Review: Bay Street Players Deliver a Moving Production of Rent

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This production runs through September 27

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How do you measure a year in the life? This is the question that runs throughout the musical Rent. I had the opportunity to see Bay Street Players opening night production. This was my third visit to Bay Street and I always enjoy going there. The theater itself is in downtown Eustis in the historic State Theater of Eustis. I also saw it on 9/11 and this was the perfect day to see a show about acceptance, love and the importance of community.

If you are not familiar with this show, Rent is the 1996 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical with book, music and lyrics by the gone too soon Jonathan Larson . At this point, it’s technically considered a period piece set in the mid-1990’s amid the height of the AIDS crisis. Based on the Puccini opera, La Boheme, it follows an ensemble cast of impoverished artists struggling to survive in the East Village. Rent was also one of the first shows to do rush tickets (deeply discounted tickets), making theater more accessible to a broader audience and thus allowing other shows to do this.

While Rent is celebrating its 30th anniversary, I hadn’t seen a production of it until 2018 and it was the 20th anniversary tour. (It was more like going on 23 years). I am pretty familiar with the movie and I saw the live one on TV a few years ago. I also helped out with the school edition through a youth theater company several summers ago. I didn’t care for the 20th anniversary tour. The actor who played Mimi had no hair and while things like this are typically not important, there are multiple references to her “hair in the moonlight”. I am often very literal when it comes to lyrics and the symbolism behind some of them so this did not sit well with me as a directorial choice. That being said, I think I enjoyed Bay Street Player’s production more than the 20th anniversary tour.

Traditionally this show has a small cast: 8 principal cast members and about 7 ensemble cast members who play multiple roles throughout the show. Bay Street’s production had close to 30 cast members, but they were all used purposefully. The principal cast members were as follows: Nick Allison ( Mark Cohen ), Noah Clark ( Roger Davis ), Victoria Rivera (Mimi Marquez), Eduardo A. Rivera (Tom Collins), Jesse Martinez (Angel Dumott Schunard), Ray Wiik (Maureen Johnson), Anna Cooper (Joanne Jefferson) and Phillip Hargrove (Benjamin “Benny” Coffin III). Everyone in the cast was great and they all worked well together which is one of the key essentials to the success of a show like Rent. Of course, many of the cast successes can also be attributed to their director, Heather Hawthorne. One of the reasons I love going to see shows at Bay Street, aside from the small town aesthetic is how talented everyone is. You would not expect something like this to come out of a tiny theater in the middle of Lake County Florida but I always walk out of their shows with a heightened sense of pride as a Lake County Resident.

It was this production's opening night and, if you know anything about theater, you know that anything that can go wrong probably will. (At least that's been my experience.) The show was by no means perfect, but many of the minor mishaps were likely unnoticed by much of the audience. I see a lot of theater, and as a director myself, I tend to notice things others might miss.

For example, there is a moment when Mimi is supposed to retrieve a bag of drugs from Roger's back pocket. Victoria Rivera made a valiant effort, but the prop seemed determined to stay put. Rather than panicking, she stayed in character and improvised her way through the moment. Later, during the finale, many productions reveal footage from Mark's year-long documentary project. Bay Street utilized a projection screen built into their multi-level set. Mark climbed up to untie it as part of the action, but the screen refused to fully cooperate. He eventually had to move on so he could hit his next mark, and another cast member discreetly solved the problem moments later.

Far from detracting from the performance, these moments reminded me why I love live theater. Unlike film, theater is wonderfully imperfect. It requires quick thinking, teamwork, and trust. As a director, I often tell my students that I do not expect all of them to become Broadway stars or Tony Award winners. What I do hope they gain are life skills: adaptability, resilience, collaboration, and the ability to keep moving forward when things don't go according to plan. In those small moments of recovery, this cast embodied exactly that.

I often bring a plus-one when I attend productions. When my husband isn't available, my first choice is usually a friend and former colleague. We've directed shows together in the past, and she still helps with my productions whenever she can. For this performance, she brought along a friend whose favorite musical is Rent . Despite loving the show for years, she had never seen it performed live and was absolutely thrilled by the experience.

I've said it before, and I'll continue to die on this hill: this is what theater is all about. Community. Shared experiences. Human connection.

Several performers in this cast are people I have shared the stage with in the past, while others are actors I've seen in productions throughout Central Florida over the last year. One of my favorite parts of attending local theater is reconnecting with familiar faces and meeting new people who are just as passionate about the arts. Bay Street also held a costume sale and sold handmade merchandise as a fundraising effort, including Bessie's cow ears from "Over the Moon" and handmade Rent bracelets. As someone who is both a jewelry enthusiast and a firm believer in supporting artistic endeavors, of course I left with one.

As Rent asks from its opening moments, "How do you measure a year in the life?" The answer, according to Jonathan Larson , is in love. Bay Street Players' production embraces that message wholeheartedly. Through its talented cast, ambitious staging, and the spirit of community that fills both the stage and the audience, this production serves as a reminder that theater is about more than entertainment. It's about connection. It's about finding your people. And perhaps now more than ever, it's about remembering that there is "no day but today."

Whether you're a longtime fan of Rent or experiencing it for the first time, Bay Street Players delivers a heartfelt production that celebrates the show's enduring message of acceptance, compassion, and chosen family. Thirty years later, that message remains just as powerful as ever.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/orlando/article/Review-RENT-at-Bay-Street-Players-20260918)._