Penny Presents... RENT by Jonathon Larson for the AIDS Trust (14th October, 2pm) ACT 1 Review

Theatre_Buff - What drugs were you on when you watched this show? Because I want to take some every time I see an amateur show, if THIS is how DRASTICALLY it improves one's perception! My Opinion - Roger was one of the 2 worst performers on the stage - NO emotion, NO commitment to the character OR the audience - The only time his facial expression and demeanour changed, was when he came out for the bows, it looked like RELIEF on his face - maybe he had time just before that to run out to the toilet??? Would explain the constantly constipated expression on his face for the entire show... I also want to respond to most of your comments: > RENT is one of those shows… something that people either love or hate, and the nuances of interpretation can make all the different between a terrible and a great performance. The current production of RENT, by the profits-to-charity amateur society, Penny Presents at the Tom Mann Theatre in Surry Hills has a fresh interpretation, strong cast, and emotional depth not often matched in amateur theatre. I believe this production had all the emotional depth of a bowl of jello. > The story opens (as we all know) “December 24th, 9pm, EST” on the standard looking 90s East Village set – scaffolding upstage, band stage right under it, and the table in Mark and Roger’s apartment downstage centre. The set is unspectacular, but completely functional – after all, RENT should be a showcase for a strong cast, not an exercise in frivolity by a set designer. However, special mention should be made of Angel’s Christmas tree – which is all junkyard charm. The tree was nice. > Whether a production is going to be a success or not rests largely on the shoulders of the two men in the apartment at the opening of the show. Mark – played less strongly than one would like, but with pizzazz by Luke Murphy; and Roger, played by John Hogan. John is the standout of the pair – with an incredible look, and a voice to match. These young men portray the desperate friendship of Mark and Roger with unusual strength: Mark’s coddling versus Roger’s rigid isolationism. The vocal duels of the title song and “What You Own” in Act Two are really well balanced between anger, angst, and redemption. Although why on earth are they both standing still for the latter? A: Constipation. > Roger’s showpiece comes so quickly after the beginning of the show that it always takes me by surprise. John manages to skilfully avoid the plagues of “whinging Roger” (which is a constant burden, because as we all know, Roger spends quite a lot of the story whining about his lot in life), but rather delivers Glory with lots of emotion and true notes throughout. John’s interpretation of Roger goes from strength to strength, vocally, dramatically and emotionally throughout the show, culminating in (what appeared to be), genuine tears in Your Eyes. Even that so-tragic-that-it’s-corny “Nooooo!” as Mimi is brought in at the close of Act II was delivered with believable pain. (My theatre partner burst into tears at this point this afternoon). True notes? TRUE NOTES? Having to SCREECH to reach the top part of your vocal register is NOT SINGING... > After Glory, and a problem with a sound cue (the first of a few, unfortunately), we get our first glimpse of Mimi in Light My Candle – and she is certainly no disappointment in this production! In fact, the undisputed stars of the show are the girls – Mimi, played by the sultry yet fragile Caitlin Street; Maureen was brought to life with real skill by Penny Horsfield; and the straight-laced lesbian lawyer, Joanne, was belted out by a buxom brunette, Annette Vietta (who sadly stepped aside today for the second Joanne of the company – who has an extraordinary act to follow). I feel that Mimi, while looking great, was far to hard and masculine in her performance of this sexy, alluring YOUNG girl. She came across as a hardened ex-stripper that has to turn to drugs to keep herself happy... this is NOT how I see the character at all. Mimi is supposed to have a sweet innocence that makes her very attractive to the men, and a wild fun streak that she lets out when taking drugs. This is why she becomes an addict, because she wants to have FUN, not wants to escape reality. > The gorgeous Ms Street vamps her delectable backside into Roger’s life with a vocal performance which would be at home on any professional stage in the country. But moreover, the required chemistry (which has been often lacking in both amateur and professional productions of RENT in NSW) between these leads in palpable. Their attraction to each other boils off the stage, and makes the audience truly ache for these sad, mixed up characters to end up together. It is a spark that none of the other couples on stage come close to matching, and the whole show is worth watching just to see these two young actors relate. Roger spent 80% of the song NOT LOOKING AT HER! There was ZERO chemistry between Roger and ANYONE on the stage. > After Candle, the audience is treated to the most beautiful Angel ever to grace a stage – Jayr Tinaco. Many of the audience at interval (the more gullible ones, perhaps) were convinced that Angel was not being played by a man! But Jayr sparkles, shimmies and smiles his way into the heart of a convincingly smitten Collins (Ed Mafi). It was a shame that for this performance, Jayr’s voice was showing the strain of a full weekend of shows as some of the expected harmonies in I’ll Cover You were not delivered. Jayr seemed a little unsure of a few entries, but without a conductor, these problems will always happen. THIS IS ABSOLUTE BOLLOCKS. Any MD worth their salt will drill a cast to KNOW their entrances if the cast is not able to see a conductor. Especially in such a musically driven piece as Rent - there is hardly a spoken line in the show! The issue of the cast not being able to see the MD/conductor certainly never affected other amateur production of RENT that I have seen. That brings me to another issue - the orchestra. PLEASE PLEASE get someone that KNOWS the piece to MD - the band sounded like they were playing the score from sight for the first time - the delay between staged moments, waiting for the songs to start was TORTUROUS for not only the cast but the audience as well..., the mis-played chords in the band were also not doing the cast any favours, their mostly correctly sung harmonies ended up sounding wrong, because the band was playing the wrong chords. > Our first real chance to hear the belty voice of Joanne comes up in Tango Maureen. I must confess, the staging feels clunking in this segment. The individual tango type movements are an effective metaphor, but they commence at the beginning of the song with no real motivation. With more forethought here (perhaps the fiddling with the equipment is tango-fied, moving then into a proper separated tango, then to the neat couple work at the end), this scene would have been much more effective. As it was, Mark struggled with the more powerful voice of Joanne (yet another example of poor sound work from the desk here), but his utter “Markiness” carried him through. TOTALLY agree. The Tango 'choreography' (I use quotes because it ended up looking like a saluting contest) was so distracting, that you lost all the plot points that the song was trying to make. > The ensemble cast begins to make its presence felt with the initial Life Support Meeting scene, although standing on the upper scaffold platform was not terribly well thought out. There are a collection of heads which are half-in, half-out of lights, as well as this high position drawing attention to the hanging lights on the upstage lighting bar. Although theatregoers are aware that they are at a theatre, and not playing voyeur in the East Village, small touches such as this interfere greatly with the suspension of reality for an audience to really get into a show. If THIS was your only distraction during that some, then I DEFINITELY want some of the drugs you were on! On a positive - the guy that played 'Steve' during the 'Will I?' solo - I think you should have played Roger. > The ensemble has an eclectic mix of actors, and characters - all physical sizes, and all voice standards. This was a refreshing and probably more accurate rendition of the street dwellers in NY than seen in other recent productions. In general, the ensemble provided good vocal support to the leads, and all ensemble soloists coped well with their moments. Special mention should be made of the choreography – particularly the 3-piece dancing bums in Santa Fe. I don’t think any of the audience watched Collins, Mark or Angel at all during this number – all eyes were on the bums! Sadly, the ensemble suffered from inadequate sound support (is there a theme emerging here?), particularly for the solo lines in the full cast numbers. EXTRA SPECIAL mention to the Auslang Signing guy from that dancing trio - so refreshing to see male ensemble members that can actually dance... BUT - Having choreographed dancing ensemble members during that song was a TOTAL distraction from the 3 leads - again the audience missed the point of the song, due to bad staging. > After Life Support, the pace speeds up into the brilliantly delivered double act of Out Tonight and Another Day. The only disappointment in Out Tonight was the lack of the traditional blue pants for Mimi. At the very least, if the pants cannot be managed, there should have been a more spectacular costume change – but Mimi appears here in her street clothes from earlier: something more appropriate would’ve given the scene a further touch of sauciness. Mimi’s dance was of the normal ilk, but very well performed. Parts could have been raunchier, but in general it was a worthy rendition. > As Mimi approaches Roger for the kiss between these two songs, Roger did convincing job of looking slightly petrified, yet greatly keen on the idea. The smooch was quickly forgotten in his completely venomous delivery of Another Day. Roger is bordering on schizophrenic as he moves between denial of his attraction and screaming out his self-righteous diatribe in this number. Strong support from the rest of the cast makes this piece one of the best in the first act. Nope, Roger did convincing job of looking constipated again. I (and my theatre partner) did not detect a single emotional or even facial expression change from Roger during the entire show. > The ensemble shines further in the Will I round, which slides neatly into Santa Fe and I’ll Cover You. After the disappointment of Collins’ costume, I admit to not expecting much from Mr Mafi, however there is a richness in this voice which is reminiscent of the spectacular Jesse L. Martin. Collins’ greatest moment comes up in Act Two at Angel’s memorial, and there were quite literally tears all over the place – on stage and off, as Ed sang to farewell his love. The power and emotion in the song was (sadly) not at all reflected in any physical chemistry between the pair, but with the quality of Collins’ voice I got the feeling that so long as he was singing, anyone would be happy to be with him forever! I feel that Collins gave heaps of emotion towards Angel, during the entire show, even when they were just background (for e.g. in Christmas Bells), but Angel never gave any back to Collins. This is where I believe the lack of chemistry between them stems from. > And what is RENT without that awfully cringe-worthy performance piece? Actually, it would be marvellous. Although I see so much theatre, I abhor the need which directors and casts seem to have to make an audience feel “involved” through audience participation. If I wanted to participate, I would have auditioned, thanks all the same. However, the performance of Penny Horsfield as Maureen was utterly flawless. From clear, pure, sung tones, perfectly pitched monologue, snarky, sexy attitude, and evocative hand movements, I had absolutely no qualms whatsoever about mooing with the rest of the cows in the audience. Maureen presented fabulously every moment on stage, and when coupled with her very natty Joanne, the power of these two women seemed unstoppable. Again (sadly), there was no physical chemistry between this pair, but they were committed to their characters, and were convincing none-the-less. Outstanding. The only STANDING that I wanted to do during that song was to get OUT, so I guess I felt it was OUT STANDING, too. There was no passion in the delivery. Whilst every note was on, I felt nothing of the anger/passion she was trying to portray in the PROTEST piece. There was no rise/fall in the delivery at all. It was monotone. > The showstopper of RENT is, to my mind, La Vie Boehme. Although lacking the melodic charm of Seasons of Love, the power of the Act 2 finale, or the downright passion of the title song, La Vie Boehme is one of the cleverest moments in modern musical theatre. The lyrics are all Sondheim, with more than a small tribute paid to the patter-songs of Gilbert and Sullivan. In Penny Presents, it was clear that every member of the cast was having the time of their lives. The lyrics were delivered cleanly, and the choreographed movements by the table sitters were very effective. Benny (played with not quite enough attitude by Larry Ruiz) smarmed his way around the diners, taunting their ideals, but never quite gave the vocal or dramatic performance that I would expect from this role. Benny sort of floated into and out of every scene he was in, not really noticed by the audience, even in You'll See, his solo. I kept looking around the stage and not realising he was even singing. > Occasionally, this song did not live up to my expectations – some moments were far too contrived. The traditional move of having Mimi humping Angel was not well executed. It took Mimi far too long to get into position for what was clearly going to be the “dildoes” line. The power of that word and that move is in the shock value – yet, when Mimi is made to spend 3 or 4 lines clambouring on, that impact is completely lost. The Director should have refined this clunky and clichéd move and found something more innovative. The “Dorothy and Toto” line, by contrast, was a clever piece of staging, which worked very well. The “Dorothy and Toto” line's staging was quite cute, but if I dint know the libretto already, I would have NO idea what was going on. This is true for the whole show, the vocals from the leads was almost always never heard above the band/ensemble. The sound was a shambles. > Sandwiched between La Vie Boehme A and B comes the resolution to the first Act romance, with Roger and Mimi brought together at the AZT break. Again, where on earth was the sound effect for this moment?? Vocally sound, although you could hear both actors were tiring, and Roger maintained a little too much anguish to be convincingly romantic. Once La Boehme B took off around them, though, Roger and Mimi put on the most sensual display I have seen in live theatre. The small touches, and smiles were electric. When Mark delivers his “Mimi and Roger, oblivious to all this…” he had never spoken a truer word. At this performance, Mimi and Roger’s sharing of a “small lovely kiss” resolved considerable tension; there was a flurry of feminine murmurs, and blokes shifting in their seats around the theatre as the Act came to a close. I think the shifting in their seats was due to something else. An urge to leave at intermission, and never, ever return. It certainly was for me.