Chase reviews RENT

RENT - by Mayhem Musical Theatre Company The Arthur Cotterell Theatre "Will I lose my dignity?" by Dan Chasemore for remotegoat on 09/04/09 There are three versions of this review. The first is for people who loathe the Musical Rent - there is nothing here that will change your mind. The second is for all the Rent-heads who adore the musical - you will probably get a kick out of seeing the show staged live. The third is for those people who just like Rent, who have never seen it, or just plain old love musical theatre. Jonathan Larson's 'rock opera', based on Puccini's La Boehme became a phenomenon on Broadway. From humble beginnings in the New York Theatre Workshop, it ran on Broadway for 12 years, touring the globe and becoming one of the biggest selling soundtracks of all time. It tells the story of a group of artists and musicians living in New York's Alphabet City during the AIDS epidemic of the early 90's. The show follows the lives of this group as they deal with the threat of an indiscriminate disease, as well as the pressures of simply trying to live without rent. Although in the programme notes, the director (Will Howard) states that his staging of the show is simply a response to the score and the book and that he hasn't tried to copy the original production, fans of the musical will notice lots of elements lifted from the original, not least the set and staging from the New York theatre Workshop version. Not a bad thing in itself, but it did leave the impression that we were watching a group of kids doing an imitation of the iconic Broadway show, rather than trying anything fresh or new. This was a shame, because when the director did depart from the familiar (as he did in the excellent Contact sequence) it brought a freshness and a life to the show. The performances were mixed. As soon as the excellent band cranked it up to eleven for the opening few bars of Rent (Mark Aspinall, the MD is definitely one to watch out for), it became obvious that the song was going to be too big for Mark (Kevin Sherwin), a fact that he made all too apparent by seeming terrified throughout the whole production. It was only in the duets with Roger (a strong Jon Wade) that Sherwin seemed to relax and almost enjoy himself. This fear, and lack of energy was what plagued the show throughout. Even in the encore of Seasons of Love, the audience's rhythmic clapping was soon silenced by the eighteen listless eyes staring back at us. It was if the cast were banning us from enjoying ourselves with them or without them. And this problem pervaded the show as lots of the performers tackled big songs with fear in their eyes. Arron Cuthbertson was a cumbersome and flat Angel, and while Maureen (Elinor Morgan Jones) attempted to tackle some big notes in a lacklustre 'Over the Moon' she seemed to shy away from doing anything out of the ordinary. One of the better voices in the show belonged to Mimi Marquez (Christina Quinn) and indeed her duet with Roger ('Will I') was the highlight of the show. However, she played Mimi incredibly angrily throughout, and even though I know the story inside out, I was surprised in the Life Cafe scene when she suddenly held Rogers hand, rather than smacking him in the mouth. Ben Z Fuiava as Tom Collins, however, was excellent and brought a maturity and confidence to the stage whenever he was on it. Santa Fe was delivered with confidence and charm, and he seemed to have a relationship with the other characters that seemed absent in the rest of the cast. In the programme notes, the director speaks of feeling "slightly more pressure resting on getting this production right". It was perhaps this pressure that led to such a lack of energy from the cast, as if they were so frightened of getting it wrong, that they weren't enjoying the experience at all; and as a result, neither would we. I hope they enjoy the rest of the run more than they seemed to last night.