Presenting meaningful social issues on stage before a live audience is something New Light Theatre has sought to do from its inception in 2018.
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Photo by Lena Mucchetti
Keeping The Light On New Light Theatre’s adaptation of RENT is set to entertain and educate audiences new and old By Jim Miller
I
n the world of pop culture, sometimes art earns a second life. Take Kate Bush’s title track from her 1985 hit album Hounds of Love, which was fervently rediscovered this year by new, younger audiences after it was featured in the fourth season of Stranger Things. The show’s spotlight on the song propelled the decadesold album to the top of the Alternative charts, resulting in Bush’s first Billboard No. 1 album. That type of pop-culture rediscovery, albeit on a smaller scale, is what the Delawarebased New Light Theatre hopes to generate when it brings the ‘90s rock musical RENT back to the stage in late August. “It’s certainly beloved by people based on a nostalgia factor as well as others who have discovered it later,” says New Light cofounder and Artistic Director Lena Mucchetti. “I think there is a celebration of ‘otherness’ in RENT. If you don’t feel that you fit in with the mainstream in a time when things feel so divided, [then] the idea of celebrating community and finding your family — and celebrating counter-culture like RENT does — really speaks to people if they find it at the right point of their lives.” When RENT first hit the stage in the 1996, it refreshed the concept of the Broadway musical, presenting American audiences with timely and relevant social issues in a dynamic and
provocative way not seen since the hippie, counter-culture rock epic Hair, which debuted in 1967. In addition to the critical acclaim and long-running success it achieved, RENT also broke new ground as the first Broadway rock musical to deal with the topic of AIDS as well as other previously unexplored LGBTQ themes. More than 25 years later, Mucchetti and her New Light Theatre cast and crew believe that reviving RENT offers an opportunity to revisit those themes and view them in a contemporary light — amid a political climate that has presented challenges to the LGBTQ community. ► AUGUST 2022 | OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM 45
