Rent (at Sacramento Community Theatre)

The Verdict: The Show and the Audience Achieve a Perfect Vulcan Mind-Meld!

Never having seen Rent on stage, I was excited to hear that the touring company, starring original cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, was coming to Sacramento. That excitement was a little tempered by a concern that those two stars, now surely getting a little bit long in the tooth to be playing the twenty-something characters they had originated, might be participating as some kind of ego trip/guaranteed payday/nostalgia tour. Several years ago I saw a touring revival of Jesus Christ Superstar that starred the two actors who had played Jesus and Judas in the movie version, and it wasn't a great experience. Would this version of the show have the energy and passion of the original? Could it?

But I needn't have worried. The show was outstanding. Both Rapp and Pascal threw themselves into the role with the joie de vivre of the young Bohemians they were playing. They were joined by a very powerful cast – Lexi Lawson (is that a great name, or what!?) as the exotic dancer/drug addict Mimi had a powerful voice and stage presence, and Nicolette Hart as the performance artist Maureen was irrepressibly exuberant - for my money a big improvement in the part over Idina Menzel, who originated the role on Broadway and played Maureen in the movie version.

The thing that was really interesting to me was the audience reaction to the show. I guess I didn't realize, as popular as I know Rent is, that it had entered that realm where the audience and the show have formed this sort of symbiotic bond that is something like a force of nature. A few years ago we saw Monty Python's Spamalot on Broadway, and every time the crowd - clearly dominated by confirmed Monty Python fanatics - got even a hint of something happening on stage that paralleled the movie (the appearance of the Knights Who Say Ni, for example), they would break into spontaneous, irrational applause. That's how it was at Rent. It started with inexplicably enthusiastic applause for the stagehand that walked across stage prior to the start of the show to remove the 'turn off your cell phones' sign from its easel, and continued right through to the end of the show. When Rapp and Pascal, coincidentally the first two cast members to appear on stage, wandered out to start the show you'd have thought they were the two living Beatles, given their reception. Each signature musical motif was met with wild applause and cheering – the second act opens with “Seasons of Love,” the most well known song from the score, and the first note of the introduction – the first note, mind you! – was met with applause that drowned out the rest of the song’s introduction.

At the end of the show, I have never seen an audience leap so instinctively and immediately to its feet for a standing ovation – again, not that the show didn’t deserve it, but one can’t help thinking that, as primed as this audience was to enjoy itself, that response would have been the same even if Anthony Rapp was in a walker and Adam Pascal had forgotten all of his lyrics.