After 25 years celebrating humanity in all forms and degrees of frailty, Rent still struts with energy and power. The 25th anniversary national farewell tour of the Broadway musical is on stage at the National Theater through March 27. If this version seems a little more polished and less raw than its earlier incarnations, it is every bit as emotionally wringing as earlier versions, with vocals that shake the walls and echo with the audience long after.
Inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, Jonathan Larson’s Rent takes viewers through one year — 525,600 minutes, to be precise — in the lives of aspiring New York artists during the toughest days of the AIDS epidemic. They navigate struggles with drug addiction, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and — as the title implies — paying their rent. They also rejoice, love, and die. Through it all, they experience the value of friendship, integrity, and determination.
Rent made its Broadway debut in 1996 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical that same year. The Broadway production closed in 2008, but there have been countless other national tours and productions, including this year’s 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour, which promises to be the final chance for people to see it live on tour.
Ahead of its time, the musical has always insisted on a diverse cast, and this tour’s production is no exception. The past year has brought increased attention to the lack of diversity on Broadway, with performers, creative teams, and audiences insisting that productions reopen with strengthened diversity practices. Among these movements to diversify Broadway, the representation of different races, body types, and sexualities in Rent is refreshing.
The musical styles in Rent are equally diverse. The score spans a range of genres including rock, pop, gospel, tango, and more. This eclecticism allows cast members to show off their stylistic range and creates a more captivating listening experience. When the cast unites for group numbers like “La Vie Bohème” and “Seasons of Love,” they produce triumphant, goosebump-raising harmonies. And when each cast member has the chance to sing solo, their exceptional performance is proof that they deserve their iconic role. A temptation for touring companies has been to turn the show into a rock concert with shallow acting, yet this production’s non-equity cast actually delivers strong character performances as well as impressive vocals. A few even stole the stage with exceptional skill: Javon King as Angel, Aiyana Smash as Mimi, and Rayla Garske as Joanne.
When Javon King takes the stage, it is hard to look elsewhere — not just due to the flamboyant costumes for which Angel is known, but also because of his impressive acrobatic abilities and vocal range. In “Today 4 U,” King showcases a sequence of spins, jumps, and leaps from great heights, made death-defying by his 4-inch stiletto footwear, all while staying on pitch. He also manages to effortlessly suggest the combination of flamboyance, brio, tenderness, and purity the character needs to resonate.
Similarly, Aiyana Smash expertly embraces Mimi’s bold but vulnerable personality. In her wildly energetic performance of “Out Tonight,” Smash struts across the balcony, hangs from the railing, and releases glitter from her long locks in an epic hair flip. She nails even the most difficult transitions to high notes, seducing both Roger Davis (Coleman Cummings) and the audience along the way.
Rayla Garske, as Joanne, not only maintains remarkable stage presence but effortlessly displays her vocal range with tricky songs like “Take Me or Leave Me” and “Tango: Maureen.” She belts with power, to audience cheering, and her tango with J.T. Wood as Mark is both amusing and choreographically impressive. Following a tense argument over Maureen, her current lover and his ex, the two abruptly start dancing a technical tango that somehow fits perfectly into the rock-based musical.
Other cast members are equally effective, with Lyndie Moe an appealing, theatrically self-absorbed Maureen. This was probably the best performance of Maureen’s performance-art number “Over the Moon” that I have ever seen; Maureen’s antics and the facial expressions of Joanne as she produced the performance protest were priceless. Shafiq Hicks as Tom Collins brings surprising emotional and physical presence to the role, with the effect that Collins’ influencing of the narrative registers as strongly as that of the piece’s actual narrator, aspiring filmmaker Mark (J.T. Wood). Elizabeth Adabale also deserves mention as the soloist in “Seasons of Love”: she easily merits the audience enthusiasm which breaks forth as she delivers the beloved refrains.
A quick note here on the fantastic quality of sound for this performance at the National Theater. Far too often the sound quality of touring productions has been quite poor, replacing nuance with simple volume often resulting is distorted sound quality to the point where the lyrics are unintelligible. Not so for this production, each song received careful treatment to bring it to the heights of power we expect or down to a level that reminds us to listen and not just hear, all the while never losing a single lyric. Kudos!
The creative team for this adaptation of Rent includes some of the artists behind the original Broadway show, such as choreographer Marlies Yearby and costume designer Angela Wendt. The sets remain simple yet effective, with pared-back metal structures providing the foundation for street corners, apartment interiors, and restaurants. The use of props is clever but not excessive, like the arrangement of folding chairs in a circle to create the room of the HIV/AIDS support group — just enough to set the scene. Costumes capture the essence of each character as well as the grungy angst that underscores the entirety of the production. Roger, for instance, dons a leather biker jacket and combat boots, while Mimi rocks fishnet tights and a vintage slip dress.
But while the production’s design harkens back to the ‘90s, one of the most striking things about seeing Rent in 2022 is the contrast it illuminates between the height of the AIDS crisis and the treatment of HIV/AIDS today. The diagnosis that used to be a death sentence is now a condition that can be lived with for decades. The initial treatment of AZT every few hours is now a once-daily pill, and preventative measures like PrEP are used widely. Today, many celebrities are open about their HIV diagnosis, working to dismantle stigma. Yet the theme of coming together in the face of an illness remains incredibly relevant.
Listening to the soundtrack or watching the film adaptation can never replace the experience of seeing Rent live, especially when it comes to audience participation. An audience mooing along with Maureen in “Over the Moon,” for example, is surprisingly cathartic. And joining the cast to clap through “Seasons of Love” creates an atmosphere of pure joy.
Rent famously builds a sense of community, not just onstage but among the audience and beyond. The repetition of “no day but today” in the finale, accompanied by touching videos of the cast projected around the theater, is a fitting sendoff for those leaving the theater bubble and returning to the real world.
Running Time: 2 hours and 35 minutes with an overlong 20-minute intermission
Rent plays through March 27, 2022 at The National Theatre— 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, DC. For tickets call the box office at 800-514-3849 or purchase them online.
