The new 20th Anniversary production of Jonathan Larson’s ground-breaking Pulitzer Prize and multi Tony Award-winning musical RENT comes to the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne from 31st January until 4th February.
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. The show ran on Broadway for 12 years, from 1996, premiered in London’s West End in 1998 at the Shaftesbury Theatre and was adapted into a film in 2005.
RENT tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists living in an East-village squat mid 1990’s in Bohemian New York, struggling to pay the bills, maintain their friendships and some dealing with their HIV diagnosis.
The poignancy of the story was heightened when Jonathan Larson died on 25th January 1996, the night before the show’s first off-Broadway performance at New York Theatre Workshop. He never had the chance to see how his opus would become one of the all-time great musicals, loved by millions all over the world.
The much-loved score features songs such as Seasons of Love, Take Me or Leave Me, What You Own, One Song Glory, La Vie Bohème, Without You, I’ll Cover You, Out Tonight and I Should Tell You.
The 15 strong, triple threat, performers include Lucie Jones (XFactor, Legally Blonde the Musical, Les Misérables) as Maureen Johnson, Javar La’trial Parker (Showboat at the New London Theatre) as Benjamin Coffin III, Billy Cullum as Mark Cohen and Shanay Holmes as Joanne Jefferson.
Ill-fated romances are convincingly enacted by Ryan O’Gorman as homosexual Tom Collins and his flamboyant drag queen partner Angel Schunard, played by Layton Williams (Bad Education, Billy Eilliot the Musical, Hairspray), and Ross Hunter as Roger Davis with the love of his life Mimi Marquez, played by Philippa Stefani.
RENT premiered exactly 100 years after La Bohème was first staged to the world, the parallels between the two are strong but RENT stands alone as a stunning Rock Opera. With heart-wrenching and at times comedic storylines, this powerful and moving production still closes the show with a sense of seize-the-day optimism.
See RENT at the Devonshire Park, Eastbourne from 31st January until 4th February with nightly performances at 7.45pm and Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm (discounted tickets are available for matinee shows). To book tickets, priced from £26, or for more information call the box office on 01323 412000 or go online at www.eastbournetheatres.co.uk.
