THEATRE REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 2025 | Volume 255

 

The first time I saw Jonathan Larson’s RENT, I was impressed by the production but underwhelmed by the material. Seeing RENT again, staged by Metro Theatre under musical theatre veteran Shel Piercy’s direction, I was again impressed by the production but still underwhelmed by the script and libretto.

With this production, Metro—known for its light comedies and whodunnits—is asking to be taken seriously. Piercy has put together a remarkable cast of young performers who deliver the goods, even if those goods—the stories of a New York City tenement full of artists, living and loving their way through the AIDS crisis of the 1990s—feel less compelling than they might have thirty years ago.

I find it hard to single out performances because the acting and singing are stellar across the board. There’s photographer Mark (Pier Francesco Marchi), guitarist Roger (LarenSteppler) and his exotic dancer girlfriend Mimi (Nicole Laurent); drag queen Angel (Kurtis D’Aoust) and boyfriend Collins (Vicente Sandoval); Mark’s ex, Maureen (Paula Higgins), and her girlfriend Joanne (Mary Cleaver); and the sort-of-villain of the piece, Benny (Matthew Valinho), once one of them but now a suave capitalist developer.

Another seven performers fill out the stage along with musical director Sylvia M. Zaradic’srockin’ five-piece band. The music and singing are loud and the stage often uproarious with Shelley Stewart Hunt’s energetic choreography. Credit also to Starlynn Chen’s clean set design and punk costumes, Jonathan Kim’s dramatic lighting, and Christopher King’s clear sound. The show is a visual and sonic treat.

My highlights include Roger’s “One Song Glory,” Angel’s “Today 4 U,” Mimi’s “Out Tonight” and Maureen’s showstopper protest song, “Over the Moon,” in Act One; the company’s beautiful “Seasons of Love,” Collins’ aching dirge for Angel, “I’ll Cover You,” and Mark’s “What You Own” in Act Two. I appreciated the voices and music and the performers’ passion.

But despite the various dramas, the break-ups and make-ups, the death and miraculous recovery, I rarely found the story compelling. The Bohemian life of the East Village thirty years ago seems as distant and dated as Puccini’s 1830s Paris in La Bohème, on which RENT is based.

Still, this RENTis exhilarating, a combustion of youthful talent in a production that I hope marks the renaissance of Metro as a venue for serious, joyous theatre.

 

 

 

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