Gaten Matarazzo to star in RENT revival, with West End venue and dates announced

With a book, music, and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, Rent follows a group of impoverished young bohemians living in Manhattan's East Village, navigating love and loss, trying to make it as artists while grappling with the realities of poverty, and living with the invisible, inevitable threat of HIV/AIDS.

This new production will play at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. It is directed by WhatsOnStage and Olivier Award winner Luke Sheppard, who previously staged a revival of Rent at the Hope Mill Theatre in 2020 and 2021, which forms the inspiration behind this 2026 revival, according to the producers, who praised it as "immediate, emotional and utterly alive."

Gaten Matarazzo, best known for playing Dustin Henderson on Netflix's Stranger Things and due to star in the new film adaptation of Dave Alloy's musical Octet, will make his West End debut as Mark Cohen, a struggling film-maker the central narrator of Rent. The role was originated by Anthony Rapp in the Broadway production in 1996. Matarazzo is the second Stranger Things star to make a West End debut this year, following Sadie Sink in Robert Icke's Romeo & Juliet. Further casting will be revealed in due course.

The creative team includes choreography by Tom Jackson Greaves, set design by David Woodhead, costume design by Gabriella Slade, lighting design by Howard Hudson, audio production and sound design by Paul Gatehouse, video design and cinematography by George Reeve and Nathan Amzi, make-up and hair design by Jackie Saundercock, musical supervision is Bill Sherman and musical direction by Katy Richardson.

Sheppard said, "This is Rent in the hands of a new generation of performers who love and adore this piece,” adding that, “The opportunity to reimagine that production on a larger scale is a dream come true."

Rent will open at the Duke of York's Theatre on 26 September 2026.

Rent Tickets