How do you measure a revival? The song gives one answer, a year in the life measured in love. This production measures in minutes and moves through them at a pace that leaves little room to breathe.
Rent is Jonathan Larson‘s La Bohème moved to the East Village, artists priced out of their own lives while AIDS takes their friends one by one. Everyone will tell you that, so I will leave it there. What marked the show more was Larson‘s death just before it opened off-Broadway, which turned a musical into a testament. Anyone reviving it inherits that weight, and the first duty is to honour it.
This was my first visit to the Tom Stoppard Theatre since the renaming of the old Duke of York’s, and it felt right. A show about how people live together, and what society does to them, belongs under the name of a playwright who spent a career putting ideas about society on stage. The opening was less sure-footed, though, and two choices felt odd. The show begins with the stage manager’s call for the actors to take their places, a moment usually kept away from the audience, so we did not realise it had started until Gaten Matarazzo, as Mark, walked on and started to speak. And the extra seats on the stage, filled with fans lip-syncing to the songs, took some of the magic away. The band is superb, but with live drums and guitar on stage the instrumentals at times overpowered the voices.
Luke Sheppard, who gave us Paddington, & Juliet and the revival of Starlight Express, knows how to move a crowd, and here he moves it fast. He transports us to 1980s New York with David Woodhead‘s almost minimalistic set, an empty warehouse, while Gabriella Slade‘s costumes carry the grit of the marginalised. The stroke of genius is the screens over the stage that broadcast live what Matarazzo‘s Mark is filming, as if we were seeing through his eyes. It feels clever and tasteful, since he is the insider who leads us into this story. The pace is the problem. It felt rushed, and an audience needs space to breathe for the story to reach it. The clearest casualty is Will I?, in the support group scene at the centre of the show, where the characters ask whether they will lose their dignity because they are HIV positive. Here the answer is yes: the moment arrives and leaves like an afterthought. Later, when the show returns to the crisis for Angel’s death, played by Jeevan Braich, we are lifted into what looks like a 90s Berlin nightclub. It is beautifully poetic, and it does not land as it should. It disconnects from the piece.
Billy Nevers as Collins saves the scene. His pain was real, he truly felt the loss of Angel, and he held us captive with every note. Travis Ross is an emotionally available and strong Roger. Some of the central pairings did not find the chemistry the score depends on. In a show with eight leads it is hard to tell who shines most. Nevers and Ross stood above the rest, and Mimi (Alexa Lopez), Maureen (Lazy Violet), Joanne (Danielle Fiamanya) and Benny (Joaquin Pedro Valdes) did a good job. Leah Vassell, from the ensemble, takes Seasons of Love, and her solo was so outstanding that every note reached the full auditorium. A thunderous clap came immediately after, a reward earned. Another memorable moment is the tango from Matarazzo and Fiamanya. Their duet captivated, and they moved beautifully.
What deserves to be said loudly is the diversity. It is wonderful to see a West End company that sings, dances and looks like the city it plays to, and the audience matched it. I go to the West End often and usually find a mature crowd, but here were all ages and backgrounds in one room. Representation matters, on the stage and in the seats.
How do you revive a hit classic? You pay homage and respect, and this production does, for the songs. It keeps the AIDS crisis at arm’s length, though, and that is the heart it needed to carry. A year in the life is not measured in how fast it goes. A feel-good night, and one that deserves to bring new faces into the theatre.
NEED TO KNOW: Rent the Musical is at the Tom Stoppard Theatre until 27 May 2027
