Correction Appended

Rent is a bold choice for an amateur theatre organization, and I’ll admit I was skeptical going into the student-run Melodramatics Theatre Company production on campus this December. I approached it in the same way I would a Beatles cover band: It can’t beat the original, but it might be just as good in its own way. Sure enough, by the end of the show — a full three hours later — I found a new respect and appreciation for the message behind the music of Rent without the flashy and expensive elements of a Broadway production.

Rent, Jonathan Larson’s award-winning rock-opera adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, centers on the lives of artists, addicts and AIDS victims in 1990s New York City. The audience enters on Christmas Eve in Alphabet City and follows an unlikely family of young bohemians through the seasons as they grapple with disease, vulnerability, fear and loss and celebrate life, creativity, sexuality and love.

MTC’s December production was the first staging of Rent at Cornell, and all six performances were sold out before the day of show. Director Timothy Dyster’s ’12 adaptation did justice to Larson’s vision. It highlighted the alienation of disease and the joy and transience of life, documenting the explicit, unedited emotions and struggles of the people at heart of the AIDS epidemic. The show was a poignant reminder to live each day to its fullest and “forget regret — or life is yours to miss.”

The cast and crew made the most of the limited performance space in Risley’s black box theatre through creative and suggestive lighting techniques, directing the audience’s attention to particular characters or scenes in the foreground or background of the set. The instrumental use of light and space, often lost or unnoticed in less intimate performance spaces, enhanced and complemented the acting.

The 14 performers, a mix of Cornell and Ithaca College students, were impeccably cast from a pool of more than 140 auditions — a record turnout for MTC.

The standout actor in the show was undoubtedly Ithaca College freshman Xavier Reyes, who played — or, more aptly, became — Angel Dumont Schunard, a high-spirited drag queen with AIDS. In voice, appearance and movement, Reyes almost rivaled Wilson Jermaine Heredia’s Tony award-winning performance in the original cast of Rent.

I.C. freshman Sean Grandillo played a profoundly authentic and endearing Roger Davis. Grandillo’s performance captured the deep internal struggle Roger faces in accepting his mortality, coming to terms with his disease and living life on borrowed time. Grandillo’s portrayal cracked through Roger’s aloof exterior to expose a desperate but passionate man who is coming apart at the seams.

Jeff Tissue ’12 was very believable as Mark Cohen — a struggling independent film documentarian and Roger’s best friend. Ariel Arbisser’s powerhouse vocals engaged the audience in Maureen Johnson’s pivotal protest performance at the 11th Street lot.

The one thing that could have been better was the chemistry between the actors. While they were understandably limited in terms of time and space, the actors seemed to be holding back a little in some of the show’s more intimate scenes. Rent’s message is powerful because it sings the importance of love, friendship and interpersonal connection — abstractions that are, I would imagine, extremely difficult to act.

Ultimately, MTC’s Rent pushed boundaries and limits for its actors and its audience, and sent Cornellians into their final exams with a greater appreciation for life’s hardships and some perspective on what’s important. The take-home message? Seize the day, appreciate love, learn from loss and accept mistakes.

This spring, MTC will stage Spring Awakening — another popular rock musical. Auditions will be held at both Cornell and Ithaca College through Feb. 9. The show will run April 5-14. 

Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Rent was the Melodramatics Theatre Company's first production at Cornell. Rather, The Melodramatics' December production was the first staging of Rent at Cornell.