Robert Mackintosh and Idili Theatricals Limited, in association with Theatr Clwyd and Wales Millennium Centre, will present the 20th Anniversary production of Jonathan Larson’s award-winning musical Rent.
Jonathan Larson’s musical, inspired by Puccini’s opera La Bohème, won four Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1996. Ben Brantley’s New York Times review was a love letter to the show, calling RENT an “exhilarating, landmark rock opera”. RENT ran on Broadway for 12 years, from 1996 to 2008. The show premiered in London’s West End in 1998 at the Shaftesbury Theatre, where it ran for 18 months. It was adapted into a film in 2005.
Larson’s world is inhabited by a group of bohemian artists who struggle to maintain their friendships and their non-conformist ideals in New York’s East Village. Facing their problems head on, they make personal self-discoveries and find what really matters most in life. The poignancy of the story was heightened when Jonathan Larson died of an aortic dissection on 25 January 1996, the night before the show’s first off-Broadway performance at New York Theatre Workshop.
The much-loved score features songs such as Seasons of Love, Take Me or Leave Me, One Song Glory, La Vie Bohème, Without You, I’ll Cover You, Out Tonight, I Should Tell You and the title song.
Ross Hunter (We Will Rock You, Legally Blonde, The Book of Mormon) will play Roger Davis, Billy Cullum (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) will play Mark Cohen, Ryan O’Gorman (Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot) will play Tom Collins, Shanay Holmes (The Bodyguard, Close to You) will play Joanne Jefferson, Layton Williams (Billy in Billy Elliot and original Young Michael Jackson in Thriller Live) will play Angel Schunard, Philippa Stefani (In The Heights, I Can’t Sing!, Ghost the Musical) will play Mimi Marquez and Lucie Jones (The X Factor finalist whose theatre credits include Elle Jones in Legally Bllonde, Victoria in the world premiere of American Psycho at London’s Almeida Theatre) will play Maureen Johnson. The cast will also include Kevin Yates, Jordan Laviniere, Christina Modestou, Bobbie Little, Jenny O’Leary and Katie Bradley. Casting for the role of Benjamin Coffin III will be announced shortly.
RENT UK TOUR
The Rent UK Tour has now concluded.
21 October – 12 November 2016
Theatr Clwyd
Mold
15 – 19 November 2016
His Majesty’s Theatre
Aberdeen
22 -26 November 2016
Malvern Festival Theatre
Malvern
29 November – 3 December 2016
Wycombe Swan
High Wycombe
8 December 2016 – 28 January 2017
St James Theatre
London
31 January – 4 February 2017
Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne
6 – 11 February 2017
Churchill Theatre, Bromley
14 – 18 February 2017
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
28 February – 4 March 2017
Liverpool Empire Theatre
7 – 11 March 2017
New Victoria Theatre Woking
28 March – 1 April 2017
Curve Leicester
3 – 8 April 2017
Wales Millennium Centre
11 – 15 April 2017
Cheltenham Everyman Theatre
18 – 22 April 2017
York Theatre Royal
1 – 6 May 2017
Poole’s Centre For The Arts
The Lighthouse
9 – 13 May 2017
Belgrade Theatre Coventry
16 – 20 May 2017
Nottingham Playhouse
23 – 27 May 2017
Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells
30 May – 4 June 2017
Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
