Broadway Features and Reviews
A New Season of Love: Rent Revival Returns to Broadway
By Thea Piltzecker, Broadway.tv
Rent, the critically acclaimed musical, hardly needs a revival; the story has not left the minds of many young audience members. But a new production of Rent, a revival of the show that ran from 1996-2008, proves that the enduring message can be as beloved in a new form.
Michael Greif, who directed the first production of Rent, now looks at the musical from a slightly different lens. After a much-lauded 12-year run, Greif is free to make directorial choices not available to him upon the show's opening.
In placing the musical even more firmly in the early 1990s, Greif hopes to bring the now-historical setting to an audience too young to remember it. Rent is based on the opera La Boheme, and traces the trials and tribulations of a group of young adults in the middle of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
New choreography, lighting, and set design have updated the style of the show, while staying true to the original music and plot. Fresh faces bring new energy to a story that still captivates audiences.
The new cast members echoed the ideas of the original production on opening night at the New World Stages Theater.
"Rent equals love!" a few actors shouted, then held up peace signs as they smiled.
"That's really what we're trying to spread, that positivity, that love," explained Ephraim Sykes, who plays Benjamin Coffin III.
Because many of the actors are young enough to have seen the show as children or teens, they bring their personal connections to their performance.
"We're acting, of course, but it's very easy for a lot of us because we have a natural connection to who we're playing," said Corbin Reid, who plays Joanne. She spoke of the importance of that intuitive response in creating the new production, which was a common theme among the actors.
"The story and the heart are the same," said Matt Shingledecker, who plays Roger. "It's familiar but different."
The new production of Rent has lost none of the heart of the original, while adapting to the needs and concerns of a new audience and a new era.
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