Who would have thought? “Rent” is right at home in Littleton, of all places.
If you love Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking AIDS-era musical — and not everyone over 21 necessarily does — chances are you’ll hyperventilate over the Town Hall Arts Center’s exhilarating new staging. It’s that good.
Not only has director Nick Sugar found 15 youngsters who can sing the holy heck out of Larson’s landmark score, his three-piece band rocks like 10, and his set and technical elements are just right.
It’s a production with a heart as big as Broadway — in one of the most conservatively programmed little theaters in the state. Larson’s modern-day “La Boheme” was born in an intimate theater like this one, and that makes it a far more visceral live experience here than, say, last year’s tour stop at the cavernous Buell Theatre. Don’t underestimate the impact of actually being able to make out the words (and be prepared, Littletonians, they’re racy!).
“Rent” is the most important musical of its generation, not as some cloying plea for tolerance and understanding. Rather, because it’s a testament for tolerance and understanding.
But it’s now being performed everywhere from high schools to — the Town Hall Arts Center — so you would not be wrong to wonder whether “Rent’s” time has passed. It’s dated and unmistakably of its time: Living and dying in the East Village at the height of Reagan-era ambivalence to the rising AIDS epidemic. Like its counterculture predecessor, “Hair,” it celebrates a carefree, hedonistic generation that has also become recklessly endangered, for different reasons.
But with a rock-solid cast, this high-energy, emotionally intense and tear-inducing staging makes it clear that “Rent” has not run out of young lives to change.
For the uninitiated, “Rent” follows a tribe of broke artists who face eviction by their bohemian-turned-yuppie landlord. But the choppy way in which that story is told is the musical’s great weakness. Its strengths are those amazing songs and identifiable characters struggling with love, AIDS, drug addiction, suicide, homelessness and growing up.
Fans shriek for stripper Mimi’s “Out Tonight”; they bounce along to drag queen Angel’s seize-the-day anthem, “Today 4 U”; and the ensemble-driven “La Vie Boheme” ends the first act in a frenzy.
But if you want to know what “Rent” is really all about, it’s two ballads: “Will I (Lose My Dignity)?” about the slow deterioration from AIDS, and “Without You,” a song that (as written) shows three couples — biracial lesbians; a white man and brown woman with HIV; and a black man nursing his dying Latina drag-queen lover.
And unfortunately, this otherwise soaring production is lessened by its lack of ethnicity. “Rent” was written as a theatrical rainbow in every way — one that shows us nontraditional couples in all their vibrant colors. And not just to see, but to hear in songs that were specifically written for what a variety of ethnicities might bring out in them. The only person of evident color here is Ashlie-Amber Harris (as a powerhouse Joanne), and something is lost because of it.
But as the song goes, “Take me as I am” — and taken as is, this cast is pretty awesome. Helped by these tight quarters, impressive area newcomer Russell Mernagh makes brooding musician Roger actually likable. The ebullient Danny Harrigan’s adorable Angel is the human embodiment of love without qualification.
And then there’s the singular Amanda Earls, who plays Maureen not as some somber, self-absorbed performance-art shrew, but with a rare and welcome “wink.” Maureen’s ridiculous performance-art scene is deadly when played seriously. Earls is just ridiculously funny. And she can sing.
But “Rent” is an oddly structured musical. As is hammered home in its problematic signature song, “Seasons of Love,” the story covers a year, and yet the entire first act covers only one night, which makes for a second act stuck at all times on fast-forward. And even though “Rent” fanatics swoon over that same “Seasons of Love,” truth is it’s tacked on to the start of Act 2 because it doesn’t actually fit anywhere in the story, and it’s not even sung by an identifiable character. And yet it’s powerful here, thanks to ringer Traci Kern’s soulful belt.
But Larson goes soft at the end by betraying Puccini’s source story. It ends too quickly, too neatly, and here you don’t believe for a second that this Mimi has ever had a cold for a day in her life.
Still, the integrity and emotional conviction of this performance are undeniable. And even though not a few patrons predictably used intermission as an opportunity to walk out on Saturday, this is a landmark production for the Town Hall Arts Center. Hopefully with more to come.
“Rent” ***1/2 (out of four stars)
Rock musical. Littleton Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St. Written by Jonathan Larson. Directed by Nick Sugar. Through Oct. 23. 2 hours, 45 minutes. 7:30 Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. $10-$36. 303-794-2787,
