'Rent' Remains Relevant

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Regretfully, 20 years after its premiere, Jonathan Larson’s Rent is still very relevant to our lives and culture. I say “regretfully” because it deals with the HIV/AIDS crisis, homophobia, classism, poverty, homelessness… It would be nice to see it as a “museum piece” display of how messed up American culture was way back when. But, on the plus side, its visceral appeal and forthrightness serve to remind us that, alas, we as a society still have a long way to go.

The rock musical’s appeal lies in its compelling and, for many of us, relatable characters. Roger (Kaleb Wells) is a struggling musician, desperately seeking that one big song to get a career off the ground. Mark (Sammy Ferber) is a would-be documentarian; his camera (like so many of our cellphones) recording everything and anything. Mimi (Skyler Volpe) is a young girl afflicted by AIDS and drug addiction. Indeed, the specter of the dreaded and incurable disease haunts all these young lives, and those of their friends, like a deadly stalker.

The 20th-anniversary tour of Rent at Uihlein Hall warrants something of a mixed review. Set design (Paul Clay) was excellent; costume design (Angela Wendt) equally apropos to the play’s content and times; lighting design (Jonathan Spencer) well utilized; the cast uniformly in good-to-great voice, energetic, convincing and fleet of foot (kudos here, in addition to those on stage, go to production designer Rhys Williams and director Evan Ensign).

The problems lie in the sound. Top-end voices pierced through in more of a blare than a listenable tone. But the main issue was a generally “muddy” mix of voice and music; if you didn’t know Rent’s plot (and here the playbill was only of some use if you noticed its sideways and somewhat too-cute notes), you’d have to try figuring out what’s going on by watching the actors; discerning words, spoken or sung, was frequently a problem.