'Rent' Can Use a Reboot

The national company of "Rent" blasted into the Shubert this week, and not exactly in the best way possible. Billed as the 20th anniversary production (though the show opened on Broadway in 1995), it offers a reproduction of Michael Grieff's original staging, save with one difference: where the original, though loud, had emotional nuance; this one assaults the ear with a sound system that leveled any subtleties the cast brought to the show. It was like hearing it through a grating, loud boom box. That and sight line issues caused by one of the speaker towers that all but obscured action on the left side of the stage made this an alienating experience (and not in an intentional way).

Emotional distance is not what you want from "Rent," which relies upon the audience empathizing with its East Village squatters occupying a loft space that today would likely be a penthouse. Changes in the real estate market of Alphabet City is one of the numerous social and cultural changes that have changed since the show first opened, the most significant and welcome is in the treatment of HIV. This has made "Rent" something of postcard from the edge of the AIDS epidemic – a time when sex was viewed as toxic and the only weapon in the fight against it was one antiviral drug, AZT. Seen again by those who lived through it will likely trigger many memories; and for those who didn't, offer a glimpse at a time when a generation of young New Yorkers lived through a grim, existential crisis.

"Rent" also came with its own tragic backstory when composer/librettist Jonathan Larson unexpectedly died from an aortic dissection on the night before the show's first preview. The show already had an enormous buzz, but after his death, it became a cultural phenomena, winning the Pulitzer Prize, Tony and every other theater award possible, and running on Broadway for 5,123 performances. Perhaps that love for the original production makes tours like this that replicate it enough for Rentheads throughout the country; but if there ever was a show that would welcome a rethink, it is this one. Viewed through a contemporary prism could yield a richer emotional experience than this by-the-numbers revival.

What was Larson's shrewdest idea was to use Puccini's "La Boheme" as a template, replacing the 'la vie boheme' of 1850s Paris with New York counterparts, circa the early 1990s; but, unlike the opera, it isn't only Mimi who deals with a life-threatening illness: so does Roger, her upstairs neighbor she meets (cute) on Christmas Eve. Roger lives with Mark, an inspiring documentarian, in a space owned by Benny, a former roommate now turned real estate mogul through marriage. Benny is trying to shut down a Christmas Eve performance by Maureen, Mark's ex- who has left him for Joanne, in an adjacent vacant lot; and implores his ex-roomies to make it happen by forgiving their overdue rent. They are joined by Tom Collins, a computer geek who meets Angel, a drag queen, after being beaten up on the street. Larson follows these characters over a year's time, from one Christmas Eve to another.

"Rent", then, is a musical about the spectre of death on a group of 20-somethings framed in the tragedy of losing a promising talent well before his time. Why, then, did this production feel so emotionally remote? That sound system has something to do with it. That there were mic problems also threw off the rhythm, which only added to the unevenness of the performance. Plus the tendency – which seems to plague productions of the show of late – to perform the songs with an "American Idol"-styled overkill. That said, it is always a pleasure to hear the songs, which are amongst some of the best pop rock songs ever written for the theater. Larson had an original, beguiling voice cut much too short.

The likable, non-Equity cast went through the performance as if on auto-pilot, likely affected by the sound issues. But the larger issue is that "Rent" is feeling its age – its same sex relationships draw attention to themselves in ways that may have seemed pertinent in 1996, but feel dated here; and its "Friends"-like approach to its characters (mostly middle-class and white) offers little in terms of insight into the larger social issues of entitlement and poverty. These self-styled bohemians may be protesting housing changes in the East Village at the onset, but that plot meme gets lost in the pursuit of their personal problems, dramatic as they are. Though brief, what proved to be one of the more telling moments comes when a homeless woman of color confronts Mark for a dollar, putting in contrast a life of little hope against a promising, aspiring white filmmaker who could likely pick up the phone call from his mother and ask for help with the rent. This woman hasn't Mark's opportunities, and she lashes out at him in what turns out to be a moment of genuine social commentary in a musical that, in the end, seems locked in the past and its own mythology. We are no longer living in America at the end of the Millennium (to quote one of the show's lyrics) and it would be great if productions would acknowledge that.

"Rent" continues through November 10 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre, 265 Shubert Theatre, Boston, MA. For more information, visit the Boch Center website. For more on the "Rent" tour, visit the musical's website.