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Karrington Sneed (clockwise from top left), Ryan Michael Friedman, Ralphael Agee, Gideon Ethridge and Lauren Teders from the cast of Circle Theatre’s 2026 production of “Rent.”<\/p>\n
Taystan Photography<\/p>\n
Rent is so big, it can\u2019t be contained on a stage. In the 30 years since the groundbreaking musical premiered on Broadway, productions have been spilling into the aisles when they\u2019re not surrounding the audience.<\/p>\n
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At Fort Worth\u2019s Circle Theatre, director Garret Storms takes advantage of the tiny basement performance space to create an intimacy that feels organic, even when the actors step into the dark and sing right at patrons sitting a couple of feet away.<\/p>\n
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Interrupted on opening night by a storm passing through Fort Worth, Circle\u2019s production is still one of the most satisfying shows of the North Texas theater season. An anticipatory electricity was in the air even before the performance officially started.<\/p>\n
This is a show people love for the hummable songs and sympathetic characters, who face down disease and poverty with youthful, if skeptical, exuberance. Featuring a talented young cast with few major stage credits, Circle\u2019s production proves once again that Rent, despite the specificity of its setting \u2014 or maybe because of it \u2014 is a timeless classic.<\/p>\n
The casually precise choreography by Amber Marie Flores keeps the actors swirling around the stage \u2014 and off of it \u2014 matching the layered music that builds to a crescendo over the course of the show.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Inspired by the Puccini opera La boh\u00e8me, written 100 years before Rent, the first act covers just seven days in the lives of eight friends, half of whom are HIV-positive. The second picks up on New Year\u2019s Day, jumps to the spring and then another holiday season, bringing a show that emphasizes the power of living for today full-circle.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It\u2019s the late 1980s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, specifically East 11th Street and Avenue B in Alphabet City. Christmas bells may be ringing, but an encampment of homeless people is about to be kicked out of an empty lot. In an adjacent building, struggling musician Roger (Gideon Ethridge) and budding filmmaker Mark (Ryan Michael Friedman), chronicling it all with his camera, live on the top floor rent-free. Or so they think.<\/p>\n The land is owned by their ex-roommate Benny\u00a0(Vincent Witherspoon), who has married into Connecticut money and shows up to collect. He\u2019s planning to build a cyberstudio on the property.<\/p>\n In the first big number, the title rocker \u201cRent,\u201d they refuse to pay. Benny\u00a0offers them an alternative: get Mark\u2019s ex, Maureen (Lauren Teders), a performance artist, to cancel her show protesting the eviction, and he\u2019ll waive payment. The publicity is bad for business.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Roger, who\u2019s been off heroin for six months, is tempted by Mimi (Maria Shorunke), the exotic dancer next door, who\u2019s not. She asks him to \u201cLight My Candle,\u201d but he\u2019s still stinging from the death of his girlfriend April, who committed suicide when she found out they had contracted HIV.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Recognizing Mimi from the club where she works, Roger remembers, \u201cThey used to tie you up.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a living,\u201d she retorts. Like voicemails from Mark\u2019s concerned mother in Scarsdale, it provides comic relief.<\/p>\n The other characters include their HIV-positive friend Tom Collins (Ralphael Agee), an out-of-work philosophy professor who falls for the drag queen Angel (Landon Blanton) and vice versa; and Maureen\u2019s new squeeze\/producer Joanne (Karrington Sneed). Tom dreams of moving to \u201cSanta Fe\u201d to open a restaurant. Joanne just hopes to make it through Maureen\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n While Rent is a rock musical in the tradition of shows like Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair,\u00a0the genius of Jonathan Larson\u2019s score is how it touches on so many genres, mostly American plus the tango, without losing its sense of being all of a piece. In his director\u2019s notes, Storms calls the show \u201ca cultural reset\u201d that \u201cbroke all of the rules\u201d while still \u201cdeeply honoring the art form.\u201d<\/p>\n The first act ends with the gospel-rocker \u201cLa Vie Boh\u00e8me\u201d and the second opens with \u201cSeasons of Love,\u201d both beautifully and forcefully sung by the entire cast. \u201cSeasons,\u201d with its breakdown of the year into 525,600 minutes, is one of the great ballads in musical theater history.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As Rent raced to its finish on opening night last Saturday, the performance was suspended for 25 minutes while a storm passed through. Though we were in a basement, producers said it was a safety issue. The show resumed at Angel\u2019s funeral, the cast picking up right where they left off, bringing the show to a satisfying conclusion.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even high winds and intense rain couldn\u2019t stop a musical they\u2019ll still be performing 100 years from now.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775016909_917_rawImage.jpg\" "\\"#\\"")
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