Christina Fuoco
Michigan Live
May 26, 1999

Tuesday night's performance of "Rent" was a 60-watt lightbulb.

It had energy. There was definitely an electric current.

How can you not have electricity when cast members in the first company song, "Rent," jumped from fire escape to floor, wrapped themselves around railings and gyrated to a rock beat? Throughout the two-and-a-half-hour show, with one intermission, the rock opera was long on energy, but only about 60-watt in intensity.

What this show could use is a nice, bright 100-watt jolt or two.

The production just needed a little more juice to take the audience to the heights that the late Jonathan Larson's music was meant to inspire. Several times in this Broadway Theatre Guild production in DeVos Hall, the power level was almost there -- but then it faded.

Not to say there weren't moments of great fun, of wonder and even awe.

The story of love, friendship, life, death and finding meaning in the day-to-day struggles as artists was well-received by the near-capacity audience at DeVos Hall.

Especially happy with the show was a small crew of Rentheads seated near the front of the hall. They repeatedly broke into cheers and yelps and often provided the rest of the house with clues as to what to do next.

"Rent" is Jonathan Larson's interpretation of American life "nearing the millennium." Larson wrote some powerfully touching songs.

The 32 songs, including interludes from phone messages and the Christmas anti-carolers, follow a group of friends with three couples who are romantically linked through one year.

No disappointment in the showstopper. As the first chords sounded, the audience delight was apparent for "Seasons of Love."

The urban scenery is stark, with lots of metal and cement, and the lighting is effectively stark, too.

First to be introduced is Mark Cohen (played by Scott Hunt). Mark, a documentary filmmaker, provides the narrative of the lives of his roommates and friends. He provides the audience with background information and captures it on film. Mark, we learn, is newly unattached. His girlfriend Maureen (Christina Fadale), a performance artist, has left him for a woman, the attorney and Ivy league graduate Joanne Jefferson (Danielle Lee Greaves).

Much is heard about Maureen before she finally emerges on stage. Upon introduction, the audience learns she's wacky and intense, and she gets everyone in their seats "mooing" with her "like you've never mooed before." Maureen is captivating and eccentric.

When Maureen is teamed with Joanne on stage, the two are truly 100-watt in their intensity, with the strongest voices in the principal cast.

These ladies were a couple who lived to fight and could not stay away from each other. Their cutting love song "Take Me or Leave Me" in Act II drew lots of cheers and applause.

Mark and Joanne get together to compare notes on Maureen, whom they agree is sometimes mean, flirts a lot and may not be the most faithful of partners. It makes for hilarious moments in the number "Tango: Maureen."

Then there's Roger Davis (Christian Mena), a rock musician who hasn't left his loft in six months, since his girlfriend slit her wrists after leaving him a note revealing they were both HIV-positive.

Roger eventually meets Mimi Marquez (Julia Santana), an exotic dancer and junkie who is also HIV-positive.

Julia and Roger have a touching song of first meeting when she comes to his apartment to ask him to light her candle, which goes out a few times so she can stay longer.

Santana also has a howling tune in "Out Tonight." Even though she was fighting some vocal hoarseness she coupled the songs with an athleticism that defied the heels she wore. She was a gymnast on a guardrail. She kicked her way down the fire escape wearing blue plastic pants that fit like skin.

A good friend, Tom Collins (Dwayne Clark), a computer-wiz, M.I.T. dropout and underappreciated teacher, visits his buddies at the loft and is robbed of his coat and beaten up as he calls up for the key to be thrown out of the window to let himself in, which is a ritual. He is found by Angel (Pierre Angelo Bayuga), a street drummer and transvestite who nurses Collins' wounds. They fall in love and disclose their HIV-positive status.

Bayuga shines as the transvestite in platforms who can leap from the floor to the table in a single bound and then from chairs to a fire escape while beating out a drumbeat and singing.

Along with Clark, they share a tenderness and openness of love that no other couple has.

The show villain is Benjamin Coffin III (Carl Thornton), who was once in the inner circle and roommate to Mark and Roger, but married a rich woman, bought the loft they live in and the vacant lot next door that is an artist-performance space. He plans to turn the two lots into a state-of-the-art, digital, interactive cyber studio and demands the past year's rent. Oh, and he's had an affair with Mimi.

While it's easy enough to keep the characters straight, it is sometimes tough to hear every melodious word, especially for those seated in the balcony. So what is missed is perhaps some nuance.

What is clear is the show's message to live for today, put regret and baggage aside, and make life richer with love.

Perhaps the coolest lighting effect of the show was the passing of Angel. With a light that cast a shadow on the ceiling of DeVos Hall. And the white silk fabric that covered a group of ensemble members eventually became Angel's sheath.

It was more glorious than sad.

What was sad was that, in the reprise of the love song, Collins' emotions never translated to the audience. It looked like it might -- and then it fizzled.

There were many gems in "Rent," musically for sure, due to Larson's fine writing. And while, on the surface, the show is a dark portrayal of life's struggles, it is really a process of learning to celebrate life and honor choices in the warmth and support of friends and loved ones.

With a message so fundamental, even a 60-watt bulb provides enough light to see, but a little more wattage would have lit a path for life.