RENT that Rivals Broadway

A show like RENT, which relies heavily on acting and vocal strength of a few key characters, can be a major hit or miss. But, Cardinal Theatrical’s presentation of Jonathan Larson’s rock opera was nothing if not a smash hit. I went to the production thinking it would be a mediocre community theatre-type performance, but once the actors stormed the stage with a powerful opening number, I was gripped for the whole musical. The entire cast’s vocal ability was some of the best staged singing I’ve heard in a long while, including the Broadway touring companies I’ve seen perform. The singing quality was matched by acting and the two aspects of musical theatre paired with each other perfectly. Stand-out performances can be credited to Harley Wood in the part of Roger and Kinaundrae Lee as Angel. Both Wood and Lee stayed true to the original characters, but added a deep, intense level of emotion that I’ve never seen in any other production of RENT. In addition, Wood along with Jamecia Bennett, who played Joanne, offered up the most powerful vocals by reaching and holding notes with ease and specific intention to the roles they portrayed. This previous statement is not to discredit with rest of the cast, especially the talented ensemble members that impressively supported the character parts. A true moment of perfect cast unity was during Angel’s funeral scene which starts off with a bass solo and builds to robust ensemble backing the soloist. An ensemble member from our very own University of Minnesota theatre arts department, Maisie Twesme, sang a beautiful run echoing the dark emotions of the soloist with a perfect harmony. The cast conveyed the scene wonderfully by expressing true sadness at the loss of a friend, but yet pure love that they all felt for their friend. Although the dancing was minimal, the choreography was executed flawlessly. For instance, Maria Isa’s dancing in her rendition of “Out Tonight” would fill any stripper with jealousy. Finally, all the actors really understood the arch of their character and depicted them in such a way that the audience wanted to go along for the ride. All in all, RENT was an extremely well done production that contained amazing singing, dancing and acting by a cast of all Minnesota performers.

The design elements of the show did not disappoint either. The set was composed of steel scaffolding at various levels making the space adaptable to any setting the play requires and also represented the poor conditions of the characters. This set design is also true to the original design in the off-Broadway and Broadway productions. I think it is important to keep the set recognizable to the first production because a paying audience will go to the show expecting that set design and may be disappointed otherwise. The lighting design was also very simplistic, but not as successful as the set design. Since the action of the musical occurs in many places at one time, the show relied on spotlights to draw the audience’s attention from one character to another. While the technique was effective for grabbing the audience’s interest, it left the light visually unappealing and repetitive. The sound, in this case being the musically accompaniment to the songs, was excellent. The musicians were masters of their craft and played the songs beautifully. I do not think a note was missed or misplayed. My only criticism is that the accompaniment was a little too loud and sometimes overshadowed or covered the voices of the performers. While very little media was used in the finale song and was filmed with a low quality camera, it captured intimate moments between cast members and matched the mood of the show. The media recapped the lives of the characters and helped to bring a sentimental end to the musical by re-emphasizing the unity of the cast and characters.

RENT was performed at The Lab in the Warehouse District in Minneapolis from February 3 to 21, 2010. Tickets are highly priced at $46.50, fortunately I could attend a rush performance for the low price of twenty dollars.

Recommendation: See it!

Pascal and Rapp don't disappoint in RENT's tour

RENT was at its best with original cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp leading the company on a powerhouse performance of strong vocals and honest acting that left the audience laughing and in tears throughout this roller coaster ride of a production.

Jonathan Larson’s RENT, produced by Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum and Allan S. Gordon, was part the 2008-2009 seasons at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. The Broadway touring musical focuses on a year in the life of eight friends living in Bohemian New York City in 1990.

Roger and Mark, played by Pascal and Rapp respectively, are roommates in an Avenue A apartment near a tent city which is soon to be liquidated by their old friend Benny, played by Jacques C. Smith, who married into a wealthy family. Benny plans to demolish tent city and build a cyber studio.

Maureen, an actress played by Nicolette Hart, protests Benny’s idea with an original agitprop performance along with her stage manager and new girlfriend, Joanna, played by understudy Trisha Jeffrey.

Stripper and Roger’s love interest, Mimi, portrayed by Lexi Lawson, constantly battles a drug addiction and AIDS, but Roger, also suffering from AIDS, struggles to fall in love after he lost his last girlfriend to suicide.

Tom, played by Michael McElroy, a recently fired university professor, meets his soul mate Angel, portrayed by understudy Shaun Earl, in an alley on Angel’s way to a life support meeting to talk about his fray with AIDS. Tom joins because he is also enduring AIDS.

All of the friends meet and share a journey dealing with love, hate, disease and death that changes their lives forever.

Although he played the part off and on since the rock opera premiered in 1996, Rapp delivered an amazing performance that showed his deep knowledge of the character and how meaningful RENT has been to his life. His acting is superb and honest. Rapp captures Mark’s loneliness as he witnesses his friends argue and slowly deteriorate from the AIDS virus perfectly. His portrayal is so real and it is easy to tell that he relates the events of the show to his real life as stated in his New York Times bestselling memoir Without You.

Rapp made every emotional moment count with his powerful singing voice that his a strong as the original cast recording, but not tired or repetitive because he added new vocal variations to the lyrics any diehard fan would know by heart. He exemplified his acting talent during “The Tango Maureen” when his microphone suddenly screeched and went out and Rapp used a hand held mic forcing him to dance the tango with one hand. He played it off perfectly, never faltering and adding unexpected humor to the musical number.

On the contrary, Pascal’s performance showed signs of routine. There were however moments of extreme passion during songs like “Another Day” and “Your Eyes” which made up for the sometimes habitual articulation of his lines. Although it was slightly routine, his performance is still hugely entertaining and worth a watch. His rock star voice seemed to improve over time in comparison with the original recording.

Rapp and Pascal together make a great team that years of practice and chemistry can only provide. For example, their true friendship was palpable during “What You Own” when they embrace in a hug and share perfect harmonies.

A surprising caliber performance by Hart left the audience in uncontrollable chuckles as she brought a new sense of humor to the Maureen character which made her shine above the other supporting players.

Lawson and Earl proved to the weakest vocally. Earl excelled in dancing but unfortunately left his singing breathy and hard to hear. Lawson’s voice started out rocky during “Light My Candle,” but by the second act her tone greatly improved causing the audience to cry through ‘Without You.” However, Lawson Earl’s duet in “La Vie Bohéme” was out of tune and hard on the ears.

Choreographer Marlies Yearby creatively incorporated every day, common gestures and turned them into innovated dance moves that helped maintain the musical genre of RENT, which can sometimes be lost with a deconstructive style of the rock opera.

The two hour and 45 minute production, including a 15 minute intermission, flew by thanks to the fast paced transitions from song to song, and unique uses of lighting, such as candles and spotlights, that constantly changed the viewer’s focus on the action.

With an overall outstanding cast featuring three original members in astounding musical and acting performances, the Broadway tour is any Renthead’s dream come true.

RENT ran from March 25th - 29th, 2009.

For more information visit the Hennepin Theatre District website.

Recommendation:

Gordon's adaptation proved worthy with strong ensemble cast

A well-supported ensemble cast of professionals delivered line slips and spry musical numbers, while a chorus of community actors and university students joined in a finale rhythmic stomp routine that quickly became mundane in David Gordon's Uncivil Wars.

The world premiere of Uncivil Wars: Moving with Bretch and Eisler at the Walker Art Center McGuire Theater in Minneapolis was Gordon's new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's 1936 play, Round Heads and Pointed Heads. The satire about a fictitious country called Yahoo pins the citizens with round heads against the people with pointed heads in order for rulers to maintain their control over the land.

Gordon sprinkled the script with excerpts from Brecht's theatrical theories and portrayed the theories in this Pick Up Performance Co. Inc. production. Longtime British actor, dancer, Gordon's wife and creative partner, Valda Setterfield, played Brecht and served as narrator along with pianist Hanns Eisler played by Gina Leishman.

Each actor in the eight person ensemble performed multiple parts, which they introduced in the opening scene, in accordance with Brecht's theatrical ideals. In addition, they wore simple, black jump suits and utilized a plain set with basic pieces such as tables, chairs and ladders, in complete Brechtian style.

Surprised by the professional company's line slips, Gordon reassured the audience it was a "stylistic choice" during the talk back. Like Brecht, he did not want his actors to be perfectly memorized because he wanted to remind the audience that the actors are merely representations of the characters.

Although the lines were not memorized word for word, the ensemble had precise and clean transitions between all of the scenes and songs showing they worked well together.

As a whole, the cast was strong, but John Kelly and Charlotte Cohn clearly shone out above the rest. Kelly's portrayal of the female Madame and Mother Superior characters was spot on with perfect comedic timing as well as a vibrant energy and an understanding of the text that made his characters hilariously unforgettable.

Both Kelly and Cohn lead the company in the vocal performances as well. Cohn's melodic voice surpassed all the other in beauty and even coaxed the audience to sing along during a song.

Setterfield's years of experience and extensive resume did not prove evident in her bland performance of the legendary playwright Brecht. While her powerful voice was very articulate, her characterization lacked any luster in comparison to Kelly and Cohn, and her moments felt dull and dry.

Leishman's extreme musical ability to play four different instruments, some simultaneously, made up for her dearth of acting talent.

Running 90 minutes without an intermission, the 11 scenes moved along rapidly until the final scene. The large chorus joined in a tad-too-long, choreographed stomp routine which seemed to be ill-fitting with the rest of the production and lead to an unclear ending.

The 25 person chorus served little purpose in the production. For 75 of the 90 minutes, they sat in folding chairs in the background and contributed nothing to the performance. Finally, the lengthy series of stomps and claps left the audience bored and confused. With only five rehearsals to learn the routine, some members took a few missteps and could be seen counting the number of steps aloud, making the audience unable to concentrate on the changes in rhythm.

Uncivil Wars ran March 12-14 at 8p.m. For more information visit the Walker Art Center.

Recommendation:

That was Then, This is Now

Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches, use a mixture of subtle, manipulative gestures and forceful, straight-forward speech to honestly connect the old American to our current state of the country in Miss America. From their costumes and vocal tone to their movements and dancing styles, Shaw and Weaver manifest the common battle between old and new, and masculine and feminine. Audience participation, music and use of technology are also key elements in this absurd pageant that keeps the crowd guessing and delivers a message of change.

Miss America is a peculiar romp that tells the story of a reporter and the uncommon

women she reports on. Shaw, the Miss America pageant winner, is imagined to be an eight feet tall woman with massive hands and feet, yet the most beautiful woman in the world. Weaver, the reporter, not only resembles a washed-up beauty queen, but expresses her desire to become Miss America herself and win the talent contest with an exotic strip tease. Like the strip tease, both Shaw and Weaver are in search of something new, a change, since they cannot return to the way life used to be in the good ole U.S. of A.

Shaw and Weaver complement each other perfectly because their characters are so different. Shaw’s Miss America character is very subtle, shy with a strong, sharp silhouette. Shaw natural appearance is quite rough and masculine. She uses her form to her advantage and

plays up the idea that her character could be a man. She wears a black suit that is far too short for her and constantly adjusts and pulls her suit to make it perfect or try to make it fit. Shaw’s motions are very agitated, jerky and frequent, like the sparks in a fire. However, her facial features and vocal tone are expressionless and monotone. For example, before the show even started, Shaw took a seat on a bench in the corner of the stage and sat there, almost motionless, checking the audience briefly with no emotion at all.

On the hand, Weaver plays a character quite the opposite. She wears an oversized, torn fur coat with slinky black dress and plastic tiara. Rather than physicality, her character is driven by her forceful and absurd speech. Her character is constantly begging for attention. For instance, towards the beginning of the production, Weaver stands in front of a screen with a hurricane projected on it and a fan blowing in her face. She reports on the conditions of the storm, but as metaphors for the way the United States has become corrupt in the last decade. She speaks in loud, harsh tones complemented by swinging head movements and sharp, dramatic hand gestures. She uses her speech to cover up her really feeling, about how scared she is with the way the world has become. In addition, when the fan is blowing in her face, hairs from her wig constantly fly into her face. She repeatedly flips her hair back over her ears. Using her costume in this specific way helped to define her character. Weaver and Shaw together do a fantastic job playing off of each other for comedic brilliance. Both of their characters convey the same message, but they do so if very opposing ways. While Weaver acts very feminine and boisterous, Shaw’s character encompasses many masculine qualities with slight, manipulative gestures.

Weaver and Shaw’s specific male and female physicalities, continued in their dancing to represent the new step we need to take in America. Shaw came on to her dance by accident. She tripped over her own foot and fell forward. She proceeded to make a dance out of it and related it to how we need a new step forward in America to get out of the terror that has occurred in the last ten years. Her trip led into a fake tap dance that was inspired by music. Her feet in the tap dance, like Shaw’s earlier movements, were very rapid and sparked, like a fire. Again, Weaver’s character had a very different dance style. During slow playing music, Weaver lofts around the stage falling on pieces of the set and brushing off of them, like air. She is light on her feet as if floating. Her flowing dance eventually leads into a strip tease that highlighted the woman characteristics of Weavers character.

Weaver and Shaw also use audience participation throughout the production to bring their characters to life and make them playful and real. For example, in the beginning Weaver enters the space by walking through the audience and taking pictures of them. She also says things about each person in the pictures she takes. This interaction immediately engages the audience and shows off her crazy and worn-out reporter character. These pictures were used at the end of the production in a slide show along with clips from a 1960s television commercial. These uses of technology display juxtaposition between the old America and current America.

In Miss America, Weaver and Shaw use masculine and feminine stereotypes to create characters longing for a chance to become the winner of the Miss America Pageant as well as the way of life Americans lived in the 1950s. Both of their characters convey the same message, but they do so if very opposing ways. While Weaver acts very feminine and boisterous, Shaw’s character encompasses many masculine qualities with slight, manipulative gestures.

Miss America was performed at Open Eye Figure Theatre in November of 2008.

Recommendation: See it!

Life in Lower Case is Nothing But the Tops!

“Expression is the need of my soul,” perfectly defines the array of performance art Sarah Agnew and Jim Lichtscheidl use in their original production, archy & mehitabel…life in lower case. From their acting style to their unique use of the set and props, from their musical creations to their interpretive dancing, Agnew and Lichtscheidl bring together all of their talents to really shine in imaginative, theatrical conception.

Archy & mehitabel tells the unlikely story of and man and woman who are reincarnated into a poetic cockroach and a sassy kitty. In his efforts to die and be reborn into a respectable animal, Archy, the cockroach meets a cat, Mehitabel, and beings to write her manifesto on an old typewriter. During their adventure, the friends meet a variety of insects including a lightning bug, a worm, a spider and a drunken hornet. As the pair grows closer together, Archy and Mehitabel lend each other a helping hand during a time of need, before the reach the inevitable end to the circle of life.

Agnew and Lichtscheidl bring the story beautifully by bringing their characters to life with a unique acting style. Both actors personify their animal characters perfectly by exhibiting common animal habits with ideal comedic timing. As the lights rise on Lichtscheidl’s cockroach, he flees from center stage and clings to the nearest wall, just as a cockroach scurries into the darkness when lights are turned on. Additionally, Lichtscheidl shares another great cockroach inspired moment when he falls on his back and cannot roll over without help from Agnew. This hilarious mockery of a cockroach with a giant shell helps to maintain the witty, playfulness throughout the production.

Agnew is not outdone by Lichtscheidl’s bestial impersonations. She also used animal movements to inspire the habits of her feline character. Throughout the production, Agnew used repeated gestures often associated with cats, like stretching her back, liking her arms and scratching her ears with her hands. Both actors manage to use these animal imitations while still remaining mostly human in nature. This combination gives the actors a wide range of movement and vocal capabilities while still keeping the audience caught up in a fantasy world of the secret lives of animals. Furthermore, both actors in this two-person production are highly skilled and complement each other’s talents without overshadowing one another. Their performance is both playful and honest. Agnew and Lichtscheidl do not force any part of the production and take this opportunity to do what they love and show it to the world.

Agnew and Lichtscheidl are also exceedingly playful and creative with their use of set design and props as spectacles. Upon entering the theater, you gaze on the set and think nothing of its simplicity. The walls of the stage are merely covered from floor to ceiling with an assortment of white paper with a lone desk in one corner and an oversized spider web in the other. However, as the production unfolds you realize the simplistic set is actually more complicated than it seems. Agnew and Lichtscheidl pull pieces of paper off of the walls and use them as prop and costume pieces. For example, Lichtscheidl takes a large, plain, white piece of paper from the set and ties it in a bow around his neck to create the costume for the drunken hornet.

Another part of the set is an oversized pile of paper that Archy and Mehitabel lived in. This set piece was also used in an interesting way. Agnew and Lichtscheidl became fleas by poking only their heads through the paper and hiding the rest of their body among the paper stack. This creative approach to prop and set design gives more evidence to Agnew and Lichtscheidl’s innovative expression and keeps the audience wondering what is going to happen next.

Agnew and Lichtscheidl also expressed their creativity by making music and dancing in an absurd but remarkable manner. Not only are there originally written songs by the duet, but composer, Eric Jensen, lends a hand in the musical accompaniment to the piece. However, when Jensen is playing a tune on the piano, Agnew and Lichtscheidl make it seem like the sound is coming from them. In the scene with the lightning bug, Lichtscheidl strums the strings are the spider web as if it were a bass to make it look like he is creating the low notes of the song. Additionally, Agnew and Lichtscheidl use their props to create live music on stage. In several scenes Agnew rubs two crinkled papers together and produces a provocative musical rhythm. Also in the fly swatter scene both actors use this prop by hitting it against the floor or against each other to add a tune to the piece. The playfulness of the music and Agnew and Lichtscheidl’s genius exploration of objects delights the audience over and over again.

Fly swatters are not only used to create music, but dance as well. Agnew and Lichtscheidl wave the fly swatters around in rhythm in order to choreograph dance moves to go along with their songs. The actors did the same thing with balls of paper. The paper balls were attached to thin wires, as if they are floating in air. Agnew and Lichtscheidl manipulate the wires and move them about throughout the whole space to make it appear like the balls of paper are dancing. The eye cannot help but be entranced by the whimsical movements of the gliding paper as the dance around. These unusual uses for everyday items evoke the imagination and take objects far beyond what they actually are.

Not all of the dancing is done by fly swatters however, there are plenty scenes where Agnew and Lichtscheidl dance with one another and prove their ability to collaborate brilliantly with one another. In the scene with Percy the tom cat, Agnew and Lichtscheidl use a series of balances in order to create a push and pull dance between Mehitabel and her cat boyfriend Percy. For example, Agnew supports Lichtscheidl with her back as he lies across her and climbs up a wall with his feet. Throughout the entire dance, the actors do the same movements only opposite of each other, generating a salsa feel to the song. In addition, Agnew and Lichtscheidl build a spectacle by having the lighting change with their movements. During sharp, sudden movements the lights switched color and direction. During repetitive movements, the lights flashed several times. This dance further exemplifies their ability to work well with one another and use simple ideas to create something extraordinary.

Throughout archy & mehitabel…life in lower case, Sarah Agnew and Jim Lichtscheidl use every form of creative expression to present a piece full of fun, laughter and imagination. From bug creatures to catchy songs, from puppetry to interpretive dance, the production shows the duo’s exceptional range of acting talents, their wild imaginations and playful natures which express their souls and keep the audience in awe and wanting more.

archy and mehitabel...life in lower case premiered at the Open Eye Figure Theatre in October 2008.

Recommendation: See it!