The ground-breaking musical RENT is coming to the New Wolsey Theatre in July (from the 6th) and with rehearsals fully underway the cast and the production team will be sharing their experiences with Creative Boom readers in their production diary as the show grows and develops.
A Broadway smash hit (the second longest running Broadway show when it closed, second only to The Phantom of the Opera in fact) and a musical theatre phenomenon when it opened in London’s West End, the show is rarely seen locally.
With its cult status the show maps the year in a life of a group of young bohemian friends struggling with poverty and living in the shadow of drug addiction, HIV and AIDS in New York’s lower east side in the late 80s.
As friendships change and develop, the show offers intimate insight to each character and the ebb and flow of their relationships with one another.
With Larson’s astonishing rock score, the show is remarkably tender, uplifting and very witty throughout, perhaps in spite of the sometimes darker undertones of its subject matter. Gallery Players, the company behind the production is also proud to announce that RENT will be supporting the national charity Body & Soul, set up to help HIV+ 16-25 year olds and their families in the UK, a section of the population that is showing a concerning increase in new infections.
When Larson, who sadly died the evening before his show premiered in Broadway, wrote RENT, it was with the intention to attract a younger audience to musical theatre and despite him never witnessing it, the show did just that with hordes of young people, flocking to theatres, mingling with the usual theatre goers to catch this new show.
Now a cult, those audiences and the people they tell, relive the magic.
If you want the rare chance to catch the musical that broke with tradition, tickets are available now by clicking here.
