“Rent”

**** Whenever I see “Rent” ( and I have done so over 15 times), I always think about what our theater world might have seen had Jonathan Larson lived a full life. His two plays, “Rent” and ” Tick Tick Boom” ( which tells the story of the creation of “Rent”) are both wonderful musical theater. Larson’s “Rent” is a modern day, Rock version of Puccini’s La Boheme, brought to New York at the end of the 20th century. It is rare that a smaller, Community theater will take on a challenge as large as this one, but if anyone is up to the challenge, it is the Highland Park Players, who have been entertaining the local community for almost 40 years.

Now, in their new home theater in Wilmette, the McGrath Family Performing Arts Center, with a huge stage and comfortable seating, they are able to put on larger productions. For “Rent”, they have built a set (Lindsay Mummert) that is sectioned off allowing us to see the apartment where most of the action takes place, that of Roger and Mark , as well as the fire escape and the outside locations. With great ease they are able to transform locations just by actors moving tables and chairs allowing smooth transitions. For those who are not aware of the show and story it runs pretty close to three hours ( but the time moves quickly as the audience is engrossed in the story).

“Rent” is a celebration of love and courage. It is a story that deals with poverty and ambition, fears, sexual identity, searching for one’s true self and it is presented in a pure and possibly raw form. Mark ( an impressive performance by Steven Labine) a film maker hoping to have his creativity discovered shares an apartment with Roger ( deftly handed by Roberto Mata), a singer. They had another roommate who married a rich girl and bought the building, Benny (Augustin “Gus” Quijije) is now their landlord and needs to collect their “Rent”.

While these are the main people in the story, it is their  group of friends that makes the story reach all of the feelings that are expressed in the story. They have a neighbor, Mimi ( a powerful performance by Catherine Rodriguez O’Conner), who has a “thing” with Roger and as it turns out, many of the people in the story have AIDS. Understand that at the time this was written, the AIDS problem was huge, and the types of artsy people depicted in the story were the candidates for same. Mark and Roger have a friend Collins ( a brilliant performance by Gabriel Levi who has an amazing voice) who is befriended by Angel ( Kameron Rojas-Schueneman is perfect in this role), and they become lovers.

Yes, this play deals with homosexuality. It is real and exists and the people in the arts are very open about it. Mark’s ex girlfriend Maureen ( adorably played by Amanda Donohoe) leaves him for Joanne (deftly handled by Taylor Morris) and yet, they all co-exist and remain friends. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could just let everyone else be who they are? The story is filled with lots of little stories involving the year in the life of these people, and the opening song of Act Two “Seasons Of Love” is probably the most chilling entre’act in any musical.

Directed by Travis Monroe Neese with choreography by Todd D. Bulmash, this is a slick production that could be placed on just about any stage in Chicago ( and we have a lot of stages). I know I enjoy what Highland Park Players do and those who I have sent have all become regulars. The Musical Director, Claire Dixon who is also the conductor and on keyboards, along with the four musicians who are onstage for the entire play ,are terrific. This is probably the smallest number of musicians I have ever seen for this play, and yet, they never missed a beat- all was perfect.

Every part of the production was up to the standards expected from this group and the ensemble truly took on every small part needed to convey the story as Larson imagined it. Bravo to: Mike Weaver, Hayley Piepe, Samantha mayer, Daria Koon, Maya Karlov, Rogelio Castro, Randi Jonites, Jack Keilman, Lily Ann Vreeland Quijijem Ameila Tam, Jai Ramirez, Joe Dennis, Emely Cuestas, Will Ehrlich and Al Katz-Mariana. You guys made it all work!

On the tech side, the costumes (Mary Nora Wolf) although different from what we are used to seeing, worked well and the lighting (Chris Morgan) and sound (Daniel Melendez) were perfect. Raymond Mindas handled the props and the intimacy co-ordination was done by Sydney Cox.

This is a short run, so you need to move quickly-

“Rent” will continue thru July 27th with performances as follows:

Fridays         7:30 p.m.

Saturdays   2:00 p.m.7:30 p.m.

Sundays      2:00 p.m.

The theater is located at 3424 Illinois Road in Wilmette

to order tickets www.highlandparkplayers.org