Musical Theater That Doesn’t Suck

Mimi is a drug-addicted whore. Roger is a rocker. Angel is a drag queen. Perhaps most shocking of all, Angel’s boyfriend is a former MIT professor. And Mark Cohen is trying to get them all onto film, because Mark is a wannabe filmmaker who hopes to become a famous movie director one day. None of these people can pay the rent. Thus the title of Jonathan Larson’s record-breaking Rent, the ’90s rock opera based on Puccini’s La boheme that has played to millions and introduced the MTV generation to the very notion of musical theater that didn’t suck.

Nearly Naked Theatre’s energetic new production, now playing at Phoenix Theatre’s Little Theatre, certainly doesn’t. Director Damon Dering has brought together a talented, youthful cast to make one of his all-time favorite musicals really sing.
Fri., Aug. 14, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 15, 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 16, 6 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 20, 8 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 21, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 22, 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 23, 2 p.m.; Thu., Aug. 27, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 29, 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 30, 6 p.m.; Thu., Sept. 3, 8 p.m.; Fri., Sept. 4, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 5, 8 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 6, 2 p.m.; Wed., Sept. 9, 8 p.m.; Thu., Sept. 10, 8 p.m.; Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 12, 8 p.m., 2009