Broadway classic hits the stage

Every actor has a role they fantasize about playing.

St. Albert actress Lexy Strumecki, 24, remembers an adolescent sleepover at a friend’s house singing and videotaping tunes from the legendary rock opera Rent.

“It was 2 a.m. in the morning and her mother came down to tell us to keep it down. And I'm sure the notes weren't as good as they could have sounded. We were giggling throughout,” laughs Strumecki.

From June 18 to 26, the 2004 Bellerose graduate is stoked to be living the dream in Two One-Way Tickets to Broadway Productions' highly charged Rent composed by Jonathan Larson.

Running at La Cité Francophone, this Pulitzer-prize winning show takes us to New York's Lower East Side in the slums once known as Alphabet City. Living in this 1980s bohemian ghetto, destitute artists, musicians and performers struggle to create and simply survive surrounded by the spectre of addiction, AIDS, homophobia and homelessness.

Larson plucked some of society's most vulnerable and hardest hit members and put them under the spotlight — Mimi, an exotic dancer; Roger, an HIV positive songwriter; Maureen, a bisexual performance artist and Angel, a drag queen percussionist.

It had a 12-year run with 5,124 performances, the eighth longest running show on Broadway. Director Martin Galba speculates the success was all encompassing.

“Jonathan's vision was to reinvent musical theatre and he succeeded by combining all the different styles of rock, pop and even Puccini's La Boheme. This is a musical that speaks to our generation of the eighties and nineties. It was like Hair from the sixties. It spoke to current issues. Rent is full of the stuff we don't want to deal with and it's great to see a musical like that.”

Strumecki is part of the ensemble, however during auditions, the singer earned the right to sing a big belt solo. Seasons of Love, often considered the show's anthem, makes use of her extensive range and control.

“It's one of the most iconic songs. It's about how you measure life, the worth of your life. You measure life through love. You live life each day and you don't miss out on opportunities presented each day.”

While Rent promotes the idea of acceptance and living life every moment, one character, Gordon, played by St. Albert actor Corey Rogers, has a tough time dealing with his new-found AIDS reality. In No Day But Today, Gordon questions his existence and finds it wanting.

Also from St. Albert is Doran Werner taking on the roles of a disapproving father and a homeless man. And hometown drummer Jesse Orjasaeter is part of the live band.

To give more exposure to local performers, Galba has double cast the show. In the past 20 years, society has softened its views on gay lifestyles. However, he sees room for improvement.

“We've come quite a ways. But I truly believe we haven't gone far enough. I hope that people who come will be inspired to see things in a new way.”