing, “You Okay, Honey?” and “I’ll Cover You.” All of the songs in “Rent” have deep meanings that replace dialogue.
Another bright star is exotic dancer Mimi (Ashley De La Rosa) who meets Roger on Christmas Eve when she comes to his apartment to ask him to “Light My Candle.” Mimi is almost irresistible and tries to sing her way into Roger’s heart, but Roger holds back. She is HIV-positive and addicted to heroin and trades her body to the drug dealer for drugs. It takes Roger a whole year and Mimi coming close to death before Roger realizes he really loves her.
In spite of the prevailing doom and gloom that casts its shadow over the starving artists, “Rent” is packed with joyful energy and love. It carries with it the soul of its originator, Jonathan Larson, who tragically died from an undiagnosed aortic aneurism in 1996, the morning after the dress rehearsal. Larson, like his “Rent” cast members, was a struggling artist who saw things differently and left his unique mark on Broadway. It is impossible to watch this show and not feel the love. In Larson’s words, “It’s not how many years you live, but how you fulfill the time you spend here.”
“Rent” is being presented on The Muny stage in Forest Park nightly at 8:15 p.m. now through Aug. 10. For tickets, go to muny.org or call 314-534-1111.
