JADAR

★★★★☆

Rent, in its simplest form, is a tale of art students during the 1980s HIV and AIDS crisis, trying to survive constant financial problems, homelessness, unpaid rent, and drug addictions in New York East Village. 

Act One is the longest section with a whopping 26 musical numbers (including reprises) that centres around one week or one night depending on which version of the show you watch. The artists slowly band together with aspiring director Mark (Szymon Tomczyk) documenting their adventures, while guitarist and song-writer Roger (Anthony Horricks) searches for the inspiration for ‘One Song Glory’ before he dies from HIV; Angel (Mark Barnes-Moran), Tom (Billy Morrison) and drug-addict Mimi (Tempany Windsor) look for love; and Joanne (Maria Collins) tries to tackle directing her wild girlfriend, Maureen (Melissa Grimes). 

Their lives in this gritty and uncaring bohemian New York go through deaths, upheavals, evictions and misunderstandings that put the family through their paces during Act Two. 

Having never seen the musical, nor the 2005 movie, my only experience with Rent was the famous “525,600 minutes” opening line in ‘Seasons of Love’, a great song yet starkly different to the serious subject matters that Rent tackles… a strange yet fascinating juxtaposition perhaps. 

The initial opening of the musical was a little shaky, with a few typically cheesy attempts at New York accents, a few microphone failures, and one or two voice cracks. The most jarring aspect was the opening and the split set design as I found it difficult to keep up with the multitude of characters being introduced between the apartment and New York streets. The audience are taken between two new sets after being introduced to Mark, who, as a film-maker and witness, becomes the perfect narrator for their tale- although these fourth wall breaks do feel a little unnecessary at times (but they are a part of the original source material).

This, and the introduction of phone callers who sing their messages (as much of the “spoken dialogue” is mainly sung-through whimsically) was a bit of a difficult whirlwind to keep up with as the show introduced its phenomenal cast of characters.

However, after the main cast start to meet and group together more, the set becomes more cohesive, with the New York space leading into the apartment when necessary or adapting into a bar with ease while maintaining this intimate feeling as our small audience watches the group up-close, acting as Mark’s lens as we hover around the group. 

In fact, the group and their troubles, passions and romance are the real heart of the story, with gentrification and AIDS becoming important contexts, but ultimately sidelined by the importance of their little family.

We see them separately in ensemble songs like ‘Rent’ and ‘One Song Glory’ before most of them start meeting, whether it be Roger and Mimi in ‘Light My Candle’ and ‘I Should Tell You’, Angel and Tom in ‘Today 4 U’ and ‘I’ll Cover You’, or Mark and Joanne in the comedically handled ‘Tango Maureen’. 

While I found Maureen’s song ‘Over The Moon’ to be funny between her cheesy escapades and Joanne’s frustrated backing vocals, I also felt it was a little long and sketch-show like, at times bringing away from the momentum and speed that the first chunky act of Rent builds up prior (again, an issue with the source material). 

Despite this, we get fun numbers like ‘La Vie Boheme’ bringing the cast together as Mimi dances on the table, while businessman Benjamin Coffin III (Joshua Lee Grant) looks down at his former room-mates. A nice sprinkling of cheesy banter ensued between the rambunctious group throughout the show, further heightening their bonds in songs like this. 

I do find it rather uncomfortable how Roger’s moments of domestic abuse like grabbing Mimi by the neck twice are shrugged off pretty quickly by the group and the audience after he apologises and creates a love song for her. Perhaps this was underplayed by Larson due to an already crammed list of themes and the already bloated nature of the first act, but either way it was naturally disquieting to see.  

The first act may have been long, but it ultimately balanced itself out somehow due to the fast-paced nature of the act and the group’s overall happiness together, versus the slower second act that focuses on the entire year, the unravelling friendships and the solemn death of a loved one. 

Act Two opens with a stunning version of the famous ‘Seasons of Love’ and ‘Happy New Year’, with the group still together after their exciting Christmas (Act One) period. During this, the entire audience joined by clapping merrily to the beat!

However, the happiness can only last so long as highlighted by the gorgeous powerhouse performance of Joanne (Maria Collins) against her girlfriend in ‘Take Me or Leave Me’, one of the most endearing and emotional male solo’s I have heard for a long while in Tom’s (Billy Morrison) ‘Without You’ and reprise of ‘I’ll Cover You’ interlapping with the ensemble, and the heart wrenching reprisals of ‘Light My Candle’ and ‘I Should Tell You’ as Mimi dies from her overdose, while Roger reveals his new song (‘Your Eyes’) to her in a raw display of his affection.

Meanwhile, the continuing friendship of the group despite their losses and heart-breaks is such an awe-inspiring and perfect note to end on, especially after bringing back ‘Seasons of Love’ for the encore, which received a full and well-deserved standing ovation. 

While many of the singers were incredibly talented, the star of the show was Mimi, played by Tempany Windsor, as every song was performed with such passion and drive, whether it required her to confidently belt out the notes or create melancholic and enchanting melodies. Her acting during the death of one of her friends to HIV (I’m not spoiling which!) was so realistic and harrowing that I was left on the verge of tears as she screamed in grief – and I heard many a sniffle from audience members surrounding me!

Anthony Horricks’ (Roger) rock-inspired vocals paired perfectly, meanwhile the innocence and emotion in Szymon Tomczyk (Mark) was also spectacular. 

Aside from being grounded in the sad reality of New York in the late 80s during the HIV crisis, Rent is also based around Puccini’s opera La boheme (which is briefly mentioned during the show). Rent swaps the artists of 1800s affected by outbreaks of tuberculosis for art students in New York affected by drugs, homophobia, homelessness, and HIV/AIDS. 

Rent has had both love and hatred over the years, and with such sensitive source material, and rather intentionally focused subject matters that confine it to the period it was made in. Despite this, many of the themes are still felt within today’s society, whether it be homophobia, the cost-of-living crisis, suicide, struggling students, or drug and alcohol addictions. 

This production was created with the SICK festival in mind and focuses on the topics and concerns we face today in our communities, with a variety of performances with varying themes. Rent therefore is the perfect choice to join this programming. 

The music and aesthetic may point to the 80s, and yet there’s something quintessentially timeless about the show’s messages of family values and friendship despite totalitarian systems and disease. It also feels significantly less cheesy and dated than most of the songs from the motion picture.

While some of the language can be vulgar and the story isn’t exactly the most sophisticated, Rent serves its purpose as a political time-capsule and heart-warming (and at times heart-wrenching) musical spectacle. Its earnest and up-beat rock music, while at times feeling a little out of place, constantly reminds the audience of the characters’ hopes for better times, and is nicely juxtaposed with softer and more melancholic layered reprises and motifs in the second act when the family breaks apart.

Each character represents some form of struggle, leading to initially simplistic archetypes of “junkie”, failed musician, and so on, until their stories are deepened as we discover their “baggage”, passions, and romance. 

While it only scrapes the surface of the discrimination, financial struggles and HIV crisis of the period, the musical tends to be delicate and sympathetic with most of these themes although making some moments a little cheesy from time to time as a result of the rock music style. Playwright Jonathan Larson died before the musical’s debut, and yet, like Roger’s song and Mark’s film, the characters, their stories, and the musical’s core message live on in every iteration of Rent.

Rent finished its run at the North West Theatre Arts Centre on May 11.

Photo: NWTAC