They were tiny kids when RENT first took Broadway by storm.
Now they have a chance to star in the musical that they’ve loved for most of their lives – and they couldn’t be more excited about the prospect.
Ali Watson, Darren Adams and Kurtis D’Aoust are getting set for the opening of RENT, the new URP production that’s playing at Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver from Nov. 15 to 20. The three Burnaby residents are featured in main roles in the production: Watson appears as Mimi, Adams as Roger and D’Aoust as Angel. Burnaby residents Vanessa Merenda and Kai Bradbury are also in the ensemble.
The young stars have long been fans of the musical, which marks its 20th anniversary this year. Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical, based on Puccini’s opera La Bohème, follows a group of artistic friends living in Manhattan’s East Village, navigating the world of poverty, joblessness, drug addiction and AIDS.
“I feel like it’s that show I’ve been waiting in the wings to do forever,” says Watson.
Or at least as long ago as “forever” can be when you’re 21 and have been watching the movie since you were in about Grade 7 or 8.
Watson points out there’s an advantage to playing in a musical you’re so familiar with.
“I pretty much already knew all the words,” she says with a laugh.
All three young performers have embraced the chance to play characters whose lives are in many ways unlike their own.
D’Aoust, who’s just 20, auditioned specifically for the role of the flamboyant but compassionate Angel, noting it’s a role he’s always had his heart set on.
“I was Angel growing up,” he says with a laugh, noting he loved to wear dresses and high heels.
The role isn’t all about flamboyance, though; Angel is one of the most complex characters in the show, and it’s a role that means a lot to D’Aoust.
“It instantly spoke to me,” D’Aoust says, noting that, as a gay man, there are few roles that are as strong and as out there as Angel.
“It’s been a blast. It’s not like anything I’ve ever played before,” he says. “It’s been hard. It’s been one of the most rewarding roles I’ve ever played, and the most challenging.”
Adams, too, has always been interested in being part of RENT.
“RENT is one of the shows that got me interested in doing musical theatre,” says the 24-year-old actor.
He, too, has found challenges in the role of Roger – the almost-rock star who never quite made it, who lost his girlfriend to suicide and who has been diagnosed with AIDS.
“That’s a lot of things to deal with as a young person, that’s been a challenge,” he says. “Finding the weight of that, the heaviness of what he’s going through, but at the same time, he’s still a young man.”
Watson’s Mimi, likewise, is an exotic dancer and junkie who’s also facing AIDS.
“My life experience has been very, very different,” she says, noting that, at 21, she’s a little older than Mimi is in the story. And, though she says they’re not quite polar opposites, she doesn’t think she and Mimi would be buddies, either. “We wouldn’t be hanging out with the same crowd.”
“I’ve never played a role like this before,” she admits. “I like to see how far I can push myself.”
Playing a role with some risqué moments comes with its own special challenge – Watson says her family is excited for her, but somewhat concerned.
“My grandparents are a little apprehensive,” she confesses with a laugh, noting she’s already issued instructions about the moments they’re going to have to avert their eyes.
For the young performers, the story behind RENT comes from an era they weren’t alive to remember. Times have changed since Larson wrote the musical, set at the height of the AIDS crisis – and that led D’Aoust into researching just exactly what it meant to be young and gay at the time.
“It was just eye-opening,” he says, noting that there was a period of time when entire theatre companies in New York City would go under, simply because the members were dying. “RENT now is sort of like a period piece.”
D’Aoust says director Richard Berg has put a more contemporary spin on the story to bring it into today.
“He’s done a great job making it relatable,” D’Aoust notes.
At the same time, the performers point out, some things haven’t changed all that much in the two decades since RENT’s debut.
There’s what Adams calls “all the madness that’s happening now” in the U.S. and beyond – not to mention the ever-present and ever-growing issues of poverty and housing affordability for the young performers’ generation.
“Basically, we have to live of the $1.39 menu at McDonald’s,” says Watson with a laugh that’s partly a sigh.
Despite it all, however, RENT isn’t a show that wallows in darkness and despair. Rather, all three performers are quick to point out the show’s positive messages.
“What the show is, it’s a celebration of life and love and art,” Adams says.
“And being true to who you are,” adds Watson.
For D’Aoust, the overriding message of the musical can be found in its recurring theme, No Day But Today.
“Love and positivity goes such a long way, and if that’s forgotten, things can go bad so quickly,” he says.
In the end, it’s all about hope – and that’s what they want audiences to walk away from the theatre with.
“That’s something that’s kind of eternal,” says Adams.
CATCH RENT ONSTAGE: FAST FACTS
WHAT: RENT, the Tony Award-winning musical, produced by URP (formerly Uncle Randy Productions)
WHEN: Nov. 15 to 20. Shows at 8 p.m. nightly Nov. 15 to 19, with 2 p.m. matinee Nov. 20. Opening night Wednesday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Centennial Theatre, 2300 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver
TICKETS: $28 to $44, through www.URP.ca or 604-984-4484
