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Bare: The Musical has been heralded as the heir to Rent since its first production in 2004, and Know Theatre is staging its regional premiere. Like Rent, this musical is about young people struggling on the brink of adulthood, about to graduate from a Catholic boarding school.
Star athlete Jason (Cody Williams) and introverted brain Peter (Tim Hein) are roommates involved in a clandestine gay relationship. Peter yearns for openness; Jason fears repercussions. The religious environment and peer pressure complicate their situation.
Jason’s overweight loner sister Nadia (Amanda Wilson, whose school uniform costume fails to hide that she isn’t overweight) resents her roommate Ivy (Ann Marie Carroll), a pretty flirt who seeks Jason’s attentions. Drugs and casual sex are commonplace. You get the picture.
A high-school production of Romeo and Juliet underscores the love relationships, an obvious device that telescopes Bare‘s tragic outcome. But this production of the Rent-styled through-sung musical is most troubled by poor sound management, especially when the cast sings with choral ferocity that lacks diction. They do so with fervor and apparent understanding, but the words are tough to grasp.
Professional actress Pam Myers, as Peter’s in-denial mother, delivers a heartfelt solo number, “Warning,” after Peter tries to reveal his sexual preference, but her role is more cameo than essential. Piper Davis plays a comically incongruous Soul-singer nun, Sister Chantelle, and I suspect the R&B parody “911! Emergency” is a lot of fun when the words can be understood.
A few softer solos are rendered with feeling — Ivy’s “Portrait of a Girl” and Nadia’s “Spring” — but not often enough to engage the audience in the characters or their emotions, let alone to clarify or enliven a story line that is both complicated and mundane.
Bare runs for several weeks. I hope it starts to sound better so audiences can decide if they really like what’s onstage.
BARE: THE MUSICAL, presented by Know Theatre of Cincinnati, continues through May 4. Buy tickets, check out performance times and find nearby bars and restaurants here.
This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.
