At a time of grunge and the AIDS scourge, a young artist named Jonathan Larson wrote the ground-breaking rock opera Rent, based on Puccini’s opera La bohème.
One reason Rent became wildly popular with the public and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize is because it was clearly a case of art imitating life, said RDC theatre instructor Thomas Usher.
The musical first workshopped in 1994 is about bohemian artists living with HIV/AIDS in a then-grungy part of New York’s Lower East Side, called Alphabet Village.
Any one of the characters could have been based on Larson’s friends, who in real life were also starving artists, and in some cases, were dying of AIDS, said Usher.
“When Rent came along, it was completely new, in terms of style and structure,” added the instructor, who’s directing RDC Theatre Studies production of the rock opera that opens Thursday, Feb. 10, at the Arts Centre, Mainstage.
It not only has a driving rock beat, but very little spoken dialogue. “What dialogue there is, most of it is sung,” said Usher.
Then there’s the tricky subject matter.
In the early 1990s, AIDS was mostly associated with homosexuals and drug users and was a thorny social issue.
Before new drugs were developed to extend lifespans, the disease cut down seemingly healthy individuals quickly, said Usher. “When you had it, you knew you would die in a short period.”
Rent features doomed love affairs between two couples with HIV/AIDS: Mimi and Roger and Angel and Tom.
Mimi is an exotic dancer who’s living for the moment, and trying to grab what she can out of the time she has left, said Usher. When she first meets the musician Roger, he’s scared of getting romantically involved again, since his former girlfriend killed herself after finding out she had AIDS.
While they both know their time together will be brief, Usher said Mimi and Roger bravely decide that dying with love is better than living without it.
Angel and Tom are a gay couple in roughly the same situation. Tom is a computer-age anarchist. Angel is a drag queen, who’s so exuberant and full of life that he becomes an example to the others, said Usher.
“He has a positive attitude and he’s always giving.”
Rent contains messages about making your mark, and living passionately and in the moment, said Usher — because no one knows how much time they have left.
It turns out art even imitated life around these themes when Larson died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition the night before the musical’s off-Broadway premiere on Jan. 25, 1996.
He was only 36 but had certainly left his mark. Rent went on to gained critical acclaim on Broadway and a Tony Award for Best Musical. It closed in 2008, after a 12-year run.
Usher said his 15 young RDC cast members are enthusiastic about the production, which is providing them with characters their own age — and a more overtly gay storyline than has ever been tackled at the college.
The biggest challenge, so far, is developing rock voices. Usher said the actors are required to do more raspy, high-register “screaming” than in more typical Lloyd-Webber style musicals.
The young actors will be backed by a five-piece rock band that will be situated right on stage, led by music director Morgan McKee.
A lofty, warehouse-style set is also being created by guest designer Angela Dale, and interesting lighting effects, with “scenic projections” are being designed by RDC staffer Heather Cornick.
Usher believes anyone 16 and older will enjoy Rent, which he called “an exuberant, full-of-life celebration of youthful exuberance.”
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com
WHAT: Jonathan Larson’s rock opera Rent
WHEN: Feb. 10-19, 7:30 p.m. (1 p.m. Saturday matinees on Feb. 12 and 19)
WHERE: RDC Art Centre, Mainstage
TICKETS: $25 ($20 students/seniors) Ticketmaster