Take Two Productions currently performs Jonathan Larson’s Rent in the small theatre in the Third Baptist Church on Grand, though you enter the theatre on Washington a block east of Grand. The small theatre limits in some ways what the folks at Take Two can do with Rent. They deal with the problems intelligently and creatively for a fine and satisfying production. Director, Choreographer, and Scenic Designer Mike DePope doesn’t let the stage’s small size bother him. If he needs more room, he takes it, and moves the action into the house. When the cast lines up to open the second act by singing “Seasons of Love” they can spill off the stage. Mark sometimes breaks the fourth wall when as a narrator he addresses the audience directly. You could argue that there really is no fourth wall because DePope’s set has no walls. What I took to be a plywood panel leans stage right, unchanging. Chairs and tables come and go, tables dressed with linens sometimes serve as beds. Props as needed are provided by DePope again, Gabriel Scott Lawrence, and Jacob Donnelly. Lawrence’s lighting guides our focus; he also is the fight choreographer, assistant director, and stage manager. Abby Pastorello’s costumes define time, place, and character. Crucial to a musical however large its site is music, directed here from a keyboard by Sam Revilla, who as the show’s Music Director coordinates and guides the singing of the cast and the playing of the other four in the instrumental ensemble. 

With this production’s limited visual appeal, the actors compensate with acting of depth and clarity. Jordan Ray Duncan plays Mark Cohen, a struggling filmmaker constantly shooting his friends and their surroundings. Cole Gutmann is his apartment mate Roger Davis, a musician also struggling and HIV positive. Aliegha Ramos makes an attractive and vital Mimi Marquez, a Latina stripper and drug addict; also HIV positive, she becomes Roger’s love interest. Donald Kidd III plays Tom Collins in depth, an anarchist philosophy professor and computer genius, also with AIDS. Angel Dumott Schunard, a drag queen and street percussionist with AIDS who is Tom Collins’ lover is played by Chasten “Chaz” McPeek. Kylie Penninger plays Maureen Johnson, a dynamic performance artist who leads rallies for the homeless; she is Mark’s ex-girlfriend now Joanne Jefferson’s lover. LaDonna Chambers plays Joanne Jefferson, an Ivy League educated public interest lawyer and Maureen’s current lover. Lamarkus Jones plays a conflicted Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III, who once lived in the apartment with Mark, Roger, Tom Collins, and Maureen, now married into a very wealthy family involved in real estate and therefore the landlord of Mark, Rodger, and Mimi’s apartment building who is pressing them for their rent. Among the multiple supporting characters, Loren Goudreau plays Mark’s Mom, Pam a Life Support group member, and others; Tyler Luetkenhaus is Joanna’s father wealthy Mr. Jeffferson, a pastor, Paul the head of the Life Support Group, and others; Jayllin Shelton plays Mrs. Jefferson, Life Support member Ali, Woman with Bags, and others; Todd Garten is Life Support member Gordon, The Man who is the local drug dealer supplying Mimi and formerly Roger, and Benny’s father-in-law Mr. Grey who wants to buy out the lot, and others; Camden Walton plays Life Support member Steve, the Squeegee Man, a waiter, and others; Amora Jones is a Christmas Caroller, a street vendor, a cop, and others; Hannah Renee is Roger’s Mom, the producer of a sleazy tabloid company that wants to employ Mark, and others. The “others” are mostly cops, Bohemians, vendors, and homeless people. All the cast do fine work in creating this Lower East Side community.

I have seen Rent several times now. It holds up pretty well, though it did seem a little long and eventually less interesting this time, not because of the production but because of the material. The music especially, except for the few big numbers, efficiently goes on doing the work that it needs to do without boosting the show’s energy. As Robert Brustein wrote about Jonathan Larson in his review of the original production, “His score for Rent struck me as the musical equivalent of wallpaper, the rock version of elevator music.” I would not be quite so dismissive of the whole score, but I do agree that his description applies to much of it. Nevertheless I look forward to seeing Rent again when done as well as Take Two Productions does it.

—Bob Wilcox

Photo by Tiffany Banks