Review: RENT's 20th Anniversary Tour Thrills TPAC Audience on Opening Night in Nashville

By: Oct. 19, 2016
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It's hard to believe that Jonathan Larson's epic rock musical masterpiece, Rent, debuted on Broadway in 1996, making headlines around the world, winning the Pulitzer Prize and bringing a whole new generation of audiences to the theater 20 years ago. Larson who died just prior to the show's off-Broadway opening that same year didn't live to see the acclaim with which his musical - based upon Puccini's La Boheme - was greeted, but if we believe in such things, we may rest assured that since his untimely demise he has watched over Rent's evolution, which includes the 20th Anniversary production now touring the country in an astounding revival which reaffirms its place among the very best of American musical theater.

Performed with commitment, focus and enough energy to send audiences home on a contact high, by a cast of vibrant, young actors, this revelatory revival of Rent - now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville through Sunday, November 23 - proves the show's undying power, the scope of its story something that audiences of all ages can identify with, regardless of their own personal experiences. For a generation now (if we follow the lead of anthropologists and historians who define a generation as a period of 20 years), Rent has engaged people with its tale of a group of disparate friends who come together to form a family in New York's "Alphabet City" at a time when their lives are filled with seemingly nonsensical letters that together form portentous acronyms (AIDS, HIV, STD, AZT, NIH, CDC...each frightening in its own jumbled, inartful way) and who, in a sense of camaraderie and joie de vivre, create a world of imagination and inspiration, bonding over a shared sense of desperation and malaise that gradually transforms into something far deeper and more compelling.

Revolutionary in its own, unique way (as only the very best of American musical theater can be), Rent continues to engage the mind, to challenge preconceived notions and to illuminate the human condition in ways that are at once confounding and endlessly entertaining. While Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's mega-smash Broadway musical that shows the founding of the United States of America through a lens that resonates deeply with today's audiences - and is, in fact, this generation's genre-bending, epoch-shattering and paradigm-shifting musical that redefines this particular, made-in-America art form - so, too, did Rent for the previous generation of people yearning for a new interpretation that spoke directly to their souls.

Seemingly, shows like this come about every 20 years or so to define their generations: One can draw a line directly from the 1927 production of Jerome Kern's Show Boat, based on an epic novel by Edna Ferber that chronicles life upon the Mississippi River amid a society struggling to come to terms with itself after civil war had torn the nation apart, with racism and bigotry bubbling just beneath the surface of polite social intercourse. Can you possibly imagine that show's impact in its own era? How a musical - a genre which previously was filled with cornpone humor, centuries-old theatrical tropes and songs designed only to provide a lyrical diversion - forced audiences to reflect upon the shortcomings of themselves and the world in which they lived?

Fast-forward a generation and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II forced along the evolution of American musical theater with their string of hit shows that seamlessly incorporated music and message with revolutionary staging and choreography that elevated the art form into something even more resonant. Oklahoma's folksy charm and self-assured patriotism sent American soldiers and sailors off to war with an anthemic score that underscored the freedoms and liberties they were fighting for a world away.

And when Leonard Bernstein provided the music for West Side Story, which gave voice to the passions of the young characters - both Latino and causcasian (and their loyal and adoring audiences drawn to the darkened confines of a theater to be transported, their lifes transformed) - who peopled Arthur Laurents' adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, another musical theater revolution transpired, giving rise to a still more evolved and authentic theatrical endeavor, which would ultimately lead to the subsequent generation's A Chorus Line, in which a team led by Michael Bennett and Marvin Hamlisch created a theatrical paean to dancers, the inhabitants of the theater whose movement and grace helped to more evocatively tell a story and who, in the process, changed American musical theater for the better, ushering in an age in which their talents and achievements were more effectively utilized and recognized. A Chorus Line changed musical theater at a time when producers were pushing for smaller shows to better serve the financial bottom line, and it led to a better understanding of the ephemeral nature of dance, both classical and theatrical, providing yet another generational shift.

All of this historical retrospection and the accompanying personal reflection comes as the result of musical theater's impact on my own soul and time-ravage psyche...and the knowledge that all of these miraculous artistic achievements continue to inspire and enlighten...and have made a world fully formed in which new creative heights can be scaled, and which have led to Jonathan Larson and Rent, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Hamilton and whatever the next generation will embrace as its own musical theater touchstone.

Admittedly, it is likely that audiences sitting in a darkened auditorium give little thought to the historical impact of musical theater or its unique place in the world of art, creativity and imagination. Rather, they are riveted to their seats, deeply engaged in the story playing out onstage before their eyes. Yet the power of art to transform and to challenge is completely awesome and noteworthy.

Probably, by this point, gentle reader, you are wondering when I will tell you about this particular mounting of Rent...No? Actually, in reaction to my own response to the national touring company's opening night at TPAC, I've already written a thousand words about this spectacular iteration of a now classic musical -- every word is about this particular rendition of Rent: It is everything a rabid Rent fan could hope for (and, truth be told, I've never considered myself among that number) and so much more. The story resonates, perhaps, more deeply than it did even 20 years ago, the story of Mark, Roger, Mimi, Angel, Tom Collins, Maureen, Joanne and Benny (and the colorful people in orbit around them) affecting an audience on a more deeply felt level, their stories more compelling thanks to the passage of time so that we can now appreciate the historical significance - not just of Larson's musical and its impact on American musical theater, overall, or its place in the opus of 20th century artmaking - but of an era when people were faced with a generally ignorant society in which HIV and AIDS were feared beyond measure and a diagnosis might well be a death sentence.

Watching Rent and knowing that scores of friends (the better part of a generation of theater artists, perhaps) died of a misunderstood plague that we are only now coming to terms with forces introspection...and therein lies the importance of theater, particularly great musical theater: It makes us think, to consider our own shortcomings and mistakes, encouraging us to be better people, who are more empathetic, understanding and accepting of others. And I ask you, could Jonathan Larson have left a more fitting legacy to this world?

If you plan on seeing Rent, I implore you to leave your cynicism (and haughty disregard for a popular musical theater standard) at home, to drop your guard and to embrace the show's message so that it unleashes its power over your jaded mind and suspicious nature. If you do, you will leave Jackson Hall a better person - that's just how good this production actually is, even 20 years after the show's impact was first felt by an audience. Even if you've seen it 525,600 times (as I oftentimes think I have; I know I've written at 525,599 reviews by now), it can come over you as if for the very first time, leaving you emotionally spent yet unexpectedly innervated by what you have just witnessed. Walking out of the theater, you may still be brushing away tears, struggling to give voice to your own feelings...but how exhilarating is it to allow oneself to be transported by the sheer impact of art?

Director Evan Ensign bases his staging of the show on Michael Greif's original direction of the piece and it is heartrending in its genuine intimacy and amazing scope. Performed on a set (credit to Matthew E. Maraffi) that is inspired by Paul Clay's original design, the almost industrial edifice provides an ideal backdrop for the onstage antics that transpire over the two-and-a-half-hours-plus of a performance that's almost mind-boggling in its intensity and unbridled sense of living life to the very fullest (and, rest assured, if there's any one takeaway from Rent that you're likely to have, it is just that...) that may leave you breathless (and wondering if tickets are available later this week).

Director Ensign's ensemble of actors - all gorgeously and winningly fresh-faced, exuding confidence, sexiness and focus - is led by Danny Harris Kornfeld as Mark and Kaleb Wells as Roger, the two roommates whose lives are at the center of the story. Kornfeld is boyishly engaging, the very portrait of a young man in search of his place in this life, while Wells navigates the same journey with a swaggering sensuality, and both men provide the musical with its stable core around which the action happens.

As the women in their lives, Skyler Volpe and Katie LaMark are twin forces of nature, both women delivering starmaking performances. Volpe is mesmerizing as the ill-fated Mimi, giving a no-holds-barred portrayal that is staggeringly effective. Volpe's "Take Me Out Tonight" is but one of the show's startling and thoroughly involving musical numbers.

LaMark walks a very fine line as the self-absorbed Maureen, skirting stereotype with a well-founded authenticity that ensures you'll never takes your eyes off of her whenever she is onstage. Her performance of "Over The Moon" perfectly captures the ego-driven performance artist's challenge, while her duet with Alexis Louise Young ("Take Me or Leave Me") is terrific and her scenes with Wells fairly crackle with intensity thanks to the onstage chemistry shared by the pair.

Young was a stunning Joanne on opening night (stepping in for Jasmine Easler), particularly in her duets with LaMark and Kornfeld ("The Tango Maureen" is so much fun in a show that could well be weighed down by the heft of its storylines) and Aaron Harrington is superb as Tom Collins, displaying an easy wit and incredible warmth in the process of relating the tale of his budding romance with the doomed drag queen Angel. Recent Belmont University grad Jordon Long steps out of the ensemble with some notable moments in a variety of different roles that give him a chance to show off his own estimable talents.

But it's David Merino's Angel who virtually stops the show with "Today for You, Tomorrow for Me" that is as electrifying as any knockout musical theater number you are ever likely to see. With charm and charisma to spare and an almost unparalleled stage presence that is sure to make anyone (even the 137-year-old man sitting to my left) sit up and take notice, and to reward him with the applause and the affection of an audience well-served. Merino's Angel provides the show with its heart and the deference paid to the character, while a plot vehicle to be certain, seems more relatable now than in the past - thanks, perhaps in large part, to Merinio's exquisitely drawn portrayal.

Larson's Pulitzer-winning score has never sounded better, thanks to the efforts of conductor Samuel Bagala and his onstage band of musical brothers, and Marlies Yearby's choreography is memorably sizzling, particularly in Merino's trademark Angel show-stopping number and the staging of "La Vie Boheme" that serves as the climax of the first act.

And, finally, how moving was the Act Two opening: "Seasons of Love" retains its power and glory, performed by the company with unyielding power and stunning alacrity. When those young actors (consider this, gentle readers: for the most part, they were toddlers at the time of the show's debut in 1996...I think I need a nap now) are arrayed downstage with the footlights illuminating their bright, shining faces and they deliver that anthem of love, hope, life and despair, and the iconic staging is as powerful a tableau as anything before or after it, as alarmingly transcendent as the trademark Royal Shakespeare Company wedge of youthful, French revolutionaries issuing forth a call to arms in Les Miserables. But let's not get started on a history lesson about British musical theater - that can wait for another day and another review.

Today, I'm thinking America is great. Now and forever, Rent proves that to me...and it will to you. Go see it.



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