New Tenants, Same Spirit

Say, isn’t that Doogie Howser, M.D., singing about “mucho masturbation” with a bunch of grungers? My, how times have changed!

In a mighty stroke of good casting, Neil Patrick Harris (TV’s Doogie) morphs into Mark, a caustic East Village filmmaker struggling along the righteous path of art in “Rent,” the musical theater sensation of 1996. “Rent” had its West Coast debut Sunday night at the La Jolla Playhouse, where it is still sensational. With a huge heart and a couple of ideas about young people finding connection in a disconnected time, this musical explodes with life, even as its characters, living on the fringes of New York and of good health, threaten to succumb to disease.

Of course, the death last year of the show’s 35-year-old composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson overshadowed the debut of his bittersweet love story, which, with an expansive, rock-tinged score, transformed a loose adaptation of Puccini’s “La Boheme” into the New Hope for the American Musical Theater. One and a half years later, this production proves that Larson’s success was not artificially bolstered by the hoopla surrounding his death.

Director Michael Greif has put together a strong-voiced, fresh-faced young cast with, of course, different strengths and weaknesses from the terrific original company. In only a few cases do his choices fail, but unfortunately this occurs in two major roles. Christian Mena and Julie Santana, as the HIV-positive lovers Roger and Mimi, fail to deliver the goods despite strong voices. As the aspiring songwriter Roger, trying to jump-start his emotions after a girlfriend’s suicide, Mena is stiff and self-pitying. He broods and gives a performance so internal that it becomes a chore to connect to him.

As the occasional junkie who loves him, Santana performs Mimi’s sexiness, she doesn’t inhabit it. This is particularly clear in her come-on dance, “Out Tonight” (choreographed by Marlies Yearby as a peep-show tribute), in which she writhes in a tight leotard made of fabrics not found in nature.

The rest of the cast does not disappoint. Harris not only has a winsome voice, he’s lanky and light on his feet, with just the right mix of irony and sweetness. Wearing Elvis Costello glasses and cropped, bleached hair, his character serves as narrator, which makes sense as Mark is a filmmaker documenting the lives around him and virtually the only one free of disease. He’s nevertheless almost starving, even though his parents live in wealthy Scarsdale (in a repeated gag, his mother, and the parents of the other kids, call frequently only to reach the answering machines of their children). A tabloid TV show called “Buzzline” is hounding Mark to take a job, which would destroy his integrity and make him one of the “yuppie scum” his artsy crowd so detests. Mark’s moral dilemma may be overstated and contrived, but Harris captures the ache of a serious kid who assumes every choice will be monumental.

Greif’s staging for a large cast is exciting and economical, excepting the few moments when characters sing statically in each other’s faces--Roger and Mimi have an awkward moment when they look as if they’re head-butting, so do Mark and Roger. Then there are the moments Larson might have fixed, had he lived. The opening 10 minutes are exceptionally unexceptional, and they feature the overheated title song “Rent,” which is about nothing except a bunch of kids whining that they have to pay it.

After that, the show really cooks. An angelic young drag queen named Angel (Wilson Cruz, from TV’s “My So-Called Life”) hooks up with the computer whiz Collins (Mark Leroy Jackson). Thanks in part to a beautiful song called “I’ll Cover You,” which is exquisitely reprised under tragic circumstances in the second act, their love story is heartbreaking. As a self-absorbed performance artist named Maureen, Leigh Hetherington is funnier than was the original. As her lover, Kenna Ramsey makes the character of Joanne more engaging than I’ve ever seen her. As Benny, the yuppie scum that the “Rent” kids love to hate, D’Monroe is both threatening and understandable.

Paul Clay’s set approximates an artist’s garret and the outdoor, scrap-metal sculptures of a scrappy neighborhood, and still makes room for an excellent onstage band. A partial second tier is used for maximum effect in the moving group numbers. This is a show about community, and it breathes poetry when all of the down-on-their-luck East Village denizens climb out of the woodwork to sing “Will I?,” about the fear of dying. More joyous is the act-one closer, an homage to “Hair” called “La Vie Boheme,” in which the kids of Avenue B strut their stuff for “the suits” they share a cafe with, shooting off a list of everything they stand for and everything they’re proud of.

“Seasons of Love,” the famous act-two opening, brings the cast downstage to sing a song that asks by what means do you measure a life. Permeated with mortality and the search for meaning, abetted by a powerful vocal solo from Sharon Brown, this song is the heart of the show, very simply staged and enormously moving. When the reprise comes along, asking, “How do you measure a last year on Earth?,” your thoughts may fly to the show’s creator, who left the measure of his enormous talent in the chilling and beautiful notes of “Rent.”

“Rent” comes north to the less intimate Ahmanson Theatre in September.

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* “Rent,” La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, La Jolla Village Drive and Torrey Pines Road, Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 14. $30-$65. (619) 550-1010. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Christian Mena: Roger Davis

Neil Patrick Harris: Mark Cohen

Mark Leroy Jackson: Tom Collins

D’Monroe : Benjamin Coffin III

Kenna Ramsey: Joanne Jefferson

Wilson Cruz: Angel Schunard

Julie Santana: Mimi Marquez

Leigh Hetherington: Maureen Johnson

With: Carla Bianco, Kevyn Brackett, Sharon Brown, Curt Skinner, Andy Sen~or, Brent Davin Vance, Sala Iwamatsu , Hallie Bulleit , Laura Dias, Owen Johnston II, Paul Oakley Stovall, Monique Daniels, Ron Christopher Patric

A La Jolla Playhouse production. Book, music, lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Directed by Michael Greif. Choreography Marlies Yearby . Music supervision and additional arrangements Tim Weil. Music direction Robert Sprayberry. Original concept, additional lyrics Billy Aronson. Musical arrangements Steve Skinner. Set Paul Clay. Costumes Angela Wendt. Lights Blake Burba. Sound Steve Canyon Kennedy. Production stage manager Tom Bartlett.