Rent: Memorable musical but not much memorable music

Rent by Jonathan Larson

Director, Richard Neame

Musical Director, Grant Winterburn

Musical Staging, Teesh Szabo

Auckland Music Theatre

Civic Theatre, Auckland

Until May 7th

Some of the best musicals and operas reflect something about the society of the day as well as telling stories about individuals. “Rent” is one of the musicals which manage to achieve this and the Auckland Music Theatre’s new production brings these ideas to life with a memorable production. Unfortunately while it’s a memorable musical it doesn’t have memorable music.

It’s loosely based on Puccini’s “La Bohème” but set 100 years after the opera, in New York with a group of artists, intellectual and drug addicts. Even the heroine is called Mimi but Rodolfo become Roger and Marcello, Mark. Continuing the similarities Mark rather than being a painter is an experimental film maker and Roger rather than a poet is a rock guitarist.

But this is the nineteen nineties and for social relevance and realism we have another couple in the form of Collins (Colline of La Bohème) and his lover Angel, a transsexual.

Where in “La Bohème” it is Mimi who dies tragically (she just about does in “Rent” but is revived at the last moment) it is Angel who expires after a harrowing AIDS episode.

“Rent” is a high energy show interspersed with tender moments and it owes much to the traditions of Hollywood and Broadway musicals as well as The Wizard of Oz along with a nod to Leonardo’s Last Supper and a dozen other references.

The local cast provides as good as we would get from a touring show. They are confident singers and most of them can act well.

Kristian Lavercombe is outstanding in his role of Mark who holds the various plot lines and themes together, managing to inhabit the stage as both participant and observer. He captures the bravado and insolence of the nineties sleek artist with a crisply rounded character.

Rebecca Wright as Mimi also comes up with a striking performance particularly with her singing of “Out Tonight” and her dance of seduction with Roger is stylish and feline.

Roger is a complex character combining a mixture of materialism and nihilism. Michael Murphy manages to capture the various facets brilliantly although occasionally he seems to forget who is playing and things go a bit flat.

Melissa Nordhaus as Maureen gives an effective performer especially in her Santa Claus routine. Annie Crummer as her love interest, Joanne can belt out the lyrics with a lot of power but never quite creates a sympathetic character.

The main story line is that of the doomed life of Angel played perceptively by Cameron Clayton giving the character intimations of the tragic without being maudlin. His partner Collins is well supported by the forceful voice of Tama Waipara.

The huge set which combines the interior and exterior of a New York tenement block is clever and with the projected images is a magnificent backdrop to the action.

One of the big problems was with the intonation and diction of some of the singers. The clever, poetic and meaningful libretto needs to be really well enunciated so we get the subtleties and connections of the words. Too often one was left with a huge wash of words which didn’t seem to add up to much.

But it’s the energy, enthusiasm and panache of the performers which makes for a great evening and they manage to get across both the optimism of the times and the anguish which AIDS brought.