THEATER REVIEW;Enter Singing: Young, Hopeful And Taking On The Big Time
By BEN BRANTLEY
Published: April 30, 1996
Two months, one Pulitzer Prize and acres of magazine and newspaper pages later, the waiflike hopes of the American musical are living in fancier digs. Uprooted by a cyclone of critical ecstasy and a hunger for theatrical novelty, they have posed for fashion layouts, inspired a Bloomingdale's ad campaign and will record their songs about life on the edge for David Geffen's Dreamworks label. They even have a producer who is comparing their spirit to that of -- oh, dear -- the movie "Forrest Gump."
"Rent," Jonathan Larson's luminous, youthful musical that started off at the tiny New York Theater Workshop on East Fourth Street in February, opened on Broadway last night at the Nederlander Theater, after previews that drew such paparazzis' dreams as Billy Joel, David Bowie and Ralph Fiennes. And, no, Toto, I don't think we're in the East Village anymore.
Everyone can breathe one quick sigh of relief, however, before lamenting the way of all flash. Anyone who loved "Rent" in its first incarnation is not going to feel like the victim of a Champagne hangover who wakes up next to a creepy stranger.
The vibrant 15 cast members are actually even better, as if they had found fresh reserves of energy in the glow of mainstream starlight. And the ingenuity and dexterity of Mr. Larson's rock-pop score, translated with loving skill by Tim Weill's onstage band, are, in fact, more evident now.
Indeed, great care has obviously been taken to keep this charming, poignant rock opera much as it looked when it was seen by Mr. Larson, who died of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35 on the night of its last dress rehearsal downtown. And therein lies the one, conspicuous problem of the transplanted "Rent." The show remains a sentimental triumph, and it will doubtless have, and deserves, a long and healthy run.
But in the haste to take this contemporary answer to Puccini's "Boheme" to Broadway, no one seems to have thought rationally about reconceiving the show for a larger house (and we're talking about 1,173 seats versus the 150 of the Theater Workshop). Unlike "Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk," which recently moved from the Joseph Papp Public Theater to the Ambassador on Broadway, this "Rent" verges on being lost in space.
研究生的生活研究 (2)