This reviewer somehow missed--in the Star and the Tribune-- the Twin Cities' reviews. Music columnist Jon Bream noted that Rent's music has been derived from more than six musical groups and trends.

I wasn't familiar with any of the groups or trends Bream mentioned. My familiarity with Broadway musicals, however, is legendary. Much of Broadway's fare, I've always thought, is more than just great, its fun!

Broadway's offerings had cute tunes, some more tuneful than others, and snappy lyrics, some snappier than others.

But they made one happy. And each was, in some way, original. New Yorkers clapped enthusiastically when presented with the liberal "messages" of Lost in the Stars, West Side Story, Porgy and Bess, and Hair.

Then, along came Rent. From out here in Minneapolis, Rent sounded more real, more gritty, more on-the-line than previous musicals. It's set in a neighborhood I knew well: the Lower East Side. This was where Lige and Jack, the editors of GAY lived, where Allen Ginsberg lived, where W. H. Auden lived. It had blacks, Puerto Ricans, the Cubans, the older ethnic groups, the Ukrainians, the Russians. It had the gays, it had the drug cultures, the drug wars, the broken people, the insane people, and--the artists, the poets, the musicians.

I thought it would be New Wine in the Old Bottles.

It was the Old Wine(s)--plural--in the old bottles. Pieces of West Side Story (boy/girl from Opposite Sides, one white, one I thought--black) and a song with the constant recurring word "America" (moving in West Side Story; here a retread).

My special interest was the gay/lesbian elements. After all, I'd been there, worked on the paper GAY, wanted to see how the gay stories worked out.

No problemo.

What?

You heard me, no problem. None.

This is not one of those liberal problem dramas like West Side Story ("stick to your own kind!") where there are racial, sexual, tensions to be overcome.

No. This is "Anything Goes".

There's a group of friends--all roommates. The gay, completely accepted, has now gone off, mated (during run of the play's story) but is a part-time drag queen. The drag queen sometimes comes on in drag, sometimes not. No one notes it, no one reacts.

Where's the Conflict?

I mean, a drama's got to have a conflict, right?

Yup.

Somewhere, offstage, is/are the "enemies". The closest we get to one is Benjamin Coffin III, a former roommate, coming from money to Has Sold Out to the Others, the financial interests (something like those big fat bosses with cigars in the old New Masses.)

But our friends are all united against the Monied Interests, now threatening to take over their Loft and the area.

They fight by--Putting on a Show!--Oh G_d! Shades of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland!

For a while they are successful. The Big Money people are intimidated.

But Mimi, the loveliest is brought low by (a) AIDS and (b) heroin addiction.

It's supposed to be smack but from here energetic dancing--a great number called "Out Tonight"--you would think its cocaine.

There are complications and, as in La Boheme the boy/man lover (name of Roger David, generic Pinktoes who spells trouble for any Black Girl who falls for one) goes into a pet since sometime before she "dated" (word used in the summary) Roger's former roommate, the Black Guy, Benjamin Coffin III, who's gone over to the Forces of Oppression.

Mimi goes off, sleeps in the park, catches her death (after taking a white packet from the evil dealer--the white packet reminding this viewer of the packet of Happy Dust laid on the doorstep of Bess in Porgy & Bess ) is brought back to die in Modern Fashion. Modern? Well, no old-fashioned vision of angels but the new-one-mysticism-fits-all going-towards-the-bright-light. Upon arrival--wherever it is--she sees an Angel who has gone before.

Angel, that homosexual with the dual wardrobe, is given the only other good rhythm/dance number, a solo "Today 4 U". He/she's as mischievous as Little Topsy (didn't she also go to Heaven?) and G_d being good, the sound system the night this viewer saw it--from the 7th row--he was unable to understand the lyrics.

Lyrics (written by Jonathan Larson, who also wrote the book and the music) of the song "Today 4 U" really bad/depressing. It turns out that the heroic transvestite Angel is given $1,000 to induce a dog to jump out a window 26 floors up to his death. He succeeds. No one is shocked at this.

I'm shocked. Repelled.

Only good thing: the characters are so loosely sketched, nothing matters. Over it all, an overwhelming beat-beat-beat metal and vibrato and Latin rhythms fry one's brains like a diathermy machine working over a piece of chicken liver. Very little respited.

Two ballads: "Will I Lose My Dignity?" (one of the men in the AIDS mutual support group who doesn't seems to have taken Mimi's Happy Dust; and "Without You" (best of the ballads but somehow not even this best not having any original words, music that "catches") and "I'll Cover You" (a lament by the more-straight gay man after the death of the transvestite Angel).

Not a single tune or lyric is memorable. Phrases in dialogue are all copied. Angel is quoted as saying "I'm more woman than you'll ever be and more man than you'll ever get" (cute enough but it's in the old film, Carwash). The Lower East Side is referred to as Calcutta (used, many times.)

The Bad Outer World represented by women's voices, the women being the mothers of the guys/girls in the Group and the media networks exploiting them.

In spite of two cute dances ("Today 4 U" and "Out Tonight" the whole thing is so loggy, self-serving--forgot to tell you the echoes of Hair, saying things like "Sodomy" to shock us, now updating it, the frontier advancing with--precious gems--"fuck", "shit" and let us be with it--"motherfucker".

It might be Cutting Edge, but this reviewer had his eyes rolling back in his head.

Credits: Mark Cohen, the token Jew narrator: played by Luther Creek; the straight-looking black-gay dude: C. C. Brown; the black-bourgeois sell-out: James Rich; the transvestite Angel: Stephan Alexander; and as Mimi, the doomed girl: Simone (no last name given! reminds you of Garbo? Right? Right!).

Please note: this play has received the Pulitzer and a host of other prizes.

But to this reviewer it's more hype than hip.