Brilliant ‘Rent’ takes stage at Keegan’s Church Street Theatre

As if in answer to snow and chilly temperatures, Keegan Theatre has opened a sizzling production of “Rent,” Jonathan Larson’s rock opera set in the world of New York City’s East Village in the 1990s.

The choice of time and place gave Larson his palette of concerns, especially the effect that living with poverty and AIDS has on a circle of friends and lovers. In the Keegan Theatre production, directors Mark Rhea and Susan Rhea bring into brilliant focus Larson’s message about the nature of that circle.

Loosely based on Puccini’s opera “La Boheme,” “Rent” centers on two love stories, one of which — between Roger (Juan Carlos Sanchez) and Mimi (Emily Levey) — is reminiscent of Puccini’s relationship between Rodolfo and Mimi. Roger is a musician. His friend Mark (John Loughney), the musical’s narrator, documents with a video camera what’s happening in their world.

All the voices in this production are remarkable, which is an essential element of the show’s success, because its main focus is not individuals, but the fellowship that exists among these passionate young men and women.

In addition to Loughney, Sanchez and Levey, Parker Drown and Michael Robinson are extraordinary as the partners Angel and Collins, respectively. The battling lovers JoAnne (Katie McManus) and Maureen (Weslie Woodley) are honestly drawn and hilarious, together and apart.

Choreographer Kurt Boehm has done well focusing a tremendous amount of activity on a medium-sized stage, where George Lucas’ set — a metal grid with stairs and ladders — allows for two playing levels.

If spandex didn’t exist, costume designers Kelly Peacock and Shadia Hafiz might have invented it because it’s a staple of the bright tights they use, along with the extensive variety of mini-skirts, boots and wild collisions of fabrics and colors dazzling the stage.

In one of the musical’s best numbers, “La Vie Boheme,” the ensemble sings of its desire to be “an ‘us’ instead of a ‘them.’ ” This production creates a vivid impression of a community determined to own, instead of rent, its world, and to be respected citizens of that world, not a marginalized minority.