Review Roundup: RENT at the Tom Stoppard Theatre

What are critics saying about RENT?

London Box Office

"Is it a terrific piece with notable performances from a talented cast? Undoubtedly"

★★★★

Reviewer: Stuart King

"Choreographed by Tom Jackson Greaves, the cast perform on the revolve stage they share in close proximity with audience members and the 6-piece band ranged across a gantry which is wrapped around and above the stage. Energy levels are immense throughout, though some of the over earnestness begins to drag a little towards the latter stages of the 2 hours and 45mins running time. Highlights for me, were Joanne and Mark’s “Tango: Maureen”, Angel, Collins and Mark’s “Santa Fe” in the first half, and “Seasons of Love” (with its instantly recognisable hook “Five hundred, Twenty-Five thousand, Six hundred minutes“) in the second."

Read the review here.

The Telegraph

"Rent finally looks like a classic musical"

★★★★

Reviewer: Dominic Cavendish

"Book-ended by two Christmas Eves, the tragicomic piece proceeds like a noisy fever-dream. Sheppard first staged the show at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre during the pandemic, and this outing retains a rough, grungy vibe; some of the audience are seated onstage, and the band is visible, too. The sense of confinement stokes a pent-up urgency: choreographer Tom Jackson Greaves often has the cast writhing on chairs in synchronised angst. It’s remarkably effective.

Some of the numbers fly in one ear and out the other; others – most notably the stirring gospel-soul anthem. Seasons of Love – prove impossible to dislodge. Every leading player gets the opportunity to shine, with particularly fine performances from Travis Ross as the brooding Roger, always plugging away in the hope of writing one last belter; Alexa Lopez as Mimi, sexually cavorting and howling like a wolf in the love-hungry Out Tonight; and Jeevan Braich, flamboyant and defiant as Angel."

Read the review here.

WhatsOnStage

"Gaten Matarazzo makes his West End debut in an uplifting revival"

★★★★

Reviewer: Sarah Crompton

"Under conductor Katy Richardson, the (extremely loud) live band sit high on a balcony on David Woodhead’s stylised industrial set, with great walls of windows, and candles on ledges giving a suggestion of squatted rooms and dilapidated buildings. Screens at random points keep the suggestion that Mark, the filmmaker at the centre of the group, is recording the action.

He’s played with a winning mixture of wit and intensity by Gaten Matarazzo (of Stranger Things fame), but the entire cast, evocatively costumed by Gabriella Slade in clothes that perfectly conjure the worn aesthetic of 90s grunge, are impressive: strong-voiced singers and actors who can turn this motley group of types into individuals you care about."

Read the review here.

The cast of RENT. Photo by Pamela Raith

The Independent

"Gaten Matarazzo succeeds but his co-stars dazzle in a rock-solid musical revival"

★★★★

Reviewer: Louis Chilton

"It works, then, that Luke Sheppard’s production opts to reiterate more than reimagine, in everything down to the costumes (designed by Gabriella Slade, they have that familiar shabby, chic Rent look). There have been some technological advances since its original staging in 1993 – a judiciously used rotating floor works wonders as Ross sings the mournful “One Song Glory” early on, while live footage from Mark’s video camera is frequently fed through live to a constellation of retro TV screens dotted around the peripheries. But by and large, this is Rent as you’ve seen it before; the musical’s fresh relevance is supplied, by the audience, and the changed world that lurks outside the theatre.

Matarazzo doesn’t quite shine here, but it’s a hard role to shine. Mark is inherently, constitutionally passive, serving mostly as an outside observer and conduit for the audience. The former child star is affable and slightly dweeby in the role – there are shades of a young, pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander – and sings well, though most of the other singers here, particularly Ross, Braich, and Nevers, are absolutely exceptional."

Read the review here.

The Guardian

"Jonathan Larson’s New York bohos move into the West End and unpack their passions"

★★★

Reviewer: David Jays

"This show gives good value to Larson the composer – the band gunning through the score up on a gantry, the cast unleashing some rib-shaking vocals. Larson the lyricist emerges less well, engulfed by a wall of sound. The revival is produced with devotion but, nudging three hours, also needs dramaturgical tough love. Some lachrymose ballads don’t earn their stage time, while Maureen’s dairy-based activism (“Moo for me!”) has lost its bite. Keeping eight principal characters in play is tricky – Mark too often fades from his own story."

Read the review here.

The Stage

“Taps into the emotion”

★★★

Reviewer: Tom Wicker

"But there’s much to enjoy here, sharpened by Sheppard’s revival. Designer David Woodhead’s set, studded with boxy TVs live-playing Mark’s filming, coupled with the deep blues and reds of Howard Hudson’s lighting design, plunges us deep into the maximalist MTV era. There’s a tangible throb of relentless consumerism, neatly counterposed with New York’s grim reality.

And while the characters are, perhaps necessarily, compressed into types, the cast makes you care. Matarazzo is the big name, but Mark’s role as quasi-narrator often leaves him, engaging as he is, on the sidelines. As mismatched, incorrigibly in-love couple Maureen and Joanne, Lazy Violet and Danielle Fiamanya make their clashes sing – quite literally, in Take Me Or Leave Me, Larson’s irresistibly catchy anthem to difference."

Read the review here.

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