Original Concept/Additional Lyrics by Billy Aron
at the Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41st Street, New York City

Reviewed by Adasha Greenwood

...before RENTreached Broadway, and before its sold-out run at the New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village, it was done in a low-budget, limited-run workshop (also at the NYTW) to test and develop the musical in a relatively safe and nurturing atmosphere before exposing it to the press. A few intrepid theatre-goers were able to witness the process for $16, with more a sense of adventure than specific expectations.


Seeing it for the second time...


Some changes disappointed me, though they obviously won't concern anyone seeing the show for the first time. Sarah Knowlton, who played the part of Maureen (read Musetta), in the workshop, sang her protest number "Over the Moon" while accompanying herself on the cello. The contrast of the sober musical self-accompaniment with the nursery rhyme motif seemed a brilliant satire of downtown performance art, a sharply honed dig at the very pretension at times plaguing the production itself. Most likely Idina Menzel, the current Maureen, does not play cello. More importantly, the part seems to have been reconceived, and appropriately so. Maureen is now perhaps closer to Musetta, an infectiously amoral sexpot with brains, and her "Over the Moon" is more rock star than intellectual, and without the cello it can be delivered standing, opening it up, broadening it and allowing her to show off the body that's supposed to drive both men and women to distraction. It remains a brilliantly written number, wonderfully performed by Ms. Menzel in
 ts new incarnation, but I do miss that image of the cello between Maureen's legs as she moos. (The cello drone remains, though now relegated to the orchestra.) 

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