Rick Mattingly
Louisville Eccentric Observer
July 22, 1998

The "starving artist" is a popular image, to be sure, and one embraced by the smash Broadway musical "Rent," which is currently running at the Kentucky Center for the ARts.

Based on Puccini's opera "La Boheme," which involves a Parisian bohemian community of artists in the 1800s, "Rent" is set in modern New York City, where various musicians, actors, writers and performance artists live in and around a warehouse loft. It's a ghetto-like existence, except that the majority of the people have chosen to live this way. Lower East Side lofts are filled with middle-class kids from the Midwest who journey to New York City to embrace what they see as a romantic lifestyle of living in squalor while pursuing artistic aspirations.

But the truly talented people who live only for their art are greatly outnumbered by those who simply live for a lifestyle in which drugs, booze and promiscuity play prominent roles, and whose inability to pay the rent has more to do with irresponsibility than with being starving artists. The characters in "Rent" comprise a healthier percentage of people with actual talent than may be typical in Manhattan lofts, but the musical confronts the gritty realities of the lifestyle, including addiction and AIDS.

Several of the characters are HIV-positive, and it's the certainty of impending death that gives the characters' lives a desperate edge. Tomorrow may never come, so they try to make the most of today. For some, that simply means living to excess. But for others, the goal is to create something that will endure.

In a grim piece of irony, the show's creator, Jonathan Larson, died a few hours after the show's final dress rehearsal. But he certainly seems to have created something that will endure, as "Rent" won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a handful of other awards. And judging by the response of the crowd at the Center for the Arts on opening night, "Rent" will be remembered in Louisville long after it closes. The show itself is strong, with many excellent songs. But it's the cast that truly brings the show to life.

With a 15-member cast featuring seven major characters, it takes a while for all of the pieces to combine into anything resembling a plot. At times the show resembles an episode of MTV's Real Life, shich simply documents the daily dynamics of a group of people who live together. But the Real Life kids can't sing and dance, whereas the "Rent" cast is packed solid with talent. The show can be enjoyed as sort of a thematic rock concert, and the five-piece band that performs on stage is splendid.

The cast has its share of extreme characters who provide much of the color. At the top of the list is Angel (Andy Senor), a transvestite who ultimately teaches the other characters the importance of love. And then there's Maureen (Leigh Hetherington), whose performance-art peice "Over the Moon" is a hilarious highlight of the show.

Balancing them out are such characters as Mark (Kirk McDonald), a filmmaker who serves as narrator on occasion to help tie things together. He's in love with a lawyer named Joanne (Monique Daniels), but she drops him for Maureen. Another highlight of the show is their performance of "Tango: Maureen". Angel is grounded by Tom Collins (Mark Leroy Jackson), who has some strong moments as Angel's lover.

Much of the tragedy is supplied by the doomed lovers Roger (Adrian Lewis Morgan) and Mimi (Julia Santana). He's a songwriter; she's a dancer and a junkie. They both have AIDS. Very early in the show they contribute a moving performance of the song "Light My Candle", and they provide the story's emotional climax.

It's a more positive ending than Puccini gave "La Boheme", but when artists are celebrating themselves as they do in "Rent" (or in shows such as "A Chorus Line"), they do tend to mythologize their lives and art.

"Rent" continues through July 26 at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Tickets are $27-$45. For info and tickets, call 584-7777.