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Rent
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 Featured Event!
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Location:
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Charlottesville
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Event Type(s):
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Arts / Theatre / Music, Arts / Theatre / Music
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Organization:
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Play On!- The Theatre at Ix
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Description:
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PRESS RELEASE
Play On! Announces the Central Virginia Premiere of
Jonathan Larson's Rent
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ty Cooper (434) 872-0184
Following record-breaking attendance at their recent production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, Play On! is thrilled to announce the opening of Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer and Tony Award winning musical, Rent on Thursday, March 18 at The Theatre at Ix in Charlottesville.
Joncey Boggs, who directed 4CP's sold out Oliver last summer takes the helm for this Central Virginia Premiere, leading a cast of fifteen of the area's most dynamic performers. Dan Finn, who mesmerized during Rocky Horror plays Tom Collins, Julie Stavitski who wowed audiences in Little Shop of Horrors and One Stage, Two Acts, Three Women brings Joanne Jefferson to life, Alice Reed who appeared in Live Arts' productions of Bat Boy and Urinetown plays Maureen Johnson and Allen van Houzen, who played Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls returns to the Play On stage as Angel Schunard. Chelsea Greer, Gavin Rohrer, Harry Orell , Paul Thomas Truitt, Alex Davis, Aynsley Sandridge, Ben Jamieson, Carey Frost, Katy Walker, Miller Susen and Sid Wood round out the cast.
Rent is a rock opera based on Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme retelling the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create on the Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City and under the shadow of AIDS. The show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 1996 winning four including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. Jonathan Larson was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer for Drama that same year. Seasons of Love has become a pop hit and anthem for a generation.
The New York Times' Ben Brantley wrote of the original Broadway production, “Mr. Larson's music has an infectious pulse that begs to be danced to... That Rent still qualifies as a major success, and it does, is almost entirely because of Mr. Larson's clever but deeply felt words and score and the cast and musicians who interpret them. What makes Rent so wonderful is not its hipness quotient, but its extraordinary spirit of hopeful defiance and humanity.
“Mr. Larson has conceived his show's surrogate family of fringe artists, drag queens and H.I.V.-infected drug users with such rich affection and compassion that it is impossible not to care about them. Rent is ultimately as sentimental as "Carousel" or "South Pacific," ... They're as gritty-seeming as they should be, but they also beam with the good will and against-the-odds optimism that is at the heart of the American musical. “
Charles Isherwood, in the New York Times reported that “Larson lived among and loved the people he was writing about, ached for their losses, expressed their fears, dreams and everyday indignities in sharp lyrics and evocative melodies that drew on both Broadway forms and pop and rock sounds.”
Fans of La Boheme will see several parallels between the opera and the rock opera. For example, Larson's Light My Candle sung by Mimi and Roger is nearly identical to the first scene of La boheme when Mimi and Rodolfo meet. Strains of Musetta's Waltz can be heard as a motif throughout the show and it bears a direct relation to Take Me or Leave Me when the character Maureen describes the way people stare at her on the street and her philosophy of love and relationships.
Rent opens Thursday, March 18 and runs through Saturday, April 3. Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances begin promptly at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday matinees begin promptly at 2:00 p.m. Latecomers will be seated at the discretion of the management. Ticket prices are $13-$17 with Thursday performances being Pay What You Will. To order tickets, call (434) 872-0184 weekdays between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. or go to PlayOnTheatre.org. Performances are at The Theatre at Ix, 983 Second Street SE, Charlottesville.
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Address:
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983 Second Street S.E.
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Charlottesville, Virginia 22902
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Date:
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Sunday, 4/4/2010
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Start Time:
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2:00 PM
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End Time:
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4:00 PM
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Please note - All events are posted by their respective organizations. Each organization is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their events. Any / All event related questions should be directed to the posting organization.
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