by Patricia Donovan
The Buffalo News
6/17/98

True to the hype, "Rent" is one of the most original and energetic Broadway musicals in many years.  If is full of life of the most insistent kind - that lived in the shadow of death.  It is laced with the profane, with urban myth and pop cliche.  Jonathan Larson's characters claw their way toward immortality in the face of nearly impossible odds.

These are kids you'd avoid on the street or pass unnoticed in a doorway.  They live on the margins of our society and perhaps because of this the efflouresence of joy and rage presented on stage is demanding, insistent, and deliriously in your face.

Overall, this is a very good production of a high-energy, scrappy show.

Unlike most musicals this one is full of danger, sickness and death.  The homeless, the hungry, the people with AIDS, heroin addicts, the destitute want to sing you a song.  And boy can they sing!   Larson's grungy but melodic tunes charge Act One with an electricity that connects players with audience and both with the playright.  This is where you'll find the best music - "Rent," "One Song Glory," the sexy "Light My Candle," the satirical "Tango Maureen," and others.

I won't get into the story here - it's based on "La Boheme" - but it ain't pretty.

Unfortunately Act two cannot meet the expectation set up by the first act.  The music is weak, the action confused, the sentiments sappy and the ending unintentionally hilarious and cliched.   Unfortunately, Larson didn't have a chance to do a final edit on Act Two before his unexpected death shortly before the play opened.  This young company is uniformly excellent and I liked everyone of the very much.  They bring to the stage a depth of feeling we seldom see.

There's Mark (Kirk McDonald), a stand-in for Larson himself.  An isolated upper-middle-class young man who chooses to struggle for his art in a miserable loft he shared with Roger (Adrian Lewis Morgan).   Roger is a recovering drug addict with AIDS but he's as hot as Sting and British too.  Both give stunning performances.

Angel, the warm-hearted and very funny transvestite, is played here by Andy Senor and he grabs the audience from his first moment on stage and holds our attention whenever he is in sight.  Angel is also dying of AIDS, which doesn't prevent him from opening his heart and his home to Tom Collins, a street dweller played by Mark Leroy Jackson, a powerful performance by Jackson.

Mimi is the catty, grungy little bondage dancer who steals Roger's heart with her rather breathtaking figure and the tightest plastic pants ever to cross my line of vision.  She is played here by Julia Santana and like the tuburcular Mimi of "La Boheme" is destined to lose her love and die.  Sort of.

The third set of lovers with which the play concerns itself are Joanne, played by Monique Daniels, and Maureen, played by Leigh Hetherington.  They are both lesbians, and Maureen is a narcissist besides.   Although both characters are very well played and sung, theirs is a rather unpleasant association played principally for laughs.

The set is designed to resemble a massive perpetual motion machine construction of scaffolding, bicycle parts and scrap metal.  Cartoon cops patrol the "brick" backdrop.  Graffiti, three red folding chairs, Christmas lights and stage musicians provide most of the color except for the performers whos costumes are currently a fashion hit.

The subject matter, some of the language and the apocalyptic mood may not appeal to some audiences.  Some will be offended by the stylized representation of homoerotic coupling.

Nevertheless, "Rent," for all of its flaws, gives popular voice to a generation that has been singing its fury only to one another for many years.  For that reason alone this play is worth a listen.

Beyond that you will be highly entertained, particularly by Act One, and you may hear a few things that you may need to hear from those not benefiting one iota from the social policies of The Great Communicator.