If you know the story behind “Rent,” the lyrics to “One
Song Glory” can be a little heart-breaking.
Early in the musical — now on stage in a stirring production at
Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford — the songwriter Roger (the
strong-voiced Mark Ayesh) strums his guitar, alone in his heatless
top-floor apartment on the corner of 11th Street and Avenue B in New
York’s Alphabet City.
It is Christmas Eve, his fingers are freezing, but
he’s trying to coax one hit out of his Fender guitar. Just one hit.
“One song. Glory. One song. Before I go.
Glory.One song to leave behind.”
The composer of “Rent,” White Plains native Jonathan
Larson, did not live to see the phenomenon his musical became. He died of
an aortic aneurysm hours before the first full Off-Broadway dress
rehearsal of “Rent,” 10 days shy of his 36th birthday.
But Larson left more than one song behind.
He left behind “Rent,” a rock musical loosely based
on Puccini’s “La Boheme,” set in the world of starving artists, junkies
and transvestites in a community decimated by the AIDS scare of the early
’90s.
It ran 5,123 performances on Broadway and won the
Pulitzer Prize.
And Larson saw none of it.
On stage at the Elmsford dinner theater, “Rent”
pulses with the energy of director-choreographer Patricia Wilcox’s
well-chosen cast, rocking to Christopher McGovern’s four-piece band.
“Rent” is about community, making your own family
from friends, living every day as if it were your last.
There are too many storylines and strong
performances to confine to this space — but standout performances are
given by Steena Hernandez as the slinky Mimi, who is battling her own
demons and by Sara Ruzicka as Maureen.
Ruzicka stops the show with an over-the-top
performance-art piece “Over the Moon.”
Later, she and the strong-voiced Gabrielle Reid as
Joanne go toe-to-toe in a knock-down-drag-out lover’s spat, “Take Me or
Leave Me.”
There is power in the musical’s quieter moments,
too. The loving relationship between Angelo Rios (as Collins) and Justin
Senense (as the drag queen Angel) is mined for all it’s worth.
Rios’ deep baritone on the reprise of “I’ll Cover
You” is deeply affecting. He takes his time with it, each word and note
landing, every ache visible for all to see. It’s as honest a performance
as you’re likely to see. And it hurts.
Amid the other characters’ baggage and difficulty in
finding connection, the depth of the Collins-Angel relationship — between
two gay men — is what the other characters long for.
Wilcox’s hand is sure in this production. The
Elmsford stage is tricky, with seating on three sides of the stage, but
one wishes she would take more opportunities to bring the actors closer to
the audience, rather than keeping them upstage.
The musical might be considered a risky choice for
the dinner theater, which typically presents solid productions of
chestnuts of the musical-theater canon for an audience that is comfortable
with the tried and true.
Larson’s Bohemian crowd, living under the death
sentence of HIV, gives new meaning to the phrase “anything goes” — meaning
that has nothing to do with Ethel Merman.
But those who are willing to go along for the ride
will be rewarded. They will find in “Rent” a heartfelt humanity that is
powerful and enduring, even if the age of constant fear that “Rent”
chronicles is happily a thing of the past.
The voices are exceptional, notably in the ensemble
numbers.
“Seasons of Love,” the musical’s best-known anthem,
sounds spectacular and soloists in “Life Support” strike at the heart.
As the cloistered Roger, Ayesh shows a man in
conflict with his past, paralyzed in the present, unsure of the future.
Andy Kelso’s filmmaker Mark hides behind his camera
and screens calls from his mother in Scarsdale. But his dreams of glory
are just as real as Roger’s
A generation of musical-theater lovers knows this
music backwards and forwards. “Rent”-heads have had several opportunities
to see non-Equity productions of the musical in recent weeks across the
Lower Hudson Valley.
Here’s a chance to see it in the hands of
professionals in a production that might just make you see things in a
different way.
