‘Worth the Wait’ vs. ‘Just Weight’

The “Rentheads” came and cheered. The “Rent” haters came and vacated. And both camps made their cases known before, during and after Friday evening’s performance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

As early as 6:30 a.m. Friday, Carey McCall, 17, of Irvine and her boyfriend, Jason Whyte, 18, trudged to the center to grab a place in line for the limited supply of $20 rush tickets--all the while knowing that the ticket window wouldn’t open for another 11 1/2 hours.

“We had heard rumors that people were lining up as early as 3 in the morning, but when we arrived, nobody was here,” said McCall, who was indeed first in line.

Not unlike the squatters told to leave in the late Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer- and Tony-winning musical about the ‘90s downtown New York counterculture scene, McCall and Whyte--followed by more Rentheads who arrived shortly after them--were told to come back at 8 a.m., when the center permits customers to line up for tickets.

The motivation for many early-comers was not only the attraction of a major Broadway touring show in Orange County that speaks to their age group (like many of “Rent’s” characters, they were from 16 to 21 years old) and its limited two-week run, but by personal experiences of waiting long hours in line during “Rent’s” earlier engagement at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre.

“I waited until late in the run at the Ahmanson, but it was still such a bad wait that they had to select [rush] ticket buyers by lottery,” said Noah Toomey, 19, of San Juan Capistrano. Toomey and his friends came to the center Wednesday at noon, only to find more waiting Rentheads than available rush tickets. “We came here today [at 1 p.m.] and there was no problem.”

Possibly the champion “Renthead” in the line was Jaymi McClusky, 16, of Fullerton. This would be “Rent” performance No. 10 for her: “Two times on Broadway, and that was two nights in a row. Then two times in London because I had missed four of the original cast members in New York and they were with the show in London--and by that point I was so in love with the show that of course I would see it in London. Then five times at the Ahmanson. I love to go to the stage door to get cast photos and autographs from the different casts I’ve seen.”

McClusky paused. “Yeah, I’m a little obsessed,” she admitted.

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Rob Dodson of Costa Mesa, however, was a little miffed at intermission. Heading to the car and not planning to return, he said he and his wife attend the theater “a lot” but found “Rent” to not only be among the worst shows they’ve seen as subscribers to the center’s Broadway series, but “by far, the weirdest. It’s not Broadway. I didn’t relate to these self-destructive characters onstage.”

Another walkout, a Broadway series subscriber who wouldn’t give her name, called the show “degrading, and had I known that the performing arts center was going to include this kind of stuff on the schedule, I wouldn’t have subscribed.”

Some didn’t see the connection between “Rent” and “La Boheme”--Puccini’s opera upon which the musical is loosely based; other walkouts opined that “Tommy” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” were much better rock musicals.

Kelly Purcell and her husband attended Thursday night’s performance but left at intermission with a different complaint: “We couldn’t understand a word between the volume and the acoustics,” she said in a call to The Times on Friday. “We were very disappointed because we’d been looking forward to this as one of the high points of our summer.”

But other subscribers, such as Katina and Mike Morey of Riverside, called the show one of the best musicals they’ve seen at the center. Mike Morey, though, echoed Purcell’s criticism: “The acoustics here are always a problem, so it could sound better, but the music has really grabbed my attention.”

After final curtain, George Schiffman was reminded of another rock musical--one the center has never staged: “This seems like a ‘Hair’ for the ‘90s.”

Schiffman’s friends and Laguna Hills neighbors, Jim and Jane Luzzi, had seen “Rent” on Broadway, but slightly parted ways comparing the New York and roadshow productions: Jane said she preferred the current staging--credited to original director Michael Greif--to the Broadway edition; Jim considered the two “equally strong.”

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Still, Denise Ho of Laguna Hills insisted that “the experience of seeing ‘Rent,’ walking right off the New York streets and feeling that city around you like I did, is much stronger than seeing it here in Costa Mesa.” Her friend, Steve Yoda, of Torrance was nevertheless struck that the center, “with a mostly older, upper-middle-class audience, would offer a pretty iconoclastic show that expressed a lot of controversial issues about AIDS, gay relationships and property rights.”

Jerry Mandel, center president and chief operating officer, reported Friday that he hadn’t received any complaint calls or e-mails about “Rent,” adding that “while I was nervous about reaction to the show, I never had a single board member question our decision to include ‘Rent’ in the Broadway series, and in fact, a lot of our board [members] are coming to the show.”

Projected ticket sales indicate that “Rent” will not reach the 90% sales capacity of either “Phantom of the Opera” or the recently shuttered “Chicago,” but it will reach 75% to 80%, Mandel said.

“It’s a controversial show, and I know there are some walkouts,” he added. “But not a lot. We had walkouts during ‘Forever Tango’ with people not knowing it was a purely dance show, and we’ve shown gay-themed musicals before, with ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman.’

“The important thing is that we’re bringing in a whole new audience this time. I would agree with board members who’ve said that they’ve seen more new faces in the audience for this show than any other we’ve done--this is critical to our future audience support.”

* “Rent” continues through Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. $21-$52.50. Also $20 front-of-orchestra tickets, two hours before curtain, only at the box office. (714) 740-7878.