Lorin Wertheimer

If a musical about bohemian artist characters with revolutionary ideals who believe their art will bring about change sounds familiar, it might be because New York Theatre Workshop’s 1996 smash Rent plays with the same themes. But unlike the La bohème-inspired artists of Jonathan Larson’s magnum opus, the college-age Egyptians here have something tangible to rebel against. And that is both downfall and saving grace of this meandering, frustrating, messy, and sometimes great musical.