On Sunday April 19, 1998 I went to see a performance of Jonathan Larson’s Rent at the Royal Alexandria Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. I had been studying the show and listening to the soundtrack for about two weeks prior and was very anxious to it, to put it mildly. The history of Jonathan Larson and the development of Rent is a fascinating and compelling story in itself, so much so I’m considering writing a musical about the life of Jonathan Larson. Unfortunately, few today could write as good of a show as Jonathan has with Rent.

Rent is based on the Giacomo Puccini opera La Boheme. Although Larson took some liberties with Puccini’s story and characters, there are still many close parallels between the two. Both begin on Christmas Eve. In the first musical piece, "Rent," Mark and Roger burn their concert posters and screenplays to stay warm just as in La Boheme Rodolfo burns his manuscript. La Boheme continues on with Shaunard telling how he was hired by a rich Englishman to play until his caged parrot died of terror. In Rent, Angel Shaunard was hired by a woman in a limousine to play outside a building until her neighbor’s annoying dog barked itself to death. In both Rent and La Boheme, Mimi comes to her neighbor asking him to light her candle and the two fall in love. In Rent the landlord Benny and La Boheme’s Benoit both are married men that cheat on their wives. A clever incorporation of La Boheme into Rent is Roger, who’s trying to find the "one song to redeem this empty life" keeps playing with the melody of "Musetta’s Waltz" from Puccini’s opera. The two shows stray apart in the middle, but are brought back together at the end with Mimi close to death being brought back to the loft to be close to her love as she dies. This is where the most debated change occurred in the script of Rent. In La Boheme Mimi died with Rodolfo crying her name. Jonathan Larson changed the end of the story to reflect the "life-affirming" concept that Broadway Theatre is supposed to leave us with. Mimi came back to life telling Roger how Angel, who died earlier in the show, steered her back to life.

The remainder of this report will be a discussion and evaluation of the performance I saw, based on the criteria that Steven Porter sets in his book The American Musical Theatre. Quotes, unless otherwise noted, come from Rent published by William Morrow and Company.

Directorial Judgements

With a professional production and casting staff like the one involved with this show, having a suitable talent pool are not reasons for concern. The choice of theatre for putting on Rent, however, is a considerable concern In the case of the Toronto production, the producers did a splendid job. Rent is a show that was originally designed for a small off-Broadway theatre. When the show unexpectedly graduated to Broadway, the producers moved it into the Nederlander theatre. The Nederlander is smaller theatre that was in a state of disrepair in the run down area of Forty-First Street in New York City, perfect for the setting of the show. Although the Royal Alexandria Theatre is in much better condition than the Nederlander was in, it maintains the most important aspect – keeping the audience close to the stage. The Royal Alexandria is very shallow with two balconies, thus keeping the people even in the last row fairly close. Another thing helping to retain the intimate feel of the show was the fact the band plays right onstage and becomes part of the set allowing seating to be placed all the way to the stage.

Actor Timothy Britten Parker said about Rent’s original director Michael Greif, "… he’s an exceptional stager. He has an innate understanding of staging, this spatial understanding. Michael took what could have been unstageable – a bowl of oatmeal – and he made it into this very fine entrée. It’s neat and colorful and precise." The show used basically one big set and different parts of it were used at different times. The stage was not symmetrical by any means, but still was balanced well. The dense, but low stage left side which housed the band was counterbalanced by a more spacious, but tall stage right side. Right from the beginning all of the actors walk onstage and carefully place themselves all around the stage, with the most important characters downstage and the less important characters upstage. This carried through all scenes. The stage never looked off balance. One scene of blocking note is the "Life Support" scene where the support group is in the meeting room located on top of the band. One member, Gordon, doesn’t feel like participating with the group. ("Excuse me Paul – I’m having a problem with this, this credo – my T-cells are low – I regret that news, okay?") To show the distance that Gordon is feeling, he was placed on the opposite side of the stage, at the ground level, near the audience. This made the scene very clear and you didn’t have to try and pick out who in the group was talking.

Pacing between scenes in this show was not a problem at all. With no major set changes to take place, everything moved quickly and smoothly. Additionally, actors would often just carry a prop onstage and toss it to a character needing it. This is a carryover from Rent’s off-Broadway run. Instead of "Broadway-izing" a lot of the scenes, the directors felt it was important for Rent to retain it’s off-Broadway feel on the bigger stage. There are two scenes in particular I felt could have been paced better. During "Voice Mail #2" Joanne’s father is leaving a message on her machine, while her mother is in the background piping in a comment here and there. At the end of the scene, Mr. Jefferson is saying, "For Mummy’s sake, kitten, no Doc Martens this time, and wear a dress… Oh, and kitten – have a merry…" Mrs. Jefferson then says, "And a bra!" Because the scene isn’t moving along quickly enough, the audience has a difficult time connecting the "And a bra!" line to the end of "and wear a dress…" Either the scene needs to be sped up or the line needs to be started earlier. I also felt there was too much of a delay between the dialog and the beginning of Mimi’s singing at the opening of "Without You." They could have cut a full four measures of fill music out because absolutely nothing was happening on stage at the time, except for Mimi walking around in circles. It almost seemed like Mimi forgot to start singing and the band comped and waited for her. The other scenes were all paced very well. "La Vie Boheme" was very lively and quick. That scene wouldn’t work at a slower tempo. Likewise for "Contact." The "I’ll Cover You – Reprise" scene was paced slower than it was on the CD, which was a great improvement, because it gave it more of a lamenting feel.

The overall architecture of the whole show is one aspect that could stand improvement. The show definitely builds to a climax, but many of the songs are very powerful and would help the architecture more if they were placed in different parts of the show. Producer Jeffrey Seller after seeing the initial reading of Rent said to Jonathan, "Jonathan, are you trying to do a concert of songs or are you trying to tell a story?" I think there are still remnants of this in the current version of the show. "Seasons of Love" is probably the single most powerful song in the show, with the whole cast standing at the edge of the stage singing to the audience. Denny Flinn says in his book Musical! A Grand Tour, "Rent’s composer Jonathan Larson died hours after the dress rehearsal, leaving his progeny abandoned at a crucial stage in the off-Broadway musical’s development." Never have I felt more moved by a song in a show than I was then, having the actors look you right in the eye and give you a wink and a small smile because they see you singing along. The song was great, moving, but didn’t really have much to do with the beginning of Act II. The second song, "Happy New Year" is a direct lead-in and would make a better second act opener. "Seasons of Love" is so powerful, and yet it’s only three minutes long. It would be better if combined with "Seasons of Love B" and used in that part of the show instead, where it has more meaning, or possibly at the beginning of the show as a type of overture. Adjustments like these could make Rent even more powerful that it already is.

Evaluating Musical Performance

It’s only fair to evaluate solo singing character by character, but I’ll only discuss the most important ones. Jeremy Kushnier (Mark) was excellent. It was extremely difficult to believe that he was an understudy. Luther Creek (Roger) took some time to warm up and sang too softly in some parts, but otherwise did very well and had a good vocal tone for the part. He knows how combine his acting and singing. Danny Blanco (Collins) shined during "I’ll Cover You – Reprise" where he mourns the death of Angel. It was very in character and very moving. Jai Rodriguez (Angel) did an excellent job of playing a gay male, yet not overemphasizing his S’s as many people who perform a stereotypical gay male role. This is very important when singing with a microphone. Amplified S’s have a very sheer and annoying sound. Divine Earth Essence (the soloist during "Seasons of Love") has the most incredible voice I’ve ever heard. She hit a note during her solo that I think is a full octave higher than the note on the recording. An excellent display of talent. Of course with the good comes the bad. I think this category holds the single most disappointing aspect of the performance I saw. Jenifer Aubry (Maureen) has a wonderful voice. Unfortunately, she completely stepped out of character to sing her duet with Joanne "Take Me or Leave Me." She was putting on a splendid performance up to that point, but she made a mistake that any director should have caught and fixed.

The ensemble singing was also top-notch. Jonathan Larson’s score has some very difficult harmonies to sing, yet the cast did a great job with it. The only dubious comment I can make about the ensemble singing was that the solo flourishes in "Will I?" weren’t audible. This also could have been a sound mixing problem.

The instrumental playing of any five-piece band has to be great because they’re too exposed to be making mistakes. Rent’s band did a flawless job. The blending between the instruments and voices was also very good, although this was probably a credit of the sound engineers. One unique aspect of Rent is that the actor that plays Roger must learn at least partially to play the guitar. I think this was one of Luther Creek’s weaker points. He’s supposed to be an ex-rock band frontman, yet he’s obviously not the guitar player that his character boasts. He could stand to spend a little more time working on those "Musetta’s Waltz" riffs.

Evaluating Dramatic Performance

Characterization in any musical is important, but especially so in Rent. Jonathan Larson held a dinner the night before rehearsals started. At this dinner he said to all the cast members, "This is a show about my friends, so you’re all playing my friends." The cast knew then just how important it is to be their character, and for some of them they were already living their roles. This production of Rent was no different. Luther Creek did a wonderful job acting. You could feel Roger’s inner battle of wanting to have a relationship, yet feeling held back because of his HIV status. We also saw Roger’s character develop from a scared person, afraid to love again, to someone who was happy for having a new love in his life, to a jealous boyfriend, to someone who realizes that he has found true love and needs to make amends. Jai Rodriguez did an absolutely wonderful job playing the part of a feminine gay male. His actions and body language were perfect. He also adjusted his speaking voice to fit the role. I can’t image the amount of work that he must have put into his character. Danny Blanco (Collins) perhaps could have been a little stronger in portraying his level of education. Although Jenifer Aubry stepped out of character during her duet, she did an amazing job with that character. Her character was the one I was most interested in watching because she only has one line before Maureen acts in her own performance piece. I was interested in seeing how Maureen’s character would then transform to Maureen. Aubry did a great job with this. During the performance piece, Maureen seemed to be a wacky, perhaps eccentric girl who was obviously an unrefined actor. She overacted and was playing actor and director at the same time. I was pleased to see that when the show was over, Maureen still had the wacky personality, but shed the actress persona. Damian Perkins’ interpretation of Benny started out strong, but seemed to fade. At the beginning, Benny seemed to be a bouncy, upbeat pers on. Later, he seemed more serious and calm. I don’t think this was a development in the character, but a flaw in the acting. Saskia Garel did an excellent job with Mimi. Her speech and actions portrayed her character’s rung on the social ladder very well. She had all of the right moves for a stripper, as well as the body for it. Dean Balkwill did a great job of playing "the man," Rent’s drug dealer. He had a very "cool" speech pattern and walk that reflected his character well. The only character with a noticeable physical idiosyncrasy was Alexi Darling. She kept making a motion with her hands, similar to the sign language gesture for "But." The only character that really made use of a prop was Mark and his video camera. His character may have been made stronger by always having that video camera, or constantly framing scenes with his hands.

Dramatic focus is very important in one scene in particular. During the "La Vie Boheme" scene, everyone on stage is dancing and moving around. Additionally, that focus shifts very quickly between different characters as they each take turns saying lines in the song. This is accomplished by having the characters miming their line as they sing it. Examples are when Mimi and Angel act like they’re beating eggs when they sing "huevos rancheros" and Mark doing a disco dance during his line "to any passing fad." Because the whole musical is set to music, almost all of the lines have a specific rhythm to them, so timing isn’t really something the actors have control of. The only prominent change I would have made was the "And a bra!" line that I mentioned earlier.

Choreographic Concept and Performance

There are no big dance numbers in Rent like there are in Oklahoma! or West Side Story. The closest thing to it is "Contact" where the cast does an interesting, almost pornographic high-energy dance. The rest of the dancing that does occur is there because it’s a natural part of the show. In "Today 4 U" Angel does a rhythmic street dance where he bangs on things with drumsticks Stomp-style in an answer to Collins line, "And you should see her beat!" In "Tango: Maureen" Mark and Joanne dance a tango. Very appropriate, very well integrated into the show. In "Out Tonight" Mimi does her big solo dance with song, with moves that strenghten the fact that she is an able exotic dancer. In "La Vie Boheme" the whole group is singing and dancing a kind of impromptu party dance as they celebrate the Bohemian life in opposition to Benny’s statement "Bohemia is dead." The fact that the dancing is so well integrated into the show is what makes it so good.

Evaluating Theatrical Technology

Rent had very few advanced technical aspects. There were no helicopters flying on stage as there are in Miss Saigon. This was the one aspect of the show that should have got some updating when the show moved to Broadway. Sometimes it even seemed that some technology could have been added to assist with aspects of the show. In particular, the first time the power blows, Roger was just playing the guitar and then it stopped after he played a phrase. Mark then turns to the audience and says, "The power blows!" In many places in Rent, "tell, don’t show" works successfully, but here it didn’t. A small flash paper explosion or a puff of smoke or something would have made it clear what happened. The second time the power blew there was a flash and it was much more effective.

The lighting in Rent was somewhat weak. With a one set show, the lighting should be the prime factor in scene changes. For example, Rent takes place over the course of a year. The lighting should have been used to show the different seasons. It also could have been used to better show the different lofts that the characters. Unless you read the libretto, you don’t realize that there are scenes in Joanne’s loft and Mimi’s apartment besides Mark and Roger’s loft. There should have been severe lighting differences to show this.

All of the actors in Rent wear headset microphones which work much better than the standard lapel mic. The headset mic eliminates the need to attach the mic to a part of the actors costume where it’s going to pick up the voice. Visually, it adds to the off-Broadway feel to the show because it’s quite obvious that the sound engineers aren’t trying to creatively hide the mic places. The microphone transmitter even becomes part of the costume for some actors. Mimi used hers for a pager. The actors obviously were trained to use these mics. Different actors would wear theirs on different sides of their heads so if they kissed the mics didn’t bump each other. While headset microphones work extremely well for Rent, it wouldn’t fit in other shows like Showboat or Les Miserables. The only sound problem that occurred was Angel’s headset mic didn’t work when he first came onstage. He calmly walked to the side of the stage and picked up one of the handheld mics that were sitting there for a later scene. The balance was very good between the music and the singing. Overall, the sound was quite a bit better in Rent that in most other shows I’ve seen.

As I said earlier, there is only one set in Rent. The set was designed by Paul Clay. Clay walked around New York’s East Village and took pictures of different things he could incorporate into Rent. It’s very difficult to make one set that can house all of the different scenes and yet still be functional. Additionally, Rent’s set also needed to include a place for the band. Rent’s set did an excellent job of meshing aesthetics, authenticity, and functionality.

With the lack of set changes in Rent, the crew was never seen. Porter says that a crew "should neither be seen nor heard." If this is our criterion for judging a stage crew, then they get an A+.

Wardrobe and Make-Up

Rent is set in the present time in the run-down New York East Village, so the costumes were easy to do. It’s hard to go wrong with present-day outfits because anything goes. Angela Wendt, Rent’s costume designer, only had $500 to work with for the off-Broadway production, but she was buying a lot of second-hand clothes because they fit the parts. The costumes fit the characters’ parts so well that when the show moved to Broadway, the costumes didn’t change, only the number of them did (due to union regulations, actors must be provided with clean costumes for eight performances a week). Now, people expect to see these costumes when they go see Rent – Mimi’s blue hot pants, Angel’s cross-dressed Christmas outfit. They’re as much a part of the show as the songs are.

The make-up was also done tastefully and appropriately for each character. Mimi, the stripper, obviously had very visible make-up when she was getting herself dressed up to try and get Roger to go out with her. But Mark, who wouldn’t normally wear make-up, you couldn’t tell was wearing any. Both the costumes and make-up were done flawlessly.

Quality of Writing

Although Porter says that when evaluating a libretto we should take away the music and lyrics, with Rent it’s impossible to do that. The libretto and lyrics here are the same thing. While some people are quick to classify Rent as a Rock Opera, it’s not quite that. Rent is the beginning of a new era of Broadway theatre, moving away from the commercial productions of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Cameron Mackintosh. It’s not easy to split the different songs of Rent into arias and recitatives. Recitative lines are incorporated into the arias. The spoken lines that occur between some of the songs aren’t numerous enough to be considered on their own. When we evaluate the libretto of Rent, we need to consider the lyrics of the song as the libretto.

Jonathan Larson took a story that already had a universal theme and re-set it into the current time so more people could understand and enjoy it. Many people would not be able to identify with a nineteenth century seamstress, so Larson turned her into a twentieth century stripper. Even so, the story of Rent will be enjoyable to the masses in another hundred years. While people in 2187 might not know be familiar with AIDS (as we are not familiar with tuberculosis) they will [most likely] be familiar with disease. People today would still understand the story of La Boheme because it deals with common themes such as starving artists and paying rent and love. In the future, people will still understand the story of Rent.

Rent has a strong thematic focus. The story deals with a small number of characters who are all closely related to each other. There aren’t any stray story lines that have little to do with the main plot. The story focuses on a group of starving artists who are just trying to make it from day to day. The story is simple and easy to follow.

Rent is a great example of theatrical profundity. Porter says, "Love between a man and a woman is certainly a universal theme, and if handled properly it can certainly be focused." Rent deals with a love theme, but looks at the effects that having a terminal illness can have on a relationship.

Conflict is everywhere in Rent. The main ones occurring between Mimi and Roger – Mimi is a drug addict, Roger is a recovering addict; Roger doesn’t know if he can have another intimate relationship now that he has AIDS; Roger’s jealousy and lack of trust for Mimi. Mark has an internal conflict with whether he should work for his art or sell himself out to survive. Of course, besides the main conflicts, there are many smaller conflicts. Mark, Roger, Joanne, and Maureen have a comical conflict with their parents ("Voice Mail 1, 2, 3, 5"). Dealing with conflict is what Rent is all about.

Larson was completely aware of the architecture of his show. Rent deals with many somber, serious subjects, especially during Act II. All during the second act, we have sadness and depression. Joanne and Maureen and Roger and Mimi are on the outs. Angel dies. Roger leaves town. Mark sells out to Alexi Darling. Larson needed to break up the down emotions with something lighter and happier. By the end of "Without You" all of the couples are back together again. One song later, everyone is broken up again and Angel dies. This is where the big downhill begins. Following Angel’s death, all the couples have another big argument and Roger leaves town ("Goodbye Love") and the song ends with Mimi singing, "Goodbye love, hello disease." At this point, at least some members of the audience have been crying for so long that if the show ended there, they’d walk outside and jump in front of a bus. So by the end of the next song, Roger finds his song and Mark sees his film. A breath of happiness inserted to keep us alive. This doesn’t last long however, as it’s shortly followed by the death of Mimi. Larson however was very smart in not ending Rent with Mimi dying. Everyone would have walked out of the theatre extremely depressed. That’s not what Broadway theatre is about and Larson knew that. He brings Mimi back to life and inserts a few comical lines ("Angel was there – and she looked good.") to relieve the heaviness hanging around the hearts of the audience members before the big finale number. Larson knew his architecture and how to integrate humor into the show. The comedy and tragedy are both very believable and make perfect sense in the show. We know that Angel and Mimi had AIDS, they were just leading a normal happy life and then out of the blue dropped dead. Larson knew how and where to use dramatic hooks. At the end of Act I we know that Mark’s building has been padlocked and a riot has broken out. "Goodbye Love" ends wi th Mimi succumbing to her disease, and then the story’s focus moves away from her, leaving us to wonder about her. The biggest hook being, of course, Mimi fading to death during Roger’s song and him yelling "MIMI!" We all anxiously wait to see what would happen. (This would have been even more effective if there would have been a longer period of death.) The show’s viewpoint was also consistent. All of these show the quality of Larson’s writing.

One of Porter’s qualities of a good libretto is to show and not tell. Rent often defies this rule, but does so in what I think is a successful and refreshing break from the norm. The show opens with the actors just wandering onto stage, sans overture. Mark then turns to the audience and begins speaking:

Mark then continues by slipping into his first song, which begins the story. He narrates to us again in the second act, letting us know that a passage of time has taken place and updating us on the status of all the couples. I think one of the reasons that this works so well is that it gives us some interesting, but not crucial information very quickly. It’s not drawn out in unnecessary recitative, but is reinforced in song. Well done, and not in violation of Porter’s "Avoiding expository explanation" rule.

Musical Craftsmanship

Jonathan Larson uses all of the elements of musical tension-release mechanisms that Porter talks about in his book. Harmonic dissonance is used frequently in "Rent." Increased rhythmic activity is used in "La Vie Boheme." Dynamic extremes are used in many songs, including "One Song Glory" and "Seasons of Love." Registral extremes are used in "Seasons of Love," "Contact," and "I’ll Cover You Reprise." Disjunct motion is used in "Out Tonight." Many of Larson’s songs are very texturally thick. Larson did a lot of polyphonic writing. Examples of this are "Will I?" "On the Street," "La Vie Boheme," and "Contact."

Larson clearly demonstrated his ability to write great melody lines. "One Song Glory," "Will I?" and "Seasons of Love" have extremely well crafted melodies. He also used many different harmonizing techniques. "Rent" uses a chromatic, rock-style harmonization scheme. "Will I?" employs a round, with several groups of vocalists singing the same line but beginning at different points. "Tango: Maureen" uses variations of the minor scale. "La Vie Boheme" and "Contact" use rhythm as their primary motivation.

Larson’s forms are extremely varied. Some of his songs break in the middle to include some recitative-type lines, such as "Rent." Others, like "Seasons of Love" have phrases of varying length (16 measures, then 12, then 16, finishing with a 13 measure phrase). Larson likes to do this a lot, rarely sticking to a traditional AABA form.

Without actually spending time to examine the score, the most used type of counterpoint that I noticed is how there will be several distinctly different melodies being sung at the same time. As I mentioned earlier, Larson also used a round form in "Will I?" pitting the same musical line over itself in regular intervals. Larson uses several recurring themes as tools for thematic integration. The "Christmas Bells" theme is used many times throughout the show and has a very distinct piano tune associated with it. He also repeats fragments of other songs throughout the show.

The musical style always fits the dramatic ambiance in Rent. When the action is high in energy, the music follows suit ("La Vie Boheme"). When a character is lamenting the death of a friend, the music is also slow and lamenting ("I’ll Cover You – Reprise"). The orchestrations in Rent are also flawless. Steve Skinner and Tim Weil did the arrangements. The orchestrations always complemented, never covered the voices. There was no incidental music in Rent. The little spoken dialog there was in the show was in rhythm with the music, similar to "Why Can’t the English" in My Fair Lady.

Craftsmanship of Lyrics

With an all-sung musical like Rent, there is no transition from speech to song problem as there are in other musicals. In the few places that there is speech with no music, the song begins smoothly, practically without notice. For instance, at the beginning of the show, Mark delivers his dialog. The pitch of his voice on the last word of the dialog is at the same pitch level that he begins singing on. A transition so flawless, it goes unnoticed.

Because the characters are all 90’s New York City residents, there is little problem with integrating character and lyrics. There are no outstanding dialects as there are in My Fair Lady with Eliza. The lyrics are all very informal, using lots of contractions. The homeless person sings in character, improper English ("I don’t need no…"). Collins also had a line that gave a hint to his level of education ("Well, I’m thwarted by a metaphysic puzzle").

The song in Rent is the action, therefore every song advances the plot. The action and song have to work together. "La Vie Boheme," as mentioned earlier, is an excellent example. The song is very fast paced and it would be easy to lose track of what is being sung so the characters mime what they’re singing.

Larson has a great ability in lyrical writing. Almost all of his songs make use of rhyme. Out of the entire show, I can’t think of a single spot where the rhyme detracted from the naturalness of the lyrics. Of course, Larson knew when not to use it. It would seem silly for the raging homeless person to sing a rhyming interlude, so Larson uses a more natural lyric: "Who the fuck do you think you are? I don’t need no goddamn help from some bleeding heart cameraman. My life’s not for you to make a name for yourself on!" Perhaps Larson gained this talent from studying with master lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Rent is one of the best shows to enter the realm of Broadway theatre in recent history. It hopefully marks a new beginning to the American musical theatre, where the shows again stem from the hearts and minds of the writers, not from the voids in the producers’ wallets. Kudos to Jonathan Larson and may he know wherever he now rests that his work has been cherished by millions.