by Joanne Briana-Gartner
The Enterprise
July 1, 2025
Given the weather, it didn’t take much to heat up the audience at the Cape Playhouse’s opening night of “RENT” last week, but a talented ensemble made us forget our sweaty selves for two hours, immersed in Jonathan Larson’s energized score and well-defined characters.
Remember the 1990s? When selling out was the worst possible offense an artist could commit? It’s an antiquated notion now that everybody’s side hustle is as an influencer, but judging on the crowd and the enthusiasm on opening night, those ideals still resonate.
Loosely based on the Puccini opera “La bohème,” the story follows a group of artist friends living and loving in the Alphabet City section of New York City.
In an unconventional manner, the first act of “RENT” takes place on one day, Christmas Eve, 1989, while act 2 offers glimpses of the play’s principals over the course of an entire year, ending with Christmas Eve, 1990. Drugs, HIV and homelessness are just a few of the struggles the group confronts.
Benny (Jordan Barrow) is the sellout who has gone corporate and now has the audacity to demand his friends, notably filmmaker Mark (Dillon Klena) and musician Roger (Chris McCarrell), pay rent on the apartment in the dilapidated building where they reside.
You can’t help but feel bad for Benny; he’s not unlikable, just misguided. He encourages his friends to see things from his point of view: if they dismantle the tent city that’s sprung up outside the building, they can stay on rent free and he can build a cyber studio—everybody wins.
Not only are Roger and Mark not on board with this, Mark’s ex-girlfriend Maureen is planning a performative protest, which Benny would like Mark to talk her out of.
Mark is the witness to his friends’ lives, especially their HIV diagnosis. He’s the Ishmael to the other members of the Pequod, possibly the only one who will live to tell the tale but as Roger points out, Mark is recording life but not really living it.
Frankie Rodriguez is affecting as the cheeky and unapologetic drag queen Angel. After rescuing Tom (Terrance Johnson), an unemployed academic, from muggers, the pair fall in love.
Exotic dancer Mimi (Storm Lever) lives in the same apartment building as Mark and Roger. She stops by on Christmas Eve. It’s freezing, there’s no heat and, echoing shades of “La bohème,” her candle has gone out. She flirts with Roger (“Light My Candle”), who at first rejects her advances but later the two warm up to each other. A tiny ball of fierce energy, Lever’s mic occasionally makes it hard to understand her lyrics, most notably in “Out Tonight.” RENT is a word-heavy rock musical that’s mostly sung through.
Tsilala Brock and Ashley Blanchet have good chemistry as Joanne and Maureen, with Brock playing the straight man to Blanchet’s outlandish Maureen. It takes most of the first act for Maureen to finally appear on stage but her protest performance, (“Over the Moon”), is well worth the wait.
Both Mark and Joanne bemoan their love for the unpredictable Maureen (“Tango: Maureen”); later, in Act 2, Maureen explains her position to Joanne in “Take Me or Leave Me.”
The principal cast, all equity association actors, are fantastic, as are the remainder of the company. Shout out to Jackson Kanawha Perry (Squeegee Guy) for his gorgeous gospel voice.
Audiences will likely be familiar with “Seasons of Love,” which opens act 2 (there are indeed, “five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred” minutes in a year), but “RENT” is full of memorable music, notably, “La Vie Bohème,” “Today 4 U” and “Tango: Maureen,” which will linger long after the curtain closes.
The seedier side of NYC provides the set. Tenant buildings, fire escapes and darkened doorways. Effective lighting adds to the drama.
What’s the right way to react to an HIV diagnosis? Should you withdraw from society, which is where we find Roger in act 1, a depressed musician trying to write one memorable song before he dies, or live in the moment, like Angel? The act 2 finale (“No Day But Today”) reveals Jonathan Larson’s answer to that question.
