Youth, Identity, AIDS, It’s All Here

The exhilarating, seminal Broadway rock opera, “Rent,” is exploding on the Tri-Arts stage in an exciting, propulsive, moving production that is the best I’ve ever seen there. Based on Puccini’s “La Boheme,” the show was created — book, music and lyrics — by Jonathan Larson, who died the day before its off-Broadway opening. Tragic but apropos, perhaps, since “Rent” is about a group of young people confronting death for the first time. Paris is now the East Village of New York City, tuberculosis is now AIDS, and death itself — so romanticized in 19th-century music, art and literature — is confronted and ultimately defied. “Rent” was not the first rock opera on Broadway: The Who’s “Tommy” came first; but that show’s characters never seemed real. Nor was it the first show about youthful angst, anarchy and confusion: “Hair” claimed that distinction with its spaced-out hippies protesting the Vietnam War. But “Rent” is the first to combine rock music with real characters to deliver a powerful, coherent, theatrical punch. And just as “Oklahoma” changed the direction of American musical theater, “Rent” opened the stage door for “Spring Awakening,” “Next to Normal” and even Green Day’s “American Idiot.” If you know “La Boheme,” you’ll recognize Larson’s reimagined characters with new names: Rodolfo is now Roger, Marcello is Mark, Mimi is still Mimi. And you’ll be charmed by his musical quotations from the opera: “Musetta’s Waltz” surprises more than once. Larson also mixes styles — mostly rock, but salsa, Motown, reggae, with a liberal dash of Sondheim and a nod to Burt Bachrach — into a driving, brilliant, touching score that combines solos, duets, multi-voice operatic ensembles and even a charming, brief chorale of baffled parents. The music, lyrics and occasional dialogue are delivered by a young cast (except for beloved Duane Estes) so talented that they can take your breath away. Jordan Stanley’s Mark, the play’s narrator and keeper of the community’s story (he’s a filmmaker) is endlessly compassionate, naive, sincere; Jared Weiss’s HIV-positive Roger is both needy and wary. They both sing brilliantly, and Weiss’s “One Song Glory” is amazing. As Mimi, Monica Wright, only 18, is sexy, needy, and maybe a bit too vital to be so near death; her “Without You” is wonderful. Meggan Utech as Joanne, the Harvard-trained, lesbian lawyer, has the most powerful voice on stage, which she flings out with assurance. Her on-again, off-again lover, Maureen, is played by Alexandrea Tocco, who offers a brilliant comic turn in “Over the Moon.” But the heart of the play — and this production — belongs to Kanoa Goo, whose doomed drag queen Angel holds the community together with kindness, optimism and love. Goo, a truly beautiful young man, is brilliant. His love scenes with Jesse Havea as Tom Collins, also very good with a powerful voice, are believable and moving. (And, yes, folks, they kiss. So do Joanne and Maureen. So do Roger and Mimi. Love, thank goodness, can come to all of us.) Director John Simpkins and choreographer MK Lawson move the cast through and upon scaffolds in Erik D. Diaz’s gritty, industrial loft-like set that is brilliantly lighted by Chris Dallos. The action and music flow seamlessly from the front to the back wall of the stage, from its floor to its highest reaches. The intelligent, fast lyrics are almost always understandable in Graham Stone’s sound design, particularly crucial to understanding the complicated relationships of the characters. “Rent” is a powerful evocation of youth searching for identity. It is both of its time — the AIDS epidemic — and of our time. In TriArts’ breakthrough production, the honesty of Larson’s creation is respected and refreshed while the show takes TriArts to a new, more contemporary place. Bravo. “Rent” runs at TriArts’ Sharon Playhouse through July 24. Call 860-364-7469 or go to www.triarts.net for tickets.

Latest News

A day in the life of a newspaper truck driver

Around 9 a.m. every Wednesday morning a 26-foot box truck from the printer backs up to a storage garage behind The Lakeville Journal’s office in Falls Village to unload copies of the week’s Lakeville Journal and Millerton News.

Between then and about 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, it’s up to the Journal’s own drivers — AAdam Williams, Brian Murphy and me — to deliver these new papers to six realtors, 18 post offices, and 46 retail outlets within a 30-mile radius of the office.

Keep ReadingShow less
Turning Back the Pages

100 years ago — March 1924

The mysterious disappearance of Lawrence Travis, 20 years old, in a Star Sedan belonging to A.S. Martin, was solved at 5 o’clock last Thursday afternoon, when the car containing the young man’s body was drawn to the surface of the lake, after hours of hard and dangerous work. The search for the body resulted from the discovery of a patch of black oil under the surface of the ice by William Bassett, a fellow worker of Travis at Martin’s Garage. Mr. Bassett had never been fully satisfied in his mind that young Travis had gone very far away and he believed that some accident had befallen him. On Thursday John H. Garrity’s small derrick was taken to the lake and block and tackle installed. By this time a crowd of between two and three hundred people had gathered, and many hands laid hold of the rope to draw the car out. Soon it was resting on the ice, and a moment later Michael P. Flynn entered the car and brought forth the remains of the unfortunate young man. An autopsy conducted by Medical Examiner Bissell was done immediately after recovery of the body and death was found to have been due to drowning. Much sympathy is felt for Mr. John Travis, father of the young man, and his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Owen Travis, with whom the lad had lived. There is a great feeling of sadness throughout the community over his untimely death.

Keep ReadingShow less
Confessions of a Non-Adopter

It drives me crazy when people immediately embrace the shiny new object, the latest trend. Worse, I rejoice when it crashes and burns. The failure of something like Google Glass, a solution in search of a problem, makes my day. I thought I had a “winner” in Bitcoin but its recent comeback has put a damper on my victory celebration. Admittedly, schadenfreude is a character flaw. In my case, probably a defense mechanism to ward off those who insist that I’ll be left behind if I don’t get on board immediately. Still, nothing to be proud of.

My impulse to push back is not entirely irrational. Betamax, New Coke, MySpace, the Segway, Theranos, even the electric knife: did they ever have a chance? As a society, we are programmed to immediately accept the new and vastly underestimate how long it will take to become the norm.

Keep ReadingShow less