Rent!

I am not a Renthead. Ive never seen any version of the musical Rent. Not the movie, the live play, the only thing I know about Rent is that ubiquitous Seasons of Love which is a great song I have no idea what is about.

Rent is on its 20th Anniversary Tour with a new cast and came to the area, ok, Lincoln, this weekend. We went.

Rent is a musical in true 90's style. Its grunge, its hip, its before its time. Does it hold up 20 years later? Yep! At least to this non Renthead.

The musical tells the story of a group of young artists living in a sort of co-op in 1990's New York City. They're diverse, they are young sand they are all poor and oh yes, a good number have the HIV virus. The musical deals with poverty, love, greed, art, music and death.

I cannot describe the gang of characters in this ensemble play in one word. You have rich kids slumming it, aspiring songwriters with limited time, homeless folks, drag queens, performance artists, strippers, lesbians, gay men, straight men, straight women, its all covered here.

On a simple stage with a backing band off to the side, Rent begins with a bang as roomies Mark and Roger set the story up. Along the way we meet Angel and Tom, Mimi , Maureen, Joanne and Benjamin Coffin III. You may have a favorite along the way (I loved Angel and Tom and Mark and hell all of them) but the fact is not all will make it.

The cast is young, most making Tour debuts or still in college, and the energy shows. These kids are a talented lot hopping around and dancing constantly. Chrissakes, I pulled hamstrings doing 5% of the movement these actors make.

This play may not be for everyone. We saw an older couple grab coats and leave in Act 1 but though Act 1 is loooooong as hell and a weird scene involving performance artist Maureen that goes on too long (yeah we get it, performance artists are a strange lot) but to us amateurs really into it, its 2nd act begins with a bang with Seasons of Love. The cast had the crowd clapping and singing along like a concert. It was beautiful.

I know I can never be a Renthead. I cannot dismiss this latest version as a poor copy of the original or poo poo the latest cast as rank amateurs compared to that classic original cast, but I can say I loved every second of it.

Some things are never "dated". This is one.