story of seasons a wonderful life matthew heart events

'Yo! The night is young, bud! Let's keep the party rolling!'.

La Palma Ave.Events Heart Events Introduction Conditions Where: Chance Theater, Cripe Stage, 5522 E. Regular performances: 7:30 p.m., Thursdays.

What’s true in “Rent” then, remains - unfortunately - true now. We hear from one of the characters describing the scene at the very beginning that adjacent to their ramshackle loft, “outside, a small tent city has sprung up next door.” It doesn’t appear thematically stale through 2023 eyes.įor instance, the show subtly reminds us that social concerns then can remain social concerns now. Ultimately, among its virtues, “Rent” somehow maintains a timeless universality of truth telling. Notice in that extended, vibrant “La Vie Boheme”, the gorgeous, amber hue flooding down from on high, a warm bathing of light, a metaphor for hope warming the stage. (Fact check: that old-fashioned pay phone on the side of the stage charges a quarter per call, about right for the show’s time period)Īnother key ambient quality is lighting designer Zach Moore’s stellar work throughout. While cast and audience don’t commingle, they come close and scenic designer Joe Holbrook’s grungy environs provide an open stage space that affords intimacy as well as spot-on time period touches. Kudos, too, to management in making an initial smart decision to retool the main stage into an angled, thrust configuration surrounded on three sides by a few rows of grandstand seating. Sound designer Dave Mickey’s work perhaps enhances some of the numbers a bit too helpfully - a few missed word timings from the ensemble were very sonically available - but at just less than 3 minutes, you’d take a much longer chorale treatment of “Seasons of Love.” The ensemble singing McCray has coached out of the cast is also deserving of praise. Choreographer Mo Goodfellow’s “Tango: Maureen” has wit and the one dance showstopper, the act one ending “La Vie Boheme” is long but you wish it went on even longer. While there is a great deal of stylized stage movement, it’s a bit unfortunate there isn’t even more dance that the work offers us. Unfairness will dominate the rest of this paragraph with mentions only of Lena Ceja’s minx/vulnerable druggie Mimi (note: Ceja can sing sweetly and belt) Adam Leiva, affecting as doomed Angel and Lily Targett’s erratic, but intensely committed bohemian Maureen. To start, there has been good work even by Chance standards from McCray and theater brass in marshaling a quality cast of 15, most of them newcomers to this stage.Īmong the eight leads, there is a high volume need for triple-threat talent to act, sing and dance. In seasoned director Matthew McCray, Chance found someone who more than fits the bill.Ī Chapman University grad who has directed at many Southern California houses - for Chance he staged 2022’s successful “Next to Normal” - McCray is clearly at one with this show (a charming paragraph in the program about his first trip to NYC, expressly to see this musical, includes a very “Rent”-y sleeping-on-the-sidewalk-for-cheap-theater-tickets victory coda). It certainly affords the right director, one who loves the piece enough, to make its strengths shine. Perversely, after opening the second act with the warhorse “Seasons of Love,” the next 45 minutes largely dispenses with showing and instead gallops ahead often merely telling the audience what transpired in the story’s next year before winding up the plot.īut what “Rent” lacks in storytelling structure, it more than makes up with big themes and a generally wonderful contemporary-for-its-time score. It’s a deep dive exploration, set over the course of a real week’s time, into social themes and individuals’ stories. The initial first act, 90 minutes long, has a choppy stint of early character introductions - brace yourself slightly for bouts of whining - that largely evolves through 20 songs. There is a herky-jerky inconsistent quality in what was Larson’s ultimate draft. Strangely, the writing itself in “Rent” isn’t always a strength.

“Or that showed me you’re allowed to write.” “‘Rent’ was the show that made me want to write,” Miranda said. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the most potent theater creator of this century with “In the Heights” and, titanically, “Hamilton,” pays back “Rent” for showing him how music of its own time and contemporary themes could drive a Broadway musical. “Rent’s” legacy since also included sparking a significant up-and-coming Broadway talent to find his way. The show was also invested with tragic mythology: Larson died right before the show’s first preview from undiagnosed heart disease. Later that year it transferred to Broadway for a 12-year run, winning a Tony Award for best musical. A grassroots off-Broadway staging in 1996 won “Rent” the Pulitzer Prize in drama.

Story of seasons a wonderful life matthew heart events