Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
Everyman Theatre
Directed by Jarrad West
December 6 to 22, Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre
Reviewed by Len Power
‘Rent’, the musical, was a phenomenal success on Broadway
for 12 years. It had a short
professional season in Sydney and one previous local production in
Canberra. The original Broadway
production gained some unfortunate publicity when the show’s writer, composer and
lyricist, Jonathan Larson, died shortly before the show’s premiere.
Based loosely on Puccini’s opera, ‘La Boheme’, ‘Rent’ tells
an updated story of a group of friends living in poverty in New York City’s
Greenwich Village with the shadow of AIDS hanging over them.
It’s a curious musical, one minute following the traditions
of a Broadway musical and then at other times making its own rules, for
example, abrupt endings to songs and scenes giving them an oddly unfinished feel.
Jarrad West, the director, who also performs the role of Tom
Collins, has given us a solid, enjoyable production with deep characterisations
from the cast of about twenty. Everyone
onstage has their moment to shine but particularly noteworthy was Adrian Flor
in the transgender role of Angel – his solo, ‘Today for You – Tomorrow For Me’ was
exceptionally well sung and danced. Vanessa
De Jager as Mimi, Jarrad West as Tom Collins and Mathew Chardon O’Dea as Mark also impressed with their
strong performances. The songs, ‘La Vie
Boheme’ and ‘Seasons Of Love’ are superbly sung by the entire company.
Jordan Kelly has outdone himself with his masterful
choreography for this show, particularly in ‘La Vie Boheme’. Everyone in the cast has been given
individual movements during this song that suit their characters and the total
effect is breath-taking.
Nick Valois’ set successfully creates a down-and-out, ugly
environment using scaffolding. It has
some awkwardness with an acting space in one corner which
seemed a bit lost and underlit. Some
staging choices by the director also didn’t work, especially where one of Vanessa
De Jager’s songs had to compete with the distraction of three dancing girls on
a platform.
The music director and keyboard player, Nick Griffin, achieved
the right sound for the show from the band of six players. However, the sound level of the band swamped
the singers so much that the lyrics were unintelligible for much of the
show. Whatever the cause of this, it’s a
major problem and a great pity when all other elements of the show have come
together so well. Hopefully it can be
fixed for the remainder of the season.
Apart from the sound level problem, this is a very
enjoyable, visually exciting, moving and memorable production.