Impassioned reimagining of pop-rock play energizes summer theatre stage

‘Rent’

Three Stars (out of four)

Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, directed by Thom Allison, choreography by Marc Kimelman, music direction by Franklin Brasz. Runs until October 28 at the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen St., Stratford. Stratfest.com and 800-567-1600.

An impossible cost of living, gentrification, forced evictions, police brutality, artists struggling below the poverty line and a global pandemic.

Jonathan Larson’s pop-rock musical “Rent,” which defined an era when it premiered in 1996, is uncannily resonant in 2023.

The multitalented young cast of the current Stratford Festival production doubtless have their own stories to tell about the struggles to stay in the business and even stay housed in these immediate post-COVID years (having landed this gig, they’re some of the lucky ones).

A big part of what has fueled a passionate, ongoing “Rent” fandom is the brilliance of Jonathan Larson’s score. I was working in New York theatre when the show premiered and know the soundtrack by heart, but even so I was surprised again by how jam-packed it is with one amazing song after another, particularly in the 90-minute long first act.

In Thom Allison’s jacked-up Stratford production, the volume is loud and the pace is driving, at times relentless. The passion coming off the stage is palpable, and the quality of the performances and singing superb, but at some points there’s so much intensity that it becomes overwhelming. This causes concern for artists who will be singing this hard for the next five months.

While overall the cast do a good job articulating Larson’s complex and often overlapping lyrics, a few sound mix problems on opening night led to parts of songs being difficult to discern over Franklin Brasz’s orchestra.

And you need to keep up! The storytelling hits the ground running, and those unacquainted with the show will benefit from reading the program’s production synopsis in advance, as it articulates situations the audience is dropped into midstream. Opera fans will have a head start: The material is loosely based on Puccini’s romantic opera “La Bohème.”

Allison’s production starts with a lovely soft-open, as members of the company walk onstage while the lights are still up, inviting connections between this fictional world and our own. Mark Cohen (Robert Markus) is the narrator: an unemployed filmmaker making a low-budget documentary about his friend-group of artists in Manhattan’s East Village. The show powerfully evokes the looming presence of HIV/AIDS in the early and mid-1990s: many of Mark’s community, including his musician roommate Roger (Kolton Stewart) are HIV-positive. Coping with the disease and fear of spreading it weave through the show as motifs.

The first act takes place on an action-packed Christmas Eve, during which romance sparks between Roger and neighbour Mimi (Andrea Macasaet), an exotic dancer struggling with heroin addiction; and between anarchist professor Tom Collins (Lee Siegel) and a generous drag queen named Angel (Nestor Lozano Jr.).

Mark’s former girlfriend, performance artist Maureen (Erica Peck), is dating lawyer Joanne (Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane) but still has Mark on a short codependency leash: He jumps to give her last-minute help with a performance protesting evictions and homelessness. Those are concerns dangerously familiar to Mark and Roger: their roommate-turned-landlord Benny (Jahlen Barnes) is trying to collect a year’s past-due rent, and they end up locked out for part of the second act.

Brandon Kleiman’s set is a loving echo of the off-Broadway and Broadway original: two metal platforms with various ladders running between them, and a backdrop of a lower Manhattan cityscape. Allison’s staging and Marc Kimelman’s choreography make good use off all the levels, including steps down from the main platform. This is particularly powerful in the stirring group numbers “Support Group” and “Will I,” with the company joining in choral harmonies that underline the centrality of community to the show.

Larson died of an aneurism the night before “Rent”’s off-Broadway premiere, a tragic event that increased already high stakes and emotion. Watching it again I wondered if, had he survived, Larson and his team would have pruned and shaped the material further. In some cases, characterization is more presented than explored, and romantic relationships spring from virtually nowhere and stay at one level: Roger and Mimi suffer and bicker while Collins and Angel’s bond is instantly profound and veers suddenly tragic in the second half.

This is my 27-years-later critique of a story I fell in love with when I was the age of its characters, though. It’s a young person’s show and has great potential to bring in a younger demographic to Stratford this summer.

There are many, many treats among the vocal and acting performances. I greatly admired Markus’s technique and clarity in delivering Mark’s narration, which is an important audience anchor, and his voice is as divine as ever. Tom Collins’ songs and storyline are my favourites and Siegel’s profoundly warm presence and resonant voice fully deliver (though the backup singers in the “I’ll Cover You” reprise came in so shouty that it disrupted that important moment).

Macasaet is a rising musical theatre star – she originated a role in the hit musical “Six” – and though her Mimi starts out at a worryingly high pitch of vocal tone and performance intensity, she comes into her own in duets with Stewart’s well-sung Roger. Erica Peck makes very strong choices as Maureen – the commitment is impressive but starts to feel familiar. Sinclair-Brisbane is perfectly cast and beautifully portrays the hyper-competent, sometimes passion-addled Joanne, and Barnes does well in the anti-heroic role of Benny.

The production’s huge discovery is Lozano: Angel is a playful, saintly beacon of light and it takes a particular talent to credibly deliver that vibrancy. Lozano’s performance is a life-giving force, as it should be. Specials props to Masini McDermott and Matthew Joseph, standout soloists in the iconic song “Seasons of Love.”

Stratford have laid on the spectacle for this show, particularly with Michael Walton’s lighting, which turns the backdrop into a starry night sky at times. The use of a hydraulic platform in the first act risks camp, but it is used to different and useful effects in the second act. Like Kleiman’s set, a few aspects of Ming Wong’s costumes nod affectionally to the original (what’s a Mark Cohen without a stripey sweater?) and overall do great work evoking the 1990s time period.

The show ends with a wrenching coup de theatre that brings us back to the present time and place, marking the effects of HIV/AIDS on the Stratford community.

There’s no doubting the love for the material in this show. With more levels and some toning down it has huge potential to convert a new generation of Rent-heads.

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