Like “Oklahoma!” “West Side Story,” “A Chorus Line” and “Hamilton,” Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” revolutionized by changing the subject and sound of musical theater.
Even though it has been 26 years since “Rent” first became a sensation at the off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop and become a flashpoint for young audience members at the time, it still has a lot to say even if times have shifted our focus to different social issues, said Danae DeShazer, who is directing and choreographing a new production for the Manatee Players.
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“Just like any good piece of theater, it should still speak to today, even if some things seem dated,” she said. “It was revolutionary and it still is with all the things we love about theater. It’s about how to live life, how to live a good life, about death and loss and society and creating community.”
The musical, loosely based on the Puccini opera “La boheme,” is about a group of artists, struggling to create and support themselves, pay for housing, maneuver through relationships and deal with the AIDS crisis. It became a legendary show when its creator died unexpectedly on the night before the first off-Broadway preview.
Larson’s death brought extra attention to the musical, which earned enthusiastic reviews and a transfer to Broadway, where it ran for 12 years.
DeShazer, perhaps best known as a performer in area theaters, is staging the production in the intimacy of the Manatee Performing Arts Center’s Bradenton Kiwanis Studio Theatre, which suits her concept.
“I think what’s unique about ‘Rent’ is that it can be done in a big space and have a lot more of a theatrical feel, but it also works in a small space like the studio theater,” she said.
Her cast will feature 14 performers – eight principals and six ensemble members.
She describes it as a “pretty bare bones” production with scaffolding and some folding chairs and the cast members visible at all times. (Ralph Nurmela is designing the set, Patrick Bedell is the lighting designer and Caren Brady is creating the costumes.)
“We’re breaking the fourth wall between the audience and the actors and providing that energy to the story the entire time,” she said. DeSshazer is going for an intimate communal feeling. “I want the audience to feel they really are experiencing something unique to the night that they joined us. That’s what’s wonderful about live theater.”
Her cast is led by Jason Ellis as the filmmaker Mark, Derek Luna as his musician roommate, Roger, and Ariella Pizarro Johnston as the exotic dancer Mimi. Eldred Brown plays the professor Collins, with Brian Craft as Angel, a drag queen and drummer. Vera Samuels plays the performance artist Maureen opposite Madison Bradley as her attorney girlfriend, Joanne.
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The ensemble includes Caitlin Ellis, Karli Gunderson, Kathleen Kay, Ashley Figlow, Jason Moore and Michael DeMocko.
Katie Priest is the musical director, who has been working with the cast on such songs as “Seasons of Love,” “La Vie Boheme,” “Take Me or Leave Me,” “Light My Candle” and “One Song Glory.” The cast members will be singing to prerecorded tracks. DeShazer said with the size of the theater, it “wasn’t feasible to have a live band in the space.”
Like most productions in the Kiwanis Studio Theatre, “Rent” is part of the theater company’s Action through Acting program, which allows it to partner with community organizations that work on issues raised by the shows on stage. For “Rent,” information about CAN Community Health, will be available for audience members.
Even though it is based on an opera, it is not necessary to have heard or seen “La boheme” to appreciate “Rent,” though fans of the Puccini work will recognize characters and situations that parallel the opera, DeShazer said.
“What may be unique for the Bradenton-Sarasota area is that we have a world class opera company here so more people may be familiar with the opera than in other places where ‘Rent’ is performed,” she said.
By Jonathan Larson. Directed and choreographed by Danae DeShazer. Runs Sept. 14-Oct. 2 in the Manatee Performing Arts Center’s Kiwanis Studio Theatre, 502 Third Ave., West, Bradenton. 941-748-5875; manateeperformingartscenter.com
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