Jul 27

Jul 27 Rent at Flat Rock Playhouse

Edwin Arnaudin: Flat Rock Playhouse’s production of Rent provides an opportunity to illuminate a portion of your rich live theater history of which most readers are unaware. Before we discuss this excellent local staging in honor of the musical’s 30th anniversary, would you mind sharing your experience with this show?

Bruce Steele: Well, to make a long story short, I was friends with original Broadway cast member Anthony Rapp for some years before Rent. My husband Christopher and I saw a workshop version of the show in 1994, back when Maureen (pre-Idina Menzel) played the electric cello onstage and composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson was very much alive and revising and revising.

When Rent became a cultural phenomenon on Broadway in April 1996 — tragically, after Larson's unexpected death from an aortic dissection that January — we got to experience the buzz from the inside, seeing the show and visiting Anthony and his fellow cast members backstage afterwards many times. We've seen the show in New York, Los Angeles (with Neil Patrick Harris as Mark), and London. So Rent is more than a musical to me — it helped weave the fabric of my life. And the Flat Rock Playhouse production had me in tears many times.

How was it for you, seeing Rent onstage for the first time?

Edwin: It was pretty special. I’d long felt on the outside, looking in as others gushed about this cultural juggernaut over the past…let’s say 25 years, since it was probably an Entertainment Weekly article circa 2000 that informed me of its existence. Before I started regularly going to the theater, I was introduced to the stunning “Seasons of Love” through college friends, then enjoyed seeing it and “Take Me or Leave Me” on Glee, and eventually caught up with Chris Columbus’ good, not great 2005 film adaptation.

Unlike a lot of other big shows, Rent is one that it felt you had to travel a good distance to see. Outside of a few Asheville Community Theatre runs, there haven’t been many opportunities to catch it locally, so it was a treat to see it performed by a cast of professionals for my first live experience. As with Mamma Mia! and a few other famous musicals that have been turned into movies, the stage encourages a raw energy and connection throughout Rent that the screen struggles to capture — to the extent that I’d only want to revisit the film if I was desperate.

What stands out to you about FRP’s production?

Bruce: I was very impressed with how they nailed the big numbers. The title song, "Rent," early in the first act, seemed a bit like a warmup, but when Angel (Jordan Alexander) entered in Christmas drag for "Today 4 You," the show really took off. The funny and character-revealing "Tango Maureen" kept the energy high, with Mark (Nat Zegree) and Joanne (T. Shyvonne Stewart) bonding — and tangoing — over their separate but similar romantic experiences with (at that point, unseen) diva Maureen (Emily Kristen Morris). You could feel the audience loving it.

I could go on listing other great moments, but I'd like to know what really connected for you.

Edwin: Dion Simmons Grier’s Tom Collins was a revelation. He puts tangible passion into the aspirational “Santa Fe,” and his sorrowful second act reprise of “I’ll Cover You” likewise makes theatergoers feel his character’s immense pain. Similarly, the sexual chemistry between Mark’s roommate Roger (Brendan Dallaire) and building-mate Mimi (Iliana Garcia) radiates in their shared scenes and makes their fraught, evolving romance all the more engaging. As with this production’s penchant for delivering on the most famous songs, it also comes through in the big emotional moments under Lisa K. Bryant’s thoughtful direction.

Fortifying the exceptional acting and singing is the show’s immersive production design. Dennis C. Maulden and his team craft a gritty, graffiti-filled set that quickly establishes the brutal conditions from which these New Yorkers attempt to shine amidst the AIDS epidemic. And Jeb Purcell’s video projections ably color in cityscapes and add visual insights into the ensembles’ triumphs and struggles. It truly is a feast for the senses.

Bruce: Agreed! And the lighting design, by Montana Kern, is intricate and spot-on, so to speak — perhaps the most complicated and accomplished lighting I've seen at Flat Rock. There were some miking and sound mixing glitches the night we saw the show, so some vocals were muted or lost, but I expect that was an early-show problem that will be resolved by the time anyone reads this.

Edwin: There are a lot of mics in use during this show, so a few issues opening night are understandable. But there were no hiccups from the five-piece band led by lead keyboardist Nathan Trivers. James Kylen’s drums cooked throughout both acts and, in addition to plentiful rocking solos from guitarist Travis Welch, he and Dallaire were in impressive sync whenever Roger noodles around on his axe.

Bruce: The overall impression I had as a "Renthead" is that the spirit of the show is as alive and energetic as ever. Morris's and Stewart's "Take Me or Leave Me" remains a showstopper (in a good way), and the first act closer, "La Vie Boheme," is a mad miracle of choreography and staging — kudos to Vincent Ortega for the dance moves, which brightened more numbers than in many previous productions I've seen.

Rent is also a perfect show for the summer, since the Flat Rock Playhouse apprentices get many opportunities to shine. The support group scene, for example (with the famous refrain "no day but today"), brought me to tears. It's hard to believe it's been 30 years — almost 32, for me — since I first saw the show. It still works.

Rent runs through Aug. 15 at Flat Rock Playhouse. For tickets and more information, visit flatrockplayhouse.org.

(Photo by Jeb Purcell)