by Tim Leininger

(Photo courtesy of Music Theatre of Connecticut)

            Before the performance Friday night at the Music Theatre of Connecticut’s Artistic Director Kevin Connors addressed the audience, which is a pre-show tradition. During his opening remarks this time, he commented on how the theater lost $50,000 in grant funding because of their refusal to sign a grant contract that would amount to agreeing to not participate in any activities that would be considered a DEI program. It is only fitting that the theater company’s production of choice currently is the classic Jonathan Larson rock musical RENT, running through Oct. 12 at the theater at 509 Westport Ave. in Norwalk, Connecticut.

            RENT, a musical adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème, celebrates the artistic and cultural diversity of New York City’s East Village circa late 1980’s/early 1990s. This counterculture was a haven for a diverse community of musicians, filmmakers, dancers, queer culture, performance artists, and more. It was also a community dealing with the specter of the AIDS epidemic. It’s Christmas Eve and our protagonists, rock musician Roger (Jacob Heimer), who has AIDS, and filmmaker Mark (Joe Tolentino) live in a flat on Avenue A, under the assumption that they were living there for free from landlord and former friend Benny (Matt Mancuso), who is now looking to collect on rent for the past year. Roger’s depression has given him writer’s block and needs a bit of inspiration when he meets dancer and drug addict Mimi (Gabriela Gomez), who also has AIDS and attempts to get him to live life to the fullest. Along for the ride is Mark and Roger’s friend, philosophy professor Tom Collins (Darrick Penny), who meets and falls in love with drag queen street drummer Angel (Cedric Leiba Jr.), both who also have AIDS. Then there is Mark’s ex-girlfriend, performance artist Maureen (Olivia Fenton), who is now in a relationship with lawyer Joanne (Ladonna Burns).

(Photo courtesy of Music Theatre of Connecticut)

            The first act covers how this ensemble come together in its entirety for the first time, fall in love, and bicker and fight over the course of a single night. The second act covers the next year as AIDS, drug abuse, and trust issues challenge their various relationships.

            The drama of RENT isn’t terribly complex, but where it succeeds is in how the characters, no matter how much one may be angry at the other, they will come together to defend everyone’s right to be who they are and celebrate their individuality and passions. For example, at one point, Joanne and Maureen are having an argument, but when they find out that Benny has acted against the homeless, they put the greater good over their differences. RENT has many topical elements to address, but this celebration of a diverse community that has no one else to rely on but themselves, is at the core of it all.

            As for MTC’s production, it has its good and bad qualities. Directed and choreographed by Chris McNiff, he does an excellent job of using every corner of MTC’s intimate space to his advantage with a payphone up an aisle in the house, the second-floor element reaching up into the lights, and posters and flyers on the walls throughout. There is not a square inch of accessible space in the theater that isn’t used, creating the most immersive production of RENT I’ve ever seen.

(Photo courtesy of Music Theatre of Connecticut)

            The cast is where things are a bit mixed. Tolentino is perfectly capable Mark, Olivia Fenton was an overall good Maureen, her “Over the Moon,” a protest piece on the city’s planned cleaning out of a homeless tent city, was one of the more hilarious renditions I’ve seen, but she had a tendency to be just a hair behind vocally in other numbers. Penny is a striking and charming Collins but had issues singing the high end of the “I’ll Cover You (Reprise).” Gomez was able to capably sing Mimi but never really captured the character’s drug addiction and the void that starts to take her. Mancuso is a non-traditional casting of Benny, as the role is traditionally black. I know of Benny being played by white men before, but it is more often black, because Taye Diggs originated the role. Why I think it works is because having Benny be white gives the role a bit of current topical relevance of how the wealthy white real estate barons criminalize people for being poor. Mancuso gives Benny an arrogant Roger Bart a la Desperate Housewives quality, which was a fresh depiction of the character. Cedric Leiba Jr. is adorable as Angel, and Ladonna Burns is a fantastic Joanne, but the two, in particular, distinctively felt a little old for their roles in the kind of way that the original cast of the Broadway production felt too old for their respective roles when they were in the film adaptation.

            Roger is a character I haven’t seen appropriately directed and acted since the first time I saw the show on Broadway in 1998, and it is a problem here as well. Depression is a multilayered mental health issue. Roger has AIDS. His previous girlfriend has committed suicide. He is living in what he perceives to be a hopeless world. Depression, though, is more than just moping around like Eeyore on sedatives. The text and music of RENT evokes anger, aggression, a sardonic snarkiness in Roger. He’s less shoegazing emo and more angry sarcastic punk, and many performances of Roger misses this. Still, I’ll give credit to Heimer, he’s got a great voice and it’s nice to see a regional production of RENT where Roger plays guitar, unlike another production I saw not too long ago where they faked it.

(Photo courtesy of Music Theatre of Connecticut)

            RENT was and is one of the most important musicals of the past 30 years. Its book is light, but its celebration of life, particularly life in a community where the promise of it isn’t guaranteed, has been an inspiration to generations of disenfranchised people groups around the world. MTC’s production has its highs and lows. There are good performances, but there are some significant weaknesses as well, but director McNiff does a solid job of making RENT the immersive celebration of diversity it’s supposed to be.

RENT

TICKETS: https://www.musictheatreofct.com/

PRODUCTION

Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson

Music Arrangements: Steve Skinner

Original Concept/Additional Lyrics: Billy Aronson

Music Supervision and Additional Arrangements: Tim Weil

Dramaturg: Lynn Thomson

Directed & Choreographed by Chris McNiff

Music Direction by David Wolfson

Production Stage Managed by Theresa Stark

Fight/Intimacy Direction by Dan O’Driscoll

Lighting Design by Scott Borowka

Prop Design by Claudia Stefany

Costume Design by Diane Vanderkroef

Sound Design by Jon Damast

CAST (alphabetically by actor)

Ladonna Burns as Joanne

Olivia Fenton as Maureen

Gabriella Gomez as Mimi

Jacob Heimer as Roger

Cedric Leiba Jr. as Angel

Matt Mancuso as Benny

Darrick Penny as Tom

Joe Tolentino as Mark

Ensemble: Carlos Perez, Charles Romano, Leeanna Rubin, Sadie Seelert