Loosely based on Puccini’s opera “La Bohème,” Rent has re-emerged on the summer theatre schedule with its era-defining soundtrack performed by rising new stars with palpable — if sometimes overwhelmin

RentBook, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, directed by Thom Allison, choreography by Marc Kimelman, music direction by Franklin Brasz. An impossible cost of living, gentrification, forced evictions, police brutality, artists struggling below the poverty line and a global pandemic. Jonathan Larson’s pop-rock musical “Rent,” which defined an era when it premiered in 1996, is uncannily resonant in 2023. A big part of what has fuelled a passionate, ongoing “Rent” fandom is the brilliance of Jonathan Larson’s score. In Thom Allison’s jacked-up Stratford production, the volume is loud and the pace is driving, at times relentless.