Bohemian Rhapsodies

Rent -- Jonathan Larson’s rock-operatic update of Puccini’s La Bohème -- has always cut across the grain of American theater. First, it’s an update of La Bohème, and (true) opera and Broadway generally don’t play well together. Second, its plot about an AIDS-ravaged bohemian arts commune always seemed a little...

By Clay McNear

March 12, 2009

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Rent -- Jonathan Larson’s rock-operatic update of Puccini’s La Bohème -- has always cut across the grain of American theater. First, it’s an update of La Bohème, and (true) opera and Broadway generally don’t play well together. Second, its plot about an AIDS-ravaged bohemian arts commune always seemed a little dark for the Great White Way. Not least, 15 years after it first debuted at the New York Theatre Workshop, three of the principals in Rent’s very first performance -- Adam Pascal (Roger Davis), Anthony Rapp (Mark Cohen), and Gwen Stewart (the “Seasons of Love” soloist) -- continue to hang with the show as the official post-Broadway road show ventures into the sticks. As with most things Rent, such a thing is unheard of.
Tue., March 17, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., March 18, 7:30 p.m.; Thu., March 19, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., March 20, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., March 21, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; Sun., March 22, 2 & 7 p.m., 2009

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