I’m
always at a loss for what to say about Rent. I’ve seen it several times, I’ve tried my best to
be a fan, but the best I can do is admire certain aspects. Generally I find it
to be a narrative mess with haphazard characterization and periodically
attractive music. (My original review of the off-Broadway engagement is here;
my prediction for its future was, as you’ll see, not one of my more prescient
calls.)
The—I
can’t call it a revival with a straight face, it’s more of a “bring back” after
a deceptive hibernation of a few years—makes me more uneasy about the
show than ever, though. Without the high octane and in some instances iconic
casting of the original production, the somewhat “re-imagined” iteration that
opened off-Broadway at New World Stages (the latest show to follow a recent
trend in which shows that have concluded their first-run Broadway lives migrate
to a mid-range house in the NWS complex, which though technically off-Broadway,
is still dead midtown on 50th Street, just below 8th Avenue) seems only to
exacerbate the fuzzy storytelling, because there aren’t sufficiently sharp personae to keep
things popping and help you keep track. Too, original director Michael Greif
has staged it exactingly enough
(yet again) on a redesigned set—less black-box suggestiveness, more
tenement skeleton, and commensurately more cramped—that doesn’t help. Anyway it
didn’t help me. But the cast goes at their appointed task with gusto. And as
with every time I’ve seen it before, the audience goes nuts.
But
the nature of the audience enthusiasm, which included a good deal of
anticipation and approval of nuance, indicated the familiarity of fans, repeat
attendees grateful for another fix. I’m not saying that newbies can’t and
wouldn’t be susceptible to Rent’s
spell—again, though I’m puzzled by the enormity of its allure, I would
never seek to deny it (or even staunch it)—but I’m not so sure I was in
what I’ll call, for lack of a better phrase, an “authentic” house. And I wonder
how the exact same production with the exact same cast would go down for a
crowd that knew little to nothing about the show, other than maybe a song or two.
Assuming such a crowd even exists. Or will in the foreseeable future. It's hard to imagine one, for Rent is too much of a youth culture watershed to be in
danger of fading into the background anytime soon. And there are still those enthusiasts
who excuse its messiness because of its compensatory—and this is almost
always the phrase used—“raw power.”
If
you’re one of them, go forth and have a great time. If you’re not, stay home
and avoid a frustrating time. It’s Rent, folks. It’s beyond good or bad criticism. And while I cannot speak
for any distant future, in this new millennium year of 2011, you already know
how you feel.
Cultural
phenomena are like that…
Go to David Spencer's Profile
Return to Home Page