Theatre Tulsa: RENT
Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Liddy Doenges Theatre
November 15, 2025
I’ve always liked RENT, the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical written by Jonathan Larson. But I’m a late ‘90s baby and the anxieties of the AIDS epidemic were before my time, so I never felt like I understood it. I last watched the filmed version of the musical nearly 10 years ago, and since then, the world has gone through another pandemic. Walking into the Liddy Doenges Theatre on a Saturday afternoon, I foolishly wasn’t expecting a resurrection of phantom anxieties around contagion, the health of myself and my loved ones, and the general future. In Theatre Tulsa’s production, which had a sold-out run at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center last weekend, I felt like I was watching the musical for the first time.
RENT follows a group of artists who live in Manhattan's East Village at the height of the AIDS epidemic. They struggle to make ends meet while witnessing their world change with increasing homelessness, technological advances that threaten their craft, and a then-fatal disease that affects about half of the group (sound familiar?). Larson loosely based the musical on his own experience as a struggling artist in New York City, as well as on Puccini’s La Boheme, an opera that follows a friend group of poor artists who live in Paris in the 1830s.
RENT is very angsty, a mood amplified by its rock-opera style. Theatre Tulsa’s production design doubled down on this aesthetic. A black-painted, two-story set resembled a fire escape. The ensemble moved two large tables into several configurations throughout the show to make a door, a stage, and a long table (and runway) for one of the more well-known songs, “La Vie Boheme.” For most of the production, lighting designer Chris Porcelli kept the stage quite dark, especially in the scenes where Roger and Mark’s apartment loses power. During the songs, he found spots for fun effects to boost the feeling: roving spotlights during “Rent,” an electrical pole lit to look like a Christmas tree during act one, and a beautiful rainbow spectrum for the song “Seasons of Love.” Add a live, five-piece band on stage and it was impossible to escape from these characters’ big emotions.
Those emotions can make the musical a bit overdramatic, but directors Christy Stalcup and Joshua Terrones made it resonate by expertly casting some of Tulsa’s top talent. Leah Rose and Alexandria Moore were vocal powerhouses as the hot-and-cold sapphic couple Maureen and Joanna. Rose both demanded and earned my attention in Maureen’s big protest song “Over the Moon,” while Moore delivered riffs beautifully and effortlessly throughout the show, making her a highlight both as a soloist and a backing vocalist.
Newcomer Eva Harris exploded with energy as Mimi, an erotic dancer with a bad drug habit, in “Out Tonight,” but she fully came alive in act two during “Without You.” And Sebastian Paden held the group together with ease as everyone’s favorite seventh wheel, Mark. His character never pushes for recognition, but Paden made sure you saw him when you were supposed to. His scenes alongside Teague Applegate, a Tulsa Ballet company member making his musical theatre debut as Roger, were especially compelling. Their harmonies and chemistry resonated in the titular song and made me look forward to their future scenes together.
“God, real,” was all I could think as I watched Applegate sing Roger’s opening solo, “One Song Glory,” which delves into the character’s headspace after he learns he has AIDS. Applegate’s voice was laced with depressed desperation as he explored Roger’s desire to leave a legacy. Not knowing when the disease would take him added another tragic layer. In some renditions of this iconic song, the lyrics can come across as arrogant, but Applegate’s Roger felt grounded, disappointed with his past actions but earnestly resolved (if not sure how) to be better, and all too cognizant of time’s infinite ticking.
Despite the drama, there was a lot of joy on stage, largely due to the musical’s most wholesome couple, Angel (Ben Rodriguez) and Tom Collins (Themba Ndhlovu). Rodriguez’s performance was gentle and elegant, whether he was handing a rose to a member of the AIDS support group or tearing it up in stilettos during “Today For You.” Charisma king Ndhlovu paired sexy bass-baritone vocals with effortless dancing and movement on and around the set; it was impossible to hold back a smile watching him perform. His smooth exuberance made his grief during Angel’s funeral (“I’ll Cover You Reprise,” with exceptional backing vocals from Moore) all the more devastating.
The backbone of the musical was an excellent ensemble, each member of which radiated in their featured moments. Mallory Lindsey shapeshifted between various ensemble roles, while Jennifer Lynn peppered subtle gags into her performance that delighted the audience, and Scott Radford’s solo at the start of “Will I” gave me chills.
Many moments stood out, in large part due to each cast member’s ability to own the stage when they needed to, but also because they could stand aside and support when it was another person’s time to shine. The production placed community and camaraderie at the forefront, which couldn’t be truer to Larson’s message in this piece. How do we get through times of crisis? How do we navigate toward a terrifyingly uncertain future? As both directors mentioned in their biographies: “The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.”
