by Geoff Williams
The Post
May 6, 1999

You'll almost wish you were broke, in a dead-end job and living in the slums.

Yes, ''Rent'' is everything you've likely heard: electrifying, energetic, entertaining, funny and fabulous, tragic and touching. If this play were a videotape, I'd be insisting: Go rent ''Rent.''

Tuesday's performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, a special presentation of the Fifth Third Broadway at the Taft season, was a mesmerizing opening night.

The place was teeming with twentysomethings - many of whom had already seen the play, judging from the applause before many of the numbers. Perhaps they caught the show when ''Rent'' was in Cincinnati in March 1998.

For those who haven't heard anything beyond the hype, ''Rent'' revolves around three relationships - a heterosexual romance, lesbian lovers and a drag queen and his philosophy professor boyfriend. The couples are close friends, and they become even closer as they unite to save an apartment - and the adjoining lot full of homeless people - from a sinister Generation X-esque landlord.

But this goes much deeper than Jack, Janet and Chrissy trying to scrape up rent money for Mr. Roper. This is a play about death, friendship and love. It's a play about being lonely, and scared, and young, and searching for meaning in life. It's a play about living life now, and not later.

As the cast sings in the finale, ''There is no future, there is no past . . . there's only this . . . no other day, but today.''

Mostly a musical rock opera with little spoken dialogue, ''Rent'' features some superb singing. There is a cast of 17, with six main players who all possess stunning star power and stage presence.

If there are any shortcomings, it may simply be that the lyrics whiz by, and at times, it seems impossible that the entire substance of the story can be grasped in one viewing.

During the spirited number ''Christmas Bells,'' for instance, there must be at least five or six subplots being simultaneously sung by several groups of performers, with about 500 different props to look at, courtesy of set designer Paul Clay and director Michael Greif.

And while this is a young person's musical, it's not for all of the young. At least one little girl, probably around 9 or 10, was spotted in the audience. With raw, raunchy language and adult issues abounding, if you have children who aren't yet teenagers, calling a baby-sitter is probably in order.

Conservatives might want to stay away entirely, but otherwise - if you're an adult, and if you've ever been in love or frightened at the uncertainty of life - this is a musical you shouldn't miss.