As the group Straight No Chaser sings, "Five hundred twenty five thousand choirs have sung this... thanks to the writer, we all leave sad." Without detail - yes, true. Jonathan Larson died before opening night of his own show about death and dying and drugs and rent strikes, leaving a show that feels unfinished and indeed sad. His death is part of the mystique of the show, but it's also the problem - what might another month of retooling have brought about?
Generally described as the pop music version of the opera LA BOHEME, it really isn't. There's a framework there but much more brought in from other sources. And no, it doesn't quite follow the same plot. (In the opera the audience weeps - must Mimi die? In the show, one wishes, can't she just hurry up and die?)
Things one always loves about Bucks County Playhouse: great directors and solid casts that can be the saving grace of a show. When a show violates the basic canon of musical theater, that a song flows logically from plot or dialogue buildup, but instead the action stops dead to insert a song, solid direction is essential Director Jennifer Weber, who also did yeoman work with choreography, provided the show with the framework it needs for it to hang together. She also pulled the cast together tightly, allowing the individual subplots to hang together neatly.
Roger, our cinematographer and rent strike hero, is played by Austin Turner with a flourish, but the real star is Angel, wonderfully performed by David Louis Merino. One can't help but love this Angel. The same can be said for Angel's partner Tom, played by Owen Scales. Also worthy of note, Joanne, performed by Veronica Otim. The cast regularly carries the music and lifts the material, and makes the audience forget that they might not love these characters if they knew them.
RENT is a flawed snapshot of how one imagines the New York theater kid scene might have turned out, though those in it this writer knew fared much better. Much of the music is memorable, the characters as well, though the fact of it's not having final polishing by Larson also makes it feel a bit dated if this is not already a favorite show because of the music.
Bucks County Playhouse has done a magnificent production of this magnificently flawed show, bringing out characters and color as well as the music itself. If only Larson had lived to work with this effort.
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