A group of impoverished young artists struggles to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan’s East Village in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

A technically impressive production that feels significantly weaker than the sum of its parts for its lack of grit. It’s a polished group of young performers: recent leads from Starlight Express, Brigadoon, Masquerade, and Jesus Christ Superstar, plus Netflix’s Gaten Matarazzo. Director Luke Sheppard (&Juliet, Paddington, Starlight Express) has them synchronized in vigorous commercial choreography for the whole runtime in an in-the-round concert staging. Should this look like a music video? It’s well-executed, well-performed, but the vision yanked me right out of the material. Why’re you reminding me that I’m sharing this experience with a bunch of jittery 20-somethings in the stage seats, bearing witness to a time and place and a crisis they can’t remember? They’re not wrong to be here - it’s no different for me at 32 - but this is a period piece now, and the seating plan breaks the much-needed immersion. I got a stronger impression of musical theater kids afflicted by Rent than East Village bohemians with AIDS.