RENT

The East Village of New York City was represented brilliantly with a simple yet completely workable, split level set with fine attention to detail. Hidden discreetly in one corner – the band. The lighting was dark and dingy and created great atmosphere – The Met was absolutely the perfect choice of venue for this stunning production. It was in your face and as up close and personal as you could possibly get.

The line up of principals were ideally cast and showcased some truly amazing talent on every level as did the whole company.

Jack Whittle as Mark gave an outstanding performance. His portrayal of the character was so natural and watchable. Jack narrated the plot beautifully with such charisma and precision.

Roger Davies was played by Joshua Leech, again a very natural performer hitting all the difficult notes with confidence and playing the part with maturity beyond his years.

Jericho Taylor seemed to really get under the skin of troubled Mimi. Her desperation was heartfelt, performing some touching scenes with Roger.

Jack Forrest as Collins completely nailed his character and impressed me with great vocals which I could have quite happily listened to all evening. His rendition of “I’ll Cover You” in Act II, had me in floods of tears. Opposite Collins, the lovely Angel; a difficult character to play which is too often played over the top, missing the real person behind the extrovert performer. Mathew Wilson captured the role brilliantly underplaying her to perfection. She was sassy and sexy and the relationship with Collins was so believable. Congratulations to you both for such great performances.

Katherine Reynolds as Joanne hit all the right notes with some amazing vocals. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance. Maureen is a bugger of a part to get your head around both as an actor and as an audience member. Rebecca Gill had no trouble whatsoever and gave a faultless performance. “Take Me or Leave Me” was amazing!

So much needs to be said for the production team – all three elements seemed to marry together beautifully.

The choreography by Helen Wilkinson was imaginative and executed with precision.

The Musical Direction by Scott Stait was quite outstanding – every single character delivered vocally with crisp harmonies in the ensemble numbers and the band produced a sound that was bang on!

Director Timothy Platt ensured that these young people completely understood the concept of the show and indeed took them on journey that will probably remain in their memories forever – It’s certainly one that I won’t be forgetting in any hurry.

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