‘Rent’ good fit for SNAP

Todd Brooks had been watching online for months, waiting for the release of amateur rights to the musical “Rent.”

He surprised even himself when he snagged them in February, making tiny SNAP Productions the metro area’s first theater to stage Jonathan Larson’s rock musical.

The show, which closely echoes the plot of Puccini’s opera “La Bohème,” follows starving young artists struggling with love, homelessness, drug addiction and AIDS in Lower Manhattan. The musical became a sensation not only because it won the Pulitzer Prize and the best-musical Tony in 1996 but also because its creator, Larson, died of an aneurysm just after its final dress rehearsal.

Larson’s death added emotional resonance to the poignant life-and-death story lines of “Rent” and its overarching message: No day but today. Younger people, in particular, became avid fans.

“The popularity of the piece alone made me want to do it,” said Brooks, the show’s director, who saw it twice on Broadway and in two touring productions at Omaha’s Orpheum Theater. “But it also hit the theater’s mission statement so right on, with its themes of tolerance and acceptance and AIDS, and its sense of community.”

SNAP, which stands for Support Nebraska AIDS Project, began as a fundraising theater. Though it no longer sends revenue to the Nebraska AIDS Project, it continues to present gay-themed shows. Several characters in “Rent” are gay.

Having gotten the rights, Brooks faced the daunting task of finding 14 performers with great voices who could also convincingly act the show’s gritty plotlines, drenched in high drama. The tiny 55-seat theater puts actors almost in the laps of audience members, adding to the challenge of creating believable characters.

Brooks admits he was “kind of scared” that the needed talent wouldn’t turn out for auditions in late July.

“Auditions were surprising,” said D. Laureen Pickle, the show’s music director. Not only did 70 people show up (more than double the usual for a SNAP musical), but there were two men for every woman auditioning, the opposite of a typical turnout but the exact ratio of men to women needed in the cast.

Brooks credits the show’s popularity among 20- and 30-somethings, who relate to the characters and the strong rock score. Many auditioners knew the show’s hit songs by heart: “Seasons of Love,” “Light My Candle,” “Santa Fe,” “Goodbye Love,” “La Vie Bohème.” Pickle said that made her job much easier, concentrating on polishing what was already there.

“We could have cast the show three times over,” Pickle said. “We had some hard choices to make. And the overwhelming majority were people we had never seen before, so that was kind of cool, too.”

For the Broadway show, the director cast Adam Pascal as rock guitarist Roger, though Pascal had no background in theater and came from a rock band.

For SNAP’s show, Brooks cast Jason Carroll, 32, who has almost no theater background but has played in a series of rock bands since high school.

“I got the ‘Rent’ CD my freshman year in college,” Carroll said. “It just really spoke to me, someone who had no interest in musical theater. It’s straight-up rock ’n’ roll, not like other theater people sing. I found that quite inspired.”

Carroll said he also related to his character’s story line of wasted opportunity.

“It’s such a real thing, to think I wish I could have done this, to not follow what you love,” Carroll said.

Tim Vallier, who plays filmmaker Mark, first heard tunes from “Rent” when he sang in show choir at Burke High School. Two things gripped him.

“They were singing about suicide and AIDS,” he said. “It was the most mature story line I’d been introduced to.”

Then he learned that Marfan syndrome, the same thing that had killed his cousin, caused Larson’s aneurysm.

“I suddenly felt like I could relate to the show in a very personal way,” he said. “It’s the realism behind the emotions. All the characters are very stripped and exposed as far as their emotions.”

In that way, he said, the show is well-suited to an intimate performance space, since what the characters go through is so intimate.

“In a big theater, the audience is watching, rather than being invited in,” Brooks said. For some scenes, he’ll have actors go into the audience or surround the seating area as they sing.

“I hope the audience feels they’ve participated in the production, become a part of that group,” he said.

Contact the writer:

444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com