[NEohioPAL]Berko review: RENT (Palace Theatre)

[Roy Berko]

‘RENT’ ONCE AGAIN GETS STANDING “O” AT THE PALACE

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

Art is representative of the era from which it comes. 
By looking at the artistic productions of any time
period, whether it be theatre, dance, painting,
sculpture, film, or music, you get a glimpse of what
the attitudes, beliefs, political and social movements
were in vogue at the time.  

In theatre, for example, the beat generation had
‘HAIR,’ an anti-war, anti-establishment musical.  It
represented the attitudes of a changing world and
started a trend to use the musical as a vehicle to
examine society.  It was an anti-war,
anti-establishment, break the rules snapshot.  The
production included nudity, long hair, and other
against-the traditional-grain attitudes.  

The millennium generation has ‘RENT.’   It stakes out
territories that were in “vogue” about ten years ago
and carry over to today.  Issues include AIDS, drug
addiction, homosexuality, transexualism, the plight of
the homeless, and the search for purpose.   Though
some of the issues are presently in a different state,
such as the development of the medical cocktail to
treat those with AIDS, thus cutting down the number
who die from the disease, the impact of ‘RENT’ can
still be felt.

‘RENT’ has a star-crossed history.  Jonathan Larson,
who wrote the book, music and lyrics never lived to
see his show open on Broadway.  Larson died of an
aortic aneurysm on January 25, 1996, 19 days before
his musical had its world premiere.   It is ironic
that when the cast was rehearsing "What You Own," the
rousing second act song about dying, Larson collapsed
and was whisked away in an ambulance. He later told
friends that he couldn't believe that the last burst
of music he would hear might be his own song about
dying.  It was!

‘RENT,’ an updating of the opera, ‘LA BOHEME, has been
to Cleveland five times.  Each visit has been met with
sold-out houses.  This particular production is
starting a seven month tour in Cleveland and if
opening night is any indication, it will also bring in
the greenbacks.  

The cast members are mainly professional theatre
“newbies,” recent college grads with little or no
Broadway experience.  In contrast to shows that are
greatly dependent upon in-depth character development
and extremely high level acting, ‘RENT’ is more a show
of singing and developing illusions. 

The strongest performance contributions were made by
Jed Resnick (Mark), Bryce Tyness (Roger), Tracy
McDowell (Maureen) and Altamiece Carolyn Ballard (lead
woman singer/bag lady).  Disappointing were Arianda
Fernandez (Mimi) who often sang flat and failed to
develop a clear characterization in a very pivotal
role, Ano Okera (Angel) who failed to consistently
develop this choice part, and Warren G. Nolan who
emotionally “walked through” the role of Collins. 
Okera and Nolan, Jr. (Collins) showed no interactive
physical chemistry, even feigning their kissing
scenes.

As the band conductor came onto stage opening night, a
great roar was heard.  It was probably from young
Clevelander Jared Stein’s family and friends.  Stein
not only conducts with dynamism, but plays keyboard
and is responsible for the musical blends of the cast.
 He generally did a great job, though at times the
musical sounds drowned out the voices of the singers. 
 Because of the music volume, potential attenders who
are not familiar will the lyrics to the songs, should
listen to the original cast c.d. or they will miss
much of the story.   

Capsule judgment:  On opening night the mostly young
audience gave the show a standing ovation They
screamed with delight at such songs as “Seasons of
Love,” “Without You,” “LaVie Boheme/I Should Tell
You,” and “Will I?”  Whether you like this musical may
well be a generational thing, but, that is one of the
points of the show.  

‘RENT’ runs through February 11 at the Palace Theatre
in Playhouse Square.  For tickets calling
216-241-6000, 800-766-6048 or going on line to
www.playhousesquare.com.


Roy Berko's web page can be found at www.royberko.info.  His theatre and dance reviews appear on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com