Review: Theo Ubique's Must-See RENT

Gritty, honest and earnest, Theo Ubique's production of RENT is a definitive Chicago version of the show that will be difficult to top. This was, by no means, an easy feat to accomplish by Theo Ubique..

Two decades have past since Jonathan Larson's RENT first burst onto Broadway. It was heralded as a ground-breaking work much the same way accolades for HAMILTON are currently tossed around.

Time has not been kind to RENT, ravaging many of its plot points. Thanks to medical advances, AIDS is no longer the likely death sentence it once posed and the 1990's Bohemian version of New York's Alphabet City that is its setting shares very little resemblance to that gentrified neighborhood of today.

If revivals are to have any merit beyond a desire to showcase a work as a museum piece, a director needs to find some relevant modern reason for producing it. RENT in the wrong director's hands can feel very much a product of the 1990s. Fortunately, with just a few master strokes, Scott Weinstein makes this version feel both timely and timeless.

He does this specifically in two points in the show. The first is to frame a kiss first between Angel (a lithe and limber Aubrey McGrath who is cast against type here) and Collins (a sensitive and richly voiced Chuckie Benson) within the aged and multi-colored panes of an industrial window followed by a mirror image later of a kiss between Roger (a moody, idealistic and, yes, dreamy Patrick Rooney) and Mimi (a youthfully naïve, but still hardened Savannah Hoover). The relationships are equal and, to some extent, equally tragic. While the plot points have always existed, it is this mirrored, visual image of two couples in love that strikes me as being very apropos in a post-Obergefell v. Hodges world.

The second instances comes during the closing scene of the first act. Our ragtag band of junkies, homeless people and artists have taken over New York's Life Café, temporarily pushing back the tide of gentrification that threatens Alphabet City. Weinstein draws further attention to the issue of gentrification by showcasing the footage of the riots that Mark has shot. As a long time resident of Rogers Park myself (the neighborhood of the No Exit Café that is home to Theo Ubique), the struggle to balance the identity of a neighborhood with gentrification is a very real one. New York's Alphabet City is now unrecognizable from how it is featured in the show (spoiler: the Bennys of the world won). It would seem that Weinstein's production begs us not to take the current culture of our home for granted. No day but today, indeed.

The intimacy of the No Exit Café again works in Theo Ubique's favor here. Matt Edmonds perfectly captures film maker Mark's loneliness as he moves to quickly capture a few fleeting images of the fading world that is his extended family and neighborhood. One gets the sense that we are sharing his pain in part because the threads of his world are literally being torn away right in front of us. Edmonds managed to find some subtle nuances to his character that I had never seen before (and I have lost count how many times I have seen this show -from the original Broadway cast through touring and finally local productions). He succeeds in having his Marc be both an outsider documenting things and a participant of those proceedings. At the end of the show, you actually care for him. Far too often, the character comes off as detached and aloof. Edmonds keeps him grounded.

Nicole Michelle Haskins and Courtney Jones, as uptight lesbian lawyer JoAnne and free-spirited bisexual performance artist Maureen respectively, also manage to find some new territory to their characters in their duet "Take Me or Leave Me."

Haskins and Edmonds' "The Tango Maureen" also ranks up there as one of the best performances of that number I have ever seen. JoAnne's world is falling apart and Marc is relishing the fact that her relationship problems with his ex has liberated him from baring the brunt of the responsibility for the demise of his relationship with Maureen. The interaction between the two is priceless.

Hoover and Rooney have chemistry as Mimi and

Roger, too. Their duets "I Should Tell You" and "Without You" are heartfelt and intimate despite the audience literally being inches away from them. Hoover and Rooney's stage craft on the latter is particularly mesmerizing as Mimi struggles with drug addiction and her relationship and Roger's mixture of both jealousy and pain as a reaction to it all.

As Benny, Marc and Roger's ex-roommate trying to gentrify the block, Jaymes Osborne avoids the usual pitfalls too many actors make with the character. Namely, his Benny is anything but a one-dimensional villain of the cartoon variety. He is frustrated that his friends don't share the vision of what he believes his neighborhood could be, yet still considers himself one of their friends. It makes the reversals in the second act much more authentic.

The show also features some fine ensemble work. As the featured female soloist in "Seasons of Love," Danielle Davis belts, raps and claps with infectious energy. She is equally memorable as an angry homeless woman who is less than thrilled to be filmed by Mark without her consent.

Parker Guidry (who was so terrific in Circle Theatre's TRIASSIC PARQ earlier this season), also stands out with his hauntingly beautiful solo in "Will I?"Anyone who has every experienced being with someone as they are facing death will recognize and react to Guidry's performance. Guidry manages to capture the fear of dying an undignified death alone. The song may very well bring you to tears.

Of all the productions I have seen through the years at the No Exit Café, this is hands down the best set that Theo Ubique has ever put forth. With elements of urban graffiti and pop culture, Adam Veness' stage and playing spaces, featuring murals by DEB98 and Onionz as well as graffiti by Bebs, Beef, Flee, Ghetto P., Jin, Justin Grey, Nems, Rare and Track, literally transform every inch of public space at the No Exit Café into a work of art that's worth sticking around after the show to check out.

The pop culture flare also continues through to Izumi Inaba's costume designs which could best be summed up as '90s grunge meets Roy Lichtenstein. Ms. Inaba has made a rather interesting choice to include clothing featuring some iconic Marvel comic book images. It works on two levels: the denizens of the neighborhood haven't given up hope clinging to their beliefs in heroes and, perhaps even more intentionally, as a somewhat ironic commentary on the fate of Marvel (which, if you didn't know, is now a fully-owned subsidiary of Disney, the home of --as Maureen puts it in the play-"a suicidal Mickey Mouse").

The show is a must-see. Spend 135 or so of your "five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes" of this year with Theo Ubique's RENT. It's well worth it.

Theo Ubique's RENT runs through May 1 at the No Exit Café, 6970 N. Glenwood Ave. Tickets $39-$44. Call 800.595-4849. www.theo-u.com

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