RENT: Surviving the Plague
Finding love and light in a particularly dark era.
A scintillating revival of the iconic rock opera “Rent” is playing at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim Hills through August 27th, highlighting the 25th anniversary of the theatre's founding.
"Rent" follows a group of struggling young artists fighting to make it in Alphabet City, a then-blighted neighborhood in Manhattan’s East Village. Set in the 1980s and 90s, the scourge of HIV/AIDS lays heavily on the dozen or more friends, some stricken by the disease—that then was a death sentence—and others closely attached to their suffering compatriots.
Gavin Cole and Lena Ceja (Photo: Doug Catiller)More of a rock opera than a musical—with nearly all dialog sung—the Chance Theatre’s production touchingly recalls the troubled spirit of those times, with punk rockers and street protesters and hookers and drug addicts and climbing yuppies mixing it up in an expansive set that anyone who passed through New York City in those times would instantly recognize.
We found the dancing, singing, and staging all topnotch, with the nonstop action arranged by director Matthew McCray, choreographer Mo Goodfellow, and dance captain Ayani Dorsey a particular highlight. An extraordinarily talented ensemble cast movingly sang one song after another.
Lena Ceja (Photo: Doug Catiller)As we saw the night we attended, "Rent" is the kind of deeply loved cultural phenomenon that fans see over and over, with many audience members able to quickly sing along to songs at the cast’s urging. For a first-time viewer, some of the many overlapping storylines—who’s pursuing who, whose mother is calling, with sometimes difficult-to-understand lyrics—only become clear as the machinations reach their heart-rending conclusion at the end of the second act.
Chance Theatre is an exceptional example of the kind of smaller, more intimate theatre we much prefer. We’ll be back.
Gavin Cole, Adam Leiva and JoeJoe McKinney (Photo: Doug Catiller)Rent was loosely based on Puccini’s 1896 opera La bohème and created by Jonathan Larson, who died at 35 of an aortic dissection the night before its off-Broadway premiere. As one of the longest-running shows on Broadway, Larson’s work won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical, among others, and was ultimately made into a film.
Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Avenue, Anaheim Hills. Through August 27. Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays at 8 p.m. Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m. Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets here.
