Attention: MTV generation. Playcrafters’ debut performance this season is the award-winning rock musical (Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony for Best Musical) that set Broadway on fire 20 years ago. Dubbed “Hair of the 90s,” Rent is set to rock Playcrafters’ stage with the same bounding energy of its cast whose quest to survive is rivaled by the realities of life.
“It’s set in a factory,” co-producer Joe Welsh said in describing Jonathan Larson’s two-hour musical extravaganza that takes its cues from the opera La Boheme, where Puccini depicts the lives of struggling bohemian artists attempting to find themselves while making their mark in Paris. Larson inserted New York City’s East Village as the setting in lieu of Paris and churned up the volume a bit. Rent is the creatively inspired outcome, and it’s directed by Kevin Binder.
On Avenue B in the Village, the counter-culture 20-somethings have taken up a squatter’s residence in the factory amid the shadowy drug world and HIV in the late 80s. While the set may be laid back, the production pops as we see the relationship tides ebb and flow between the characters; their hopes, dreams and losses are spiritedly driven among a score of 40 songs like the upbeat “Seasons of Love” as well as “La Vie Boheme,” and “Will I?”
“The people are the show,” added Welsh. “The people are survivors.”
Mark (Scott McMaster) is an aspiring filmmaker and his roommate is Roger, a musician/songwriter (Vince Rostkowski), who finds the flirtations of dancer Mimi (Kim Whitehill) intriguing. Mark’s ex is Maureen (Roseann Enwright), who is dating an Ivy League-schooled lesbian named Joanne (Carly Crowley). Angel (Tom Stumme) is a drag queen who once had a relationship with Collins (Ryan Starczewski), a computer wiz and former M.I.T. professor and now a drug user. Keeping up?
Other characters include Benny (Robert Rinaldo) and the ENSEMBLE:
Alicia Alaimo, Sebastian Antonio, Andy Ball, Lizzy Boehm, Matt Bookler, Maliah Buxton, Joshua Calderon (u/s Angel), Madison Devlin, Caleb Duffy, John Lawrence, Nicole Riccio, Rachel Sweeney, and Molly Williams; Music Director – Brian Shapella, Choreographer – Tom Stumme, Co-Producer – Florence Wydra-Gat.
In Rent, there is every level of inclusiveness of social-sexual demographic in this fast-paced, loud and colorfully drawn depiction of raw emotion. It had a successful 12-year run on Broadway, as one of the top 20 longest running shows and was adapted into a movie in 2005. Rent has drawn the MTV generation and beyond and resonates with audiences of all ages. The audience can look forward to a “talk back” with the cast after the opening night performance.
If you go:Playcrafters presents
“Rent”at the Barn2011 Store Road at Skippack Pike
Skippack, PA April 28-30; May 6-7, 12-14 at 8 p.m.
May 8 at 3 p.m.Tickets: $20. www.playcrafters.org
610-584-4005
