By Karyn D. Collins

It's the season of "Rent" this summer at the Jersey Shore. Two different groups are bringing the groundbreaking rock musical to the area. From July 15-18 and 23-25, Phoenix Productions will perform its version of the show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank. Following that, the New Jersey Youth Theatre brings its version of "Rent" to the Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan for performances July 30-Aug. 1 and Aug. 5-8. The NJYT production actually premieres at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, its co-producer, where it runs July 16-18 and 21-25.

Since it first debuted in 1996, "Rent" has been a cultural phenomenon, changing the look and sound of the theater world. The musical by Jonathan Larson and based on the Puccini opera "La Boheme" follows a group of poor artists and musicians in New York's Alphabet City on the Lower East Side.

The show chronicles the group's struggles to survive while facing numerous challenges, from HIV/AIDS to homelessness, but the shows overarching theme is about celebrating life despite the darkness of reality.

"This is a show that redefined theater and how characters and music all came together," said Tom Frascatore, director of the Phoenix "Rent." "Rent" won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, and garnered four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It closed on Broadway in 2008 but spawned numerous other productions around the world as well as a 2005 feature film version.

While both productions coming to the Jersey Shore fall under the category of community theater in that they feature unpaid performers representing a range of experience levels, in some ways, the two "Rent" productions coming to the Jersey Shore are the same in name only.

The Phoenix production at the Basie features a cast with several professional actors from New York City volunteering their services for the chance to play their dream roles. Many of the leads, who are mostly in their late 20s and early 30s, consider themselves "Rentheads" — the nickname for diehards who saw the show multiple times on Broadway, waiting for hours outside each night to claim coveted $20 seats. Billy Piscopo, who plays Mark in the Phoenix production of "Rent," is typical of that cast: He's a Renthead who boasts he saw the show 15 times.

The professional actor said he jumped at the chance to be in the Phoenix production when he heard about it days after getting home from a (paid) road tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

"I told my agent, "Rent'? No pay? I'm in. It was as simple as that," Piscopo said. "My friends are like, "How can you do this for no money?' but that's just me as an actor. Acting is a muscle. You have to do things so you grow. It's like working out. And, hey, it's "Rent.'

By contrast, the NJ Youth Theatre production coming to the Algonquin features mostly college students in the leads. Only one of the leads interviewed described himself as a Renthead, although all had seen scenes from the show on YouTube or watched the film version. The NJ Youth Theatre production also is unique in that it is a "mixed" edition — a slightly harder-edged version of the student edition of "Rent," which softens some of the language and displays of affection between the homosexual lovers, and eliminates a song.

"It's still "Rent.' The overall message is still the same," said Derrick Hicks, 21, one of several theater students or recent graduates from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick who are in the NJ Youth Theatre production. Other students come from Montclair State University and Howard University in Washington.