'Rent'' is a modern rock-opera style musical, mostly through-sung with minimal speaking, and tells the story of a group of 'bohemians' [struggling artists] living in a run-down area of New York "at the end of the millennium" (1999 / 2000), at the height of the AIDS scare. Written by Jonathan Larson, the show takes us through 12 months in the lives of a handful of these people {seen as society drop-outs at the time of the musical}, and we learn more about them, their struggles, sexualities, addictions, and indeed, how AIDS truly does affect their lives on every level, as tragedy strikes. Based, albeit loosely, on Puccini's opera 'La Boheme', there are obvious parallels, including the reimagined tragic death scene. The show centres around three couples; Roger and Mimi (an aspiring musician / song writer and a young exotic dancer), Tom Collins and Angel (friend of the protagonists and his 'saviour' drag queen boyfriend), and lesbian couple Joanne and Maureen. Whilst Mark, an aspiring filmmaker and roommate of Roger, documents all the happenings around him throughout.
The society, D And S Productions, staged this show in the Brindley's studio theatre, and so the feeling was much more intimate with a few elements of the show being directed straight at the audience. The fourth wall was almost (but never fully) broken, which did work nicely, especially during Maureen's drug-induced solo towards the end of act 1. However, what did not work as well sadly was that the society still played the show as if it were on a large stage. The feel was very much a "production" rather than a group of people telling a tragic story. Sound levels were far too loud all evening, even for the dialogue, which was distorted and booming coming through personal mics. I was forced to wear earplugs during the musical numbers and even then, the sound was too much for the space.
The set design was simple and clever. Metal rostra on two levels adorned with contemporaneous posters, notices, a few props, and lots of rubbish. It was clear much thought had gone in to creating a set which would work in the studio theatre space, since this theatre offers little or nothing in terms of wings and backstage area, and what they do have was taken up by a five-piece live band. The lighting design also worked well this evening, and the use of specials limited to a few choice moments which is absolutely what the specials are for. Costuming was mostly good, although a few of the cast (main characters as well as ensemble) were wearing clothes which were too new and clean for me to truly believe in their financial status.
The start of the musical was taken just a tad slower than usual, with the narration and opening song being spelled-out just a little more than normal. This worked well, as we were able to clearly understand the starting point of the story much better than I have seen in other productions of this show. Sadly however, the pace never truly picked up. Perhaps it was because this was second night and the cast had 'relaxed' a little, but there was a distinct lack of energy and dynamism with some of the cast never breaking out of a tired-looking walk the whole show. This was such a shame when the singing was lovely, and the harmonies lush.
The casting was strong and all the leads gave much to the show. Perhaps a little more comedy could have been found with the Joanne / Maureen pairing, in order to make a bigger contrast with the tragedies surrounding them. Maureen's (Francesca Forbes) interpretation of 'Over The Moon'; was given a much more lucid and cabaret-style performance than I have thus far seen, and unfortunately I did not believe their relationship, as there was no on-stage chemistry between them. Roger (Elliott Tutt) and Mimi (Sarah Haynes) fared better in this regard, with Tutt's rich baritone vocals complementing Haynes's sexual gyrating. Their duet, 'Without You' was certainly one of the show's highlights. Tom Collins (Kriss James) and Angel (Mark Wilson) worked nicely together too, although perhaps a slight rethink on a rather 'revealing' leotard costume for Angel would be advisable.
Director and choreographer Donna Dale obviously understood the show and the arc the characters needed to travel, but I felt at times the size and restrictions of the stage worked against her visions. This was a full-on major production squashed into a studio space, and the two never truly cohered.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 11.5.23
on - 11.5.23
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