Review: Rent, Bridewell Theatre

Geoids Musical Theatre’s production of Rent, written by Jonathan Larson and first performed in 1996, is a beautiful demonstration of incredibly talented principal performers coming together with an exceptional ensemble plus innovative staging and choreography to tell an important, poignant story.

Rent follows a group of creative friends living in New York over the course of 525,600 minutes, or a year, from Christmas Eve 1990. It depicts their friendship and relationships, their struggle and the community they find whilst living through the AIDs epidemic, and their battle with gentrification and poverty. It is a show about living each day as it comes and relying on those around you when things get hard.

Mark Cohen, played by Rob Kelly, narrates with great energy and humour. He fantastically portrays Mark’s desire for connection and community and is particularly engaging during ‘Tango Maureen’, alongside Ahilya Murkunde playing Joanne, as they both bring comedy and intensity to the scene. Murkundegives a brilliant performance as the rebellious, clever lawyer, using incredible acting choices throughout to show the nuances in Joanne’s character. She displays phenomenal vocals, particularly during ‘Take Me or Leave Me’, a powerful duet filled with energy and passion, performed alongside Nurin Abdul Aziz as Maureen. Abdul Aziz’s powerhouse vocals fill the space and match Murkunde’s superbly, making this number a true highlight. Her performance as Maureen also shows a brilliant stage presence and engagement with the audience throughout ‘Over the Moon’ which is a hilarious scene that she makes both incredibly funny and exciting.

Ashton Charge plays Roger, the isolated guitarist who struggles to communicate his feelings. Charge brilliantly demonstrates the brooding depth of the character and perfectly captures his struggle with love and fear, particularly throughout his beautiful duets alongside Eleanor Rattenbury, playing Mimi. Rattenburyand Charge’svocals are stunningly showcased in ‘I Should Tell You’ and ‘Will You Light My Candle’, and Rattenbury demonstrates the powerful, energetic side of Mimi during ‘Out Tonight’.

Ethea Jasmine Lee, portraying Angel, has excellent stage presence with tremendous dancing and exciting choreography, but it is ‘I’ll Cover You’, a duet with Shylo Malone, playing Collins, that really shows the gorgeous vocals, creating a heartfelt, emotional moment. Malone’sstunning bass vocals are clear throughout and they have great chemistry with Angel both in song and scenes. Their rendition of ‘I’ll Cover You (Reprise)’ is a beautiful, heart wrenching performance that leaves much of the audience welling up in tears.

James Warner as Benny completes the principal cast with strong vocals and convincing villainous energy. His ambition is performed brilliantly and Warner has engaging interactions with each of the other principals through his songs and dialogue.

This production has an incredible display of dance talent from the featured dancers, with some exciting and complex choreography. ‘Tango Maureen’ and ‘Today 4 U’ are particular highlights. There is also an incredibly strong ensemble, with clear acting narratives throughout, strong harmonies and stand out solo moments. ‘No Other Day’ and ‘La Vie Boheme’ are especially engaging, both with very different styles of music and performance: the first demonstrating the soft, emotion of the show and the latter the comedic, high energy ensemble scenes.

Sound had a few difficulties, which is understandable for opening night and these will no doubt be refined throughout the run. Geoids provide really strong costume design and great use of set, with scaffolding creating a central platform, moveable to either side of the stage when required. The ensemble also do a great job of successfully completing the set changes.

Geoids’ production of Rent is a heartfelt, energetic, creative show underpinned by a fantastic company of incredible performers.

Produced by Geoids Musical Theatre
Directed by Luke Renwick 
Assistant Director: Ru Cadell
Musically Director: Amy Foden-Lloyd
Choreography by Emily Canessa Davies
Technical Producer: Giles Burden
Production Manager: Rebecca Lillie, Lydia James and Anna Trofimova

Rent plays at the Bridewell Theatre until Saturday 15 November.