To LA VIE BOHEME!
Feb. 6th, 2023 04:45 pmWhen: Friday, February 3, 2023
What: RENT
Presented By: Theatre 55
Mission Statement: Theatre 55 was created in 2018 to fill a need in the Twin Cities and throughout Minnesota: theatre performed by seniors. It was formed with the purpose of developing lifelong learning through theatre performance and education. Our vision is to enrich the lives of elders as artists, audiences, and lifelong learners through theatre performance and education.
Last Friday, along with three of my closest friends, I attended the opening night of RENT, presented by Theatre 55. I knew what we were in for having attending this company’s production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” last summer. Imagine the play’s setting, the lower East side of New York in the 1980’s, populated by actors all over the age of 55 . In 1980‘s New York, drug use was rampant and AIDS was decimating an entire generation of young people, disproportionately hitting the LGBTQ community.
For me, as an actor of a certain age who was living and working in New York City in the early 80’s, RENT has always packed a too-close-to home emotional punch. Would this production survive such wildly divergent casting? Would the oh so familiar score thrive with less polished, less experienced voices? Would good intentions be enough to realize the company’s vision of “enriching the lives of elders as artists”?
For the most part, the answer is yes if enthusiasm and commitment to the performance is the standard. RENT’S music, especially the recitative style of many of the numbers is challenging to the best of singers. Add a layer of the band overpowering the non-amplified voices in the small performing space and intimate moments can be lost, but not from lack of effort. The production is at its best in the quiet choral numbers where the collective voices blend in heavenly harmony. “Seasons of Love” is particularly lovely.
Each member of the cast of 20 is given moments to shine. Standouts were Jeff Goodson’s Mark Cohen, Rik Kutcher’s moving Tom Collins and Bebe Keith’s delightful Maureen Johnson. BeBe Keith has an absolutely luminescent onstage presence!
Theatre 55’s RENT plays Wednesday-Sunday of this week. This production deserves your support! Here’s to La Vie Boheme!