by Ann Hicks
Greenville News
February 1, 2001

At Tuesday night's opening performance of "Rent" at the Peace Center, the highly touted, award-winning rock musical met many of my expectations.

And delivered some surprises.

Its score was at times ear-splittingly loud rock 'n' roll interspersed with gentle ballads and an occasional nod in the direction of musical theater tradition. No surprises there.

Let's face it: Its composer, the late Jonathan Larson, owes just as much to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber as he does to Lennon, Jagger and Hendrix. And, may I say, none to Puccini, whose opera provides the plot.

The story line is a 1990s version of "La Boheme," with the East Village bohemians frolicking, making love and growing frustrated by the struggles and vagaries of life.

In Puccini's version, the entire opera takes place under the specter of that 19th-century social disease, tuberculosis. For Larson's characters in "Rent," it's today's scourge, AIDS.

What I was totally unprepared for is the show's politics. Its excursions into proletarian rebellion and socialist manifesto would have warmed Marx's and Lenin's hearts.

These bohemians have had enough of capitalism, it seems, and while they are ordering up their miso soup, tofu and fries at the Life Cafe, they sing a spirited ensemble song, "La Vie Boheme." It pays a rousing tribute to a long list of dead and living antiestablishment and avant-garde types. Practically everyone is remembered, including Gertrude Stein, Lenny Bruce, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes and those famous last names like Kurosawa, Ginsberg, Sontag and Havel.

My recommendation: Don't miss this fresh and intelligent musical. The energy is high, the actor/singers are young, talented and warm. But if you are offended by profanity, homosexuality or drug use, this is probably not the play for you.

"Rent" continues through Sunday. Call 467-3000 for tickets and performance times.