Rent continues at the Two Brewers, London until 30 January.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Twenty years after its Broadway debut, Jonathan Larson’s Rent makes a welcome return to London courtesy of Two Box Productions, who present the cult hit in a venue not unlike the kind of East Village clubs it depicts. Fans of the show will feel at home beside the nightclub-theatre thrust stage – a catwalk along which the youthful cast darts and dances with fervour, head-banging and belting ballads in a heady mix of grungy rock‘n’pop, cheap alcohol, anti-authority and the avant-garde.
The story begins with a pair of struggling artists, Mark Cohen, a filmmaker played here by the likeable Craig Nash, and his musician roommate Roger Davis, given an authentic rock voice from Joshua Newman. It’s Christmas Eve and far from enjoying the festivities, their attention is on more basic necessities like food, shelter, and warmth.
Rather than move back in with their parents – which would make a pretty dull musical – they stake out their claim to an expansive (though chilly) lower-Manhattan apartment. Benny, their landlord and college friend (a charmingly mean, but later amicable Huw Cook) wants their help stopping the protest against redevelopment planned by Mark’s ex, Maureen Johnson, a character supplied powerful vocals and great comedy by Simone Cornelius.
Meanwhile, Maureen’s new girlfriend Joanne (the humorously uptight Sara Lynam) wrestles with finding the relevant tools from her Harvard education to fix some broken microphones and Maureen’s ‘Bohemian’ fidelity. Tom Collins, played tenderly and with a deliciously smooth voice by Derek Aidoo, is a philosophy teacher and another college friend of the artist protagonists, who gets mugged on the way to their flat. That altercation leads him to meet his ‘Angel’ Dumott Schunard, a drag queen played by Stirling Worthy, who patches him up, instantly forming a strong, enduring couple that naturally doesn’t last the entire show. Finishing off the eight-strong principal cast is Mimi Marquez played by Phoebe Rose White, with great versatility as both singer and dancer.
Overall, this vibrant young production is pretty rough around the edges while still getting across the crux of the Rent experience. The space – and that strutting catwalk – is a little awkward for staging a musical; all too often, action is happening behind the audience. And I spent the night fearing that some of the taller actors would brain themselves on a projector suspended from the lighting rig. (A projector, I may add, that was barely used and therefore not worth the risk!)
Besides the staging challenges, the sound levels also pose issues throughout, mostly rendering the dialogue and some of the songs hard to follow. However, musical director Dan Turek does well to get such a full sound from his modest band of five. Interestingly, the last time I reviewed here – Two Box’s Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens – the sound system was the main failing then too, so it’s clearly a problem that’s not been addressed.
Despite the varsity scrappiness, the cast and creative team are fully capable of doing the more poignant moments justice. After all, one of the main themes is the AIDS epidemic, and it’s the parts dealing with this and the characters’ various searches for meaningful relationships, rather than the tenuous complaints about housing markets, where the performers seem most authentic and vulnerable. Director/choreographer Rachael Blaney and creative producer Lawrence Bolton have done well to put together a scaled-down production of Rent that keeps its audience engaged and energised, despite its imperfections.
Craig Glenday
Readers may also be interested in:
Seasons of Larson – Lyric Theatre – Review
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