By Jonathan Larson

Syracuse Stage, Winter 2011

Directed by Anthony Salatino
Set Design by Troy Hourie
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Dawn Chiang
Musical Direction by Sarah Pickett
Sound Design by Jonathan Herter

All photos copyright T. Charles Erickson

RENT is a landmark musical. If you’ve seen it, you might find it hard to get out of your head. And it has FANS – serious FANS. They call them RENT-Heads.

I had mixed feelings about doing it. I must confess, I wasn’t a huge fan, and it would mean navigating strong opinions from a lot of people about how it should look. The original production elicited a massive response, and the ‘80s are now far enough in the past that they are having a style resurgence. Whether they were around for it or not, people have a powerfully nostalgic idea of what the clothes from 1989 should look like.

I had to find a way to get excited about this, but the problem solved itself. Looking at research from the East Village at the time, the real people that lived and struggled to make their work and died there, you can’t help but fall in love with this story. Especially since this Bohemian way of life doesn’t really exist in New York anymore, at least not in Manhattan.

The director, Tony Salatino, was clear that we weren’t doing the concert version. The story of this group of friends trying to survive as artists in the East Village needed to cut through the complexities and volume of the music. I wanted to support that by making the characters, including the members of the ensemble, as specific as possible. The looks of the ensemble cast are based on real people who lived on the Lower East Side at the time and participated in the protests. A few of them are depictions of real artists who died there.

CAST: Stanley Bahorek (Mark), Jordan Barbour (Tom Collins), Ross Baum (Ensemble), LilyAnn Carlson (Ensemble), Ken Clark (Roger), John Duff (Ensemble), Aisling Halpin (Ensemble), Jené Hernandez (Mimi), Antwayn Hopper (Benny, Ensemble), Rashidra Scott (Joanne), Mary Claire King (Ensemble), Katie LaMark (Ensemble), Sammy Lopez (Ensemble), Mia Michelle McClain (Ensemble), Matthew Hazen McGuire (Ensemble), Eric Meyers (Ensemble), Marcelo Pereira (Ensemble), Rashidra Scott (Joanne), Jose Sepulveda (Angel), Hannah Shankman (Maureen, Ensemble)