by Whitney Smith
The Commercial Appeal
(Memphis)
April 28, 1998

A show that will probably draw intense interest, because it has an ardent cult following, will be the rock musical Rent, a starving artist story loosely based on the opera La Boheme.  It will run Dec. 22-27.

That the Orpheum offered Rent as an option might suggest that management is gun-shy about making a provocative show a mandatory part of the season subscription.  Or, it could mean Halloran is practical enough to think a loud rock show dealing with AIDS won't be for everyone.

"Ordinarily,'' Halloran said, "many people follow me like the Pied Piper when I say something is a big show.''  As a Pulitzer prize-winning, Tony award-winning show, Rent does fall into that category, in Halloran's opinion, and in my own. But Rent also deals "with the poor and suffering in society, and some of the social issues of the day. The first half of the show contains some particularly loud orchestration.  Some of our subscribers will find that part of it pretty intense."