By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 30 September, opens 8 October and runs through 27 March 2027

Matarazzo from Netflix’s Stranger Things is cast perfectly as Mark the filmmaker chronicling the lives of bohemian friends in the late 80s/early 90s in New York’s East Village in this classic musical revival.

• Read on for reasons including how brilliant the onstage seating experience is for this production

We saw it on its London debut at Theatre Royal Haymarket in the late 90s and can remember feeling disappointed it wasn’t more gay although there is a both a lesbian and homosexual romance at the heart of this story as well as a more conventional straight 1.

We last saw it in Woking in 2017 in a production starring Lucie Jones and Layton Williams and this 30th anniversary production with a story based on Puccini’s opera La Bohème which sees Matarazzo’s Mark and rock musician Roger battle with their landlord over his eviction plans feels more authentically American.

If you’re not familiar with the musical you might know its biggest number – act 2 opener Seasons Of Love – for its ‘525,600 minutes – how do you measure, measure a year? … How about love?’

It’s a song worthy of Stephen Sondheim whose Into The Woods is in previews just up the road at the Noel Coward Theatre but, sadly, Rent‘s composer Jonathan Larson died died from an undiagnosed aortic dissection after the show’s final dress rehearsal in January 1996 never seeing how acclaimed it would become.

Mark’s friends include songwriter Roger, an extraordinary turn by Travis Ross here, and Collins played by Billy Nevers (Hamilton, Victoria Palace) whose I’ll Cover You is the show’s emotional highlight amidst some strong competition.

We see this show more conventionally from the stalls later in its run but are in the 2nd row of the onstage seating on the right of the stage and because it is raked we have an unencumbered view and get a Donmar-type experience where we feel we are very much part of the action with an extreme close-up view of this talented cast.

What we appreciate with such proximity is how strong the group singing is and villain of the peace, landlord Benny played by Joaquin Pedro Valdes (The Lightning Thief, Other Palace) is in particularly fine voice.

Matarazzo’s Mark is not a conventional protagonist as he doesn’t really feature in any of the show’s main romances but his presence was endearing and intentionally awkward which we enjoyed.

Director Luke Sheppard (Paddington The Musical, Savoy Theatre) could have gone bigger with the use of footage from Mark’s handheld camera but we’re glad he didn’t.

Our view from the onstage seats above. We would recommend seeking this out for a great production of a classic musical which has clearly influenced Lin Manuel-Miranda while reminding how Jonathan Larson could have been the next Sondheim.

• Main pictures by via Facebook courtesy ATG Tickets
• Have you seen RENT The Musical before and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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