What does progress look like? I guess maybe this: an Asian (AJ Rafael) can believably play a role that would have felt deeply white not all that long ago: a kid from White Plains who fell in love with musical theater in high school and wants to make a career of it in New York, but who lacks that crucial artistic ingredient of, you know, having something to say. His big complaint is that he doesn’t have anything to really complain about — except the fact that he’s almost 30, and might have to follow in his black best friend’s (Leo Ebanks) footsteps and…get a job. Or worse, follow in his super-supportive ballet-dancer girlfriend’s (Emma Nossal) footsteps and…leave New York City. Such is the plight of playwright Jonathan Larson’s alter ego Jon in this look at the early career of the guy who eventually wrote RENT before dying tragically at 36. It’s the juvenilia of an artist who died just as he was getting started, which surely lent it regard it would not otherwise have garnered. The struggle is superficial, the relationships are slight, the drama is…not dramatic. Are we really supposed to fret along with a guy whose dream is to see his play produced, but also to drive a Beemer? But even a bauble about a guy in a bubble can be fun, and the cast puts its charisma to work on the show’s behalf to good effect. Some of the lyrics get lost in the mix, but you get the feeling that’s not their fault.