Metropolis' 'Rent' at its best showcasing its ensemble
For years, Metropolis Performing Arts Centre played it safe, staging mild dramas and innocuous pop-centered musical revues as part of its main stage season. But this season, its 15th, the Arlington Heights venue made some bold choices in "Spamalot," "The 39 Steps" and its current production, "Rent."
Metropolis flexing its artistic muscles is commendable. And if the recently announced 2017 season - which includes "Hair" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" - is any indication, the venue intends to keep it up. That said, ambitious programming doesn't necessarily guarantee great theater as evidenced by director Lauren Rawitz's affectionate revival of Jonathan Larson's groundbreaking 1996 musical.
Technical glitches marred the performance I attended, which I later learned was a preview. But the snafus don't account for miscasting, wavering pitches and overwrought acting that distances us from characters we ought to care about most.
For those reasons, Metropolis' "Rent" - despite its best intentions - comes up short.
The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical, which premiered off Broadway in February 1996, weeks after Larson died of an aortic aneurysm, includes strong language and mature subject matter. It also depicts candidly sexual relationships between heterosexual and homosexual couples.
Loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's 19th-century opera "La Boheme," "Rent" takes place during the late 1980s in New York City's East Village. The musical - whose restless rock, R&B, electronic and Latin-infused score impresses me more each time I hear it - chronicles a year in the life of struggling artists who are coping with poverty, addiction, depression, AIDS and love in its myriad forms.
Our narrator and guide is Mark (good work from Dominic Rescigno), an aspiring filmmaker whose bisexual girlfriend, performance artist/activist Maureen (a spirited Abby Vombrack) has recently left him for Monica Szaflik's Harvard-educated lawyer Joanne.
Mark lives - or more accurately squats - in an abandoned warehouse with best friend Roger (Tommy Malouf), an HIV-positive musician and recovering addict who falls for their upstairs neighbor Mimi (Mollyanne Nunn), a 19-year-old exotic dancer and drug user who is also HIV-positive.
The circle of friends includes computer genius and former academic Tom (Jordan Harris), a mugging victim who's rescued and nursed back to health by drag queen Angel (Will Wilhelm as the musical's moral center). Rounding out the cast is Derrick Mitchell, who plays Benjamin, Mark and Roger's onetime roommate turned landlord whose marriage to a wealthy young woman transformed him from starving artist to capitalist.
The production has its moments. The best of them involve supporting characters and the enthusiastic chorus whose beautifully sung version of the show's breakout number "Seasons of Love" benefits from talented vocalists Mallory Maedke and Jonathan Stombres who plays Paul, the leader of an AIDS support group. The support group scene, in which characters confront their fears about the disease robbing them of their dignity in the poignant "No Day But Today," is among the production's most unabashedly genuine moments. Equally affecting is a scene between a man and his dying lover in which Rawitz recalls not only the ravages of AIDS but the compassion of caregivers.
"La Vie Boheme," a rollicking celebration of alternative lifestyles, is among the production's highlights, as is Vombrack and Szaflik's sassy "Take Me or Leave Me" duet and the jolly, protest tune "Over the Moon" featuring Vombrack and a fine backing trio made up of Fania Bourn, Jessica Nicole Hill and Danielle Jackman.
"Rent" isn't for everyone. Metropolis producers know it. Still, they pushed the envelope. Good for them.
"Rent"
Location: Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights, (847) 577-2121 or <a href="http://metropolisarts.com">metropolisarts.com</a>
Showtimes: 1 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday through July 3
Running time: About two hours, 30 minutes with intermission
Tickets: $38
Parking: Street parking and a nearby garage
Rating: For adults; contains strong sexual content, mature language and subject matter