Plaid flannel and denim jeans: Porchlight’s ‘RENT’ and Red Theater’s ‘Vinegar Tom’
An unlikely pairing, this, but both seem prime for anyone who wants to get their Nineties grunge on.
The Company. Photo by Liz Lauren.
That RENT’s opening night enjoyed a cheese-and-wine reception couldn’t help but feel surreal. Granted, such is no different from any of Porchlight’s other opening nights, but it was a well-heeled reception befitting a certifiable classic, not so much Jonathan Larson’s bohemians’ shots in the dark.
Besides, how many classic musicals can technically be described as unfinished? The production even calls attention to that fact in its (perfectly) VHS camcorder-worthy projections. Larson’s untimely death just before RENT’s very first public performance is theatrical gospel, and it’s always paired with questions of how—if—he might have improved it. Lord forbid, another question: if he was still alive today, how would he revise it to maintain its cultural currency? Would he?
Going down the rabbit hole of “what if” is folly, of course.
Director Adrian Abel Azevedo may put a little more capital-B Broadway gloss on Larson’s opus than he may have wanted, even if the latter had Broadway in his sights, but there is genuine warmth to this vision. Part time capsule, part investigation in how far we’ve come and how far we’ve to go, part operatic shamelessness—it’s still a compelling life-or-death mess. Ably presented by a cast that no doubt grew up with this material and knows it backwards and forwards, standouts include Lucy Godínez and Teressa LaGamba as the slap-slap-kiss Maureen and Joanne, respectively. And, as Porchlight’s target demographic starts enfolding more and more Gen Xers and Millennials, music director Dr. Michael McBride successfully preserves that authentic rock sound.
Whether you’re one for cheese and wine or PBR and saltines, Porchlight’s RENT’s got something to cover you.
RENT runs through December 10th at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Ave. For tickets or more information, please call (773) 777-9884 or visit porchlightmusictheatre.org.
Sarah Wisterman and Sean William Kelly. Photo by Faith Decker.
You’ll probably know what’s coming as you witness Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom, a self-described “play about witches with no witches in it.” In effect, it’s the story of Everywitch, set in a time and place that could see a bum harvest or a cross word with an ornery neighbor spiral out of all proportion. If you were an unorthodox woman, you were just about born to be hanged as a witch.
If your eye wanders upwards to the rafters, you might even see the nooses dangling, waiting.
You probably wouldn’t expect the riot grrl act, even as a rock trio is hanging out in plain view at top of show shooting the breeze.
A Brechtian play with music, director Clare Brennan and composers Roy Gonzalez and Max Cohen pour on just the right amount of battery acid for Churchill’s ever-timely examination on the patriarchy’s simultaneous fascination with and repulsion for women, the sung interludes of which are performed in rotation by the female characters stepping out of time and period costume.
The play itself is a hard watch—the content warning for “humiliation” alone doesn’t begin to cover it—but with a crackerjack ensemble like this, faced with either a quick death or a drawn-out death, watching the spittle of rage fly, you might know what’s coming, but who’s gonna get it is another thing entirely.
Vinegar Tom runs through November 20th at the Edge Off Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. For tickets or more information, please visit redtheater.org.
For more reviews on these or other shows, please visit theatreinchicago.com