Bucks County Playhouse, in beautiful, gay-friendly New Hope, brings high energy to their current season with a lively revival of Jonathan Larson’s Rent. Larson’s last work before his untimely death, Rent celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. This production, while not perfect, is devoted to recapturing the youthful, artistic energy of the mid-90s in New York’s Lower East Side.
Larson’s libretto is based somewhat on Puccici’s La Bohème, centering the action around a group of friends, impoverished artists who enjoy their bohemian lifestyle. In this group are composer-musician Roger (Austin Turner) and his roommate Mark (Sam Primack), a budding documentarian; attorney Joanne (Veronica Otim) and her girlfriend, performance artist Maureen (Tiernan Tunnicliffe), Mark’s ex; gay anarchist philosopher and computer wizard Collins (Owen Scales) and his trans lover, Angel (David Louis Merino); and Mimi (Alysia Velez), a free spirit who sets her sights on Roger.
Rent plays out on an open space designed by Tom Rogers to resemble a loft space in Alphabet City, when it’s not doubling as the local hangout, a stage set up on a vacant lot, support group spaces, or any other part of the whole glorious mess that was New York’s East Village circa 1996-97. The set is atmosphericly lit by lighting designer Yael Lubetzky. Nicole V. Moody’s costumes run the gamut from preppy to grunge to high drag as befits each character’s financial, social, and emotional status.
Thirty years on, Rent is a frozen moment of a golden time when we were all younger, we had friends who would be with us forever, and anything was possible. While there is a tendency to have the lyrics go muddy at times in the group numbers, like the high-speed rap style “La Vie Bohème”, on the whole this is a solidly enjoyable production. I highly recommend taking the trip to New Hope to see Rent!
Rent is presented at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania through Sept. 13. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to bcptheater.org.
