Tip for theater goers: avoid seeing a traveling musical during the middle of the week, especially at the end of the show’s run. What you’ll get are a few effortless actors disrespecting their characters, themselves and the audience.

With that said, I wish I wasn’t referring to Jonathan Larson’s theatrical masterpiece “Rent,” which is an ultra-important story of friendship, suffering, life and death that will never lose its symbolic importance for American society – except when it is not taken seriously by those actors involved in its performance.

In its sixth presentation at the Ordway Center in St. Paul, the show, which ended April 18, is now Broadway’s tenth longest running show to date. And because of that popularity and its massive following, one would think that being apart of this musical’s cast would be an unimaginable honor, and one to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for some of the actors.

But for an overview first: “Rent” is a modern day take on Puccini’s opera “La Bohéme,” which is a celebration of life, love and beauty. “Rent” takes on the human condition in present-day New York City, when a group of friends are faced with such social issues as drug addiction, AIDS and homelessness.

Plagued by the inescapable reality that they must pay rent, even during tough times, the characters undergo life changing obstacles that disrupt their future plans, their friendships and their lives.

At the center of the musical is Roger Davis (Constantine Maroulis), an ex-band front man “whose girlfriend April left a note saying we’ve got AIDS, before slitting her wrists in the bathroom.” Roger is depressed and on the edge of following April’s lead until he finds someone named Mimi (Jamie Lee Kirchner) to light his candle. Mimi opens his heart and shows him that there will be another day as long as they believe in themselves and each other.

With such an important task of acting out Roger’s reaffirmation that life is not a hopeless train wreck, Maroulis is not very convincing. In fact, his lazy and expressionless performance made Roger seem as important as a stage prop.

Unlike some of the other cast members who put their own lives on hold to transform into their character’s identities, Maroulis moped around robotically, uttering a few helpless whispers that could never have reached every ear in the audience. Maybe because it was Wednesday, but Maroulis seemed to forget the reason he was cast as Roger.

On the same note, Mark Cohen (Brian Gligor), an artistic loner who documents his friends’ lives with a video camera for the year-long duration of the musical, is also underrepresented by the actor. Gligor put an ounce more effort into his portrayal of Mark than Maroulis’s rendition of Roger, but the first twenty minutes of the show have escaped my mind because Mark was nonexistent. Luckily for the supporting cast and the audience, Gligor soon came out of his shell and blossomed into the role that Jonathan Larson originally drew up.

Despite these shortcomings, the performances of Tom Collins (Marcus Paul James), Angel Schunard (Damien DeShaun Smith) and Mimi (Kirchner) were very impressive. This being my fourth time seeing “Rent,” I had never seen actors in these roles respecting their characters as much as these three actors did in this performance. James’s deep, bluesy-bass voice trembled with pain in the song “I’ll Cover You,” causing the audience to gasp with amazement, while goosebumps covered their bodies. Angel’s ascension into heaven during the song “Contact” was backed by a mystifying light show that ended with Smith delicately shuddering out “take me, take me.” And Kirchner’s sexy tightrope act during “Out Tonight” mixed acrobatic high kicks with pole climbs and menacing howls, transforming Mimi into a prowling cat on the loose.

“Rent” is a magical experience that every young adult should be forced to see at least once in their life. Regardless of the acting critiques in this performance, “Rent” will always capture the reality of poverty, disease and suffering that occurs in the United States each day. The bottom line is no matter how terrible life may seem, “Rent” proves that friendship, trust and love are the true bonds uniting people together.