RENT


Direction, choreography, performance, and design come together to spectacular effect as Chance Theater delivers as perfect a production of Jonathan Larson’s chef-d’ouevre as any diehard Renthead could wish for.

Taking Puccini’s La Boheme as its starting-off point, Rent tells the story of a group of young “bohemians” living in the mean streets of New York in the late 1980s at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Would-be filmmaker Mark (Luc Clopton) serves as narrator and observer, commenting on the lives of Roger (Gavin Cole), his aspiring songwriter roommate; Mimi (Lena Ceja), the Cat Scratch Club exotic dancer whom Roger falls for; “drag queen” Angel (Adam Leiva) and philosophy prof Collins (JoeJoe McKinney), who fall in love; Maureen (Lily Targett), Mark’s bisexual performance artist ex-wife; Joanne (Frankie Ripley), Maureen’s lawyer girlfriend; and Benny (Chrisopher D. Baker), Mark and Roger’s ex-roommate and current nemesis.

The cast is multiracial and multicultural. Roger and Mimi are HIV positive. Angel and Collins have AIDS. “AZT breaks” punctuate the show at frequent intervals.

Larson’s songs (“One Song Glory,” “La Vie Boheme,” “Seasons Of Love,” “Take Me Or Leave Me,” etc.) were unlike any others previously heard on a Broadway stage, with a pulsating rock beat and gritty lyrics, and the plotlines, revolving around characters of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, many of whom were living with HIV or AIDS, were as current as the day’s headlines.

Rent revolutionized the Broadway musical, much as Oklahoma! and West Side Story did in their day, and though much has changed since its cast of characters were “living in America at the end of the millennium” (and though it’s more than likely that most if not all of the Chance Theater cast weren’t even born when Rent debuted), it remains vibrant and vital, with characters whose individual concerns may reflect a specific time and place but continue to resonate three decades later.

Director Matthew McCray makes inspired use of scenic designer Joe Holbrook’s detailed, ingeniously industrial set, and just as McCray made the inspired decision to up Gabe’s stage presence in N2N, doing the same with Angel in Collins’ “I’ll Cover You” (the first time I’ve ever seen it staged this way) reprise left me in tears.

Not only that, but the director, working in tandem with choreographer Mo Goodfellow (at the top of her game), displays supreme attention to detail in scene after scene after scene, particularly those involving the triple-threat-tastic Jack Thomas Aitken, Micah K. Blanks, dance captain Ayani Dorsey, Autumn Kirkpatrick, Patrick McCormick, Mickey Miro, and Gemma Pedersen, who ought to be given program credit for the specific cameos (Paul, Steve, Alexi Darling, etc.) they bring to vividly realized life.

Larson’s leading players could not be more perfectly cast at the Chance, nor could they perform their iconic roles with more talent, commitment, or zest.

A terrific Clopton captures all of Mark’s good-heartedness and his desire to connect with those around him while Cole gives Roger electrifying rock-star passion and edge, and his scenes opposite Ceja’s sultry, sensational Mimi are the very definition of heat.

McKinney’s teddy bear of a Collins and Leiva’s fabulously glam Angel make the couple’s unlikely love match heartbreaking real; and Targett and Ripley burn up the stage as lesbian lovers Maureen and Joanne, the former scoring major points for a showstopping “Over The Moon,” the latter dance-duetting a sizzling “Tango Maureen” with Clopton; and the GQ-ready Baker manages to make Rent antagonist Benny almost as likable as the supposed good guys.

Lex Leigh’s mix of his own prerecorded tracks with his crackerjack live keyboarding and Jorge Zuniga’s pulsating drums had me convinced there was an entire live band hiding somewhere behind the set, and the music director elicits Broadway-caliber vocals from his entire cast.

Rentheads grown accustomed to seeing the musical’s leading players clad in their oft-imitated original Broadway garb will relish the new and newish looks that costume designer Bradley Allen Lock gives them.

Nick Santiago’s eye-catching projections allow us to see exactly what Mark is filming as he is filming it, Zach Moore’s lighting is downright dazzling, and Dave Mickey (working in tandem with audio engineer James Markoski) gives Rent a rock-concert-ready sound design.

Cynthia C. Espinoza is stage manager. Bruce Goodrich is dramaturg. Feras Halabi is assistant director. Lia Weed is assistant sound designer. Greer Gardener is assistant costume designer.

I’ve now seen thirteen different productions of Rent—on Broadway, on tour, in big-stage regional theaters and intimate 99-seat venues, and in school and community theater settings.

Not one of them has surpassed the absolute perfection that is Chance Theater’s Rent.

Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills.
www.chancetheater.com

–Steven Stanley
July 29, 2023
Photos: Doug Catiller

 

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