From Broadway to Bainbridge, years ago and many miles away to the here and now, the musical theater sensation “Rent” has lost none of its power.
Poverty, disease, sexuality, friendship. It is precisely because of these, the infamous show’s hefty themes that the current crop of Bainbridge High School student thespians chose it as this year’s musical production.
“I definitely agree that the political aspect is what makes it so poignant and important for us to play these characters,” said cast member Autumn Prentice, a BHS senior who plays Maureen.
Nobody, she said, has yet objected to the choice. Except for one point of contention among purists, that is; something that there’s really no easy fix for.
“There’s a lot of white people in the cast,” Prentice said. “And so, a lot of my friends are like, oh, it’s ‘Rent,’ you need more people of color. It’s like, we live on Bainbridge. There aren’t any people of color. We do what we can; we make it work.
“It’s coming along really great,” she added.
The now-iconic show, based on an opera by Giacomo Puccini, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, was reportedly first seen in a workshop production at New York Theatre Workshop in 1993. It was also there that the show was first produced in 1996.
Larson, however, famously did not live to see that come to pass.
The 35-year-old playwright/composer died the morning of the show’s first preview performance. He reportedly suffered an aortic dissection, supposedly caused by undiagnosed Marfan syndrome (a genetic disease of the connective tissue; other famous cases likely include President Abraham Lincoln and Hank Williams).
From that troubled debut, however, the show went on to play on the biggest live theater stage in the country, and would in fact ultimately become the 11th-longest running Broadway show of all time, grossing some $280 million.
And now, it will be revived again, a special “school version,” on the BHS stage.
There is a 4 p.m. family/faculty preview show on Thursday, May 10. Regular show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12, as well as 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 18 and a 3 p.m. matinée on Saturday, May 19.
Tickets, available only at the door, are $10 each ($8 for students with ID).
The cast includes 22 students, plus five musicians in the pit — which is actually on stage, a fun hurdle that required some quick spacial reconfiguring on the part of the crew — and about 25 crew members working behind the scenes. The show is recommenced for those 13-and-older only. Visit the “theater” section of www.bisd303.org to learn more.
D’Arcy Clements, the show’s director, said the whole thing was almost entirely a student-run affair.
“[Things] are going great,” she said. “When we decided that we wanted to get our teeth into something meaty, and the kids said, ‘Can’t we do something that wasn’t from 1938?’ I said, ‘Well, these are our choices.’
“This has been a real challenge,” she added. “It’s mostly more of a drama than a comedy, and it’s been good for them; they wanted to do something more serious and they’re really excited about it.”
Senior cast member Lauren Wallach, BHS Theatre Club president, who plays the part of Joanne, agreed, saying the so-called “school version” is really not so toned down.
“What’s most surprising to me is that it’s not as changed from the original as I anticipated,” she said. “They take out a lot of the swear words and stuff like that, but the material is pretty much the same as the original, which is pretty cool that we live in a place where we’re able to perform that. As far as I know we haven’t had any push-back, so that’s been awesome.”
The choice of show was inspired by more than just the appeal of possible scandal, though, Wallach said.
“I think it really is a show about community and people coming together,” she said. “Everyone always says, ‘Art speaks for it’s time,’ and with the time we’re living in, I think it’s a show about coming together and love and the main message of the show is, ‘No day but today.’ I think that’s very relevant right now.”
