Rent Opens at The Summit Playhouse

No day but today.

This is the catchphrase associated with The Summit Playhouse's newest summer performance, Rent.

Although the playhouse's Kaleidoscope Theatre for Youth will be performing the school version of the rock musical, the storyline remains the same. The original Tony Award-winning Broadway production, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, is loosely based on Puccini's opera La Bohème.

Rent follows a year in the lives of seven young artist friends living the bohemian lifestyle and struggling to survive in New York City's Lower East Side. Overarching themes such HIV/AIDS, infidelity, poverty, and identity fuel the plot of the contemporary musical.

In a press release written by the show's director Renee Palermo, she explains, "Many people were surprised to hear about Rent for young people. Is it relevant? Or appropriate even? Absolutely! Maybe even more now than ever! Rent is not a gay play, or an AIDS play, or a play that glamorizes doing drugs, or even living the Bohemian lifestyle. For me, it's a play about a group of young people, struggling to build a community and a life, while being true to themselves and their ideals."

The local show's cast is made up of 21 students, all New Jersey residents, ranging in age from 14-21 years old.

Compared to previous summer shows put on by The Kaleidoscope Theatre, the show's producer Abbe Maron said, "Rent is definitely a whole difference experience based on the age of the cast…people in college bring in different experiences than people in high school."

Regular Summit Playhouse theater-goers will also notice another big difference between Rent and its predecessors. The realization of the show has involved physically turning the entire theater around so that the main action takes place where the technical team was once situated.

"It gives you a real different feeling when you're looking at it that way," said Maron who added that she's curious to see the reactions of those who have been attending shows at the playhouse for years.

Rehearsals for Rent: School Edition began on June 8, and just over a month later the show will officially open on July 22. The musical will run from Thursday July 22 to Sunday July 25 with showings each day at 7 p.m. and a second showing on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Tickets are $15.00. Visit SummitPlayhouse.org for more information about purchasing tickets.

Please be aware that the Summit Playhouse Web site cautions that Rent involves adult themes and language that may not be suitable for young children.

"It's a story that seeks to remind us to live in the small moments each day, the good and the bad. The moments we have live and in person with others. In short, it's a play about love," said Palermo.