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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Jun 23, 2024 18:25:27 GMT
Last night I went to see the new professional production of Rent, produced by Landmark Theatres, the new owners of the theatre here in Peterborough. rent-themusical.co.uk/I was very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting it to be a bit local and quite amateur, but nope, it's a full professional production with a full, professional cast (albeit mostly pretty young and inexperienced). The theatre here normally hosts tribute acts, comedy acts and the occasional low-level touring play/musical (the last one they had was the very stripped back Calendar Girls tour last year). This production of Rent was certainly light years above that version of Calendar Girls, both in terms of the production values and the performances. I've never actually seen Rent before - just heard a few songs - and I really enjoyed it. It's clearly a flawed musical - it took me a while to fully grasp who everyone was, and I don't feel there's a huge amount of plot, especially in the first act - but it's good and I was hooked into it by the end. The inexperience showed at times, especially with some of the jokes not landing, but overall it was very well done. It's playing here in Peterborough for another week, and after that it moves to Barnstaple. For the amount of work that's been put in, I certainly hope there's more of a life for this production beyond that, but nevertheless, I urge anyone who can get up to Peterborough (or down to Barnstaple) to grab a ticket. |
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Post by londonmzfitz on Jun 23, 2024 19:08:37 GMT
Well, just did a search to see if anyone had posted about this tour .... doffs cap at SamB ...
I was there today, Sunday matinee - 1pm - got an email earlier this week to say the show would be starting an hour earlier than original booking. Box Office very helpful woman said they'd been rehearsing somewhere else, and once the stage was built they discovered they'd need an earlier start. I was originally booked for next Saturday matinee but changed to today. Box office woman said she'd been fielding many (many) emails from people about the start time changing.
I've never been to Peterborough New Theatre although I guess this is the nearest theatre to me, having moved to the area 2 years ago, I hadn't seen anything I really wanted to see here. But, as SamB, I've never seen Rent, just a few of the usual songs performed. Tango Maureen was a delight and I'm adding that to my playlist.
Young cast, Jack Reitman as Mark - I thought he was terrific. Loads of stage presence. The show felt a little slow in places but I've never seen it before so maybe just me. Cameron Bernard Jones as Tom Collins - wow, a voice. Happy I made the journey to see this just on the performances of these two.
Appreciative audience although probably only a third full. So flaming hot in there though, no AC running. Cast must have been sweating buckets, dressed for a New York Christmas.
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Post by flouise on Jun 23, 2024 19:32:02 GMT
I'll be seeing it in Barnstaple in a couple of weeks, very excited, it's the first time I'm seeing a fully staged production. Its a shame that it doesn't seem to be selling very well.
Glad to hear good things about the production!
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Post by dan on Jun 23, 2024 21:39:29 GMT
Rent being one of my top few musicals I try to see any production possible… I took my nephew to see this on Thursday and I found it thrilling, and my nephew knew nothing about the show and was enthralled. I think it’s a beautiful show anyway, but this production adds a few flourishes and new musical arrangements which were a nice surprise. Great cast and really well staged relative for how Rent is typically staged. I hope this has a future life beyond the two venues… highly recommend!
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Post by darreno on Jun 24, 2024 9:33:17 GMT
So this is really, REALLY good.
Saturday was my 36th and 37th time seeing Rent, it's safe to say that it holds a very special place in my heart and I will catch it any time I see it, be that professional or amateur, local or national!
Quick mention for any superfans, there are some interesting tiny changes, three lines added that I could spot. Nothing that changes the story of course, but just serves towards explanation/exposition? RENT is dense and fast moving so important plot points can be missed if you aren't paying attention, if an actor misses a line or a mic doesn't pick up. Interesting probably only to me!
The strength of this production is the DIRECTION. It's put together brilliantly! Minor criticism of some slowed down moments in the first half where actors have to move across the stage which affects the pacing a bit, but this is me being over the top fan to be honest. The Director absolutely knocks it out of the park on this. I have seen so many stagings of the show, from table reads, to Broadway, to local amateur, to international tours, and this gets pretty much EVERYTHING right! Clearly a fan of the show, great vision.
Some really interesting points were how they did 'Contact', this is part of the show that falls down in a lot of productions, not in this one, quite the opposite, it becomes a huge moment and BUILDS towards the death. It's excellent. Another interesting bit is the decision to have Mimi crash through the Life Support meeting during 'Out Tonight'. This is a brilliant choice and shows how the character acts with reckless abandon during that period. Not every production goes this way, but it helps to keep the 'world' connected on stage and avoids the tired attempts to show characters as 'heart of gold, down on their luck' that some productions do. Sometimes drug addicts do bad things, the original text didn't deny this nor does this production.
Particularly good was seeing Mimi shooting up (not as shocking as it sounds there but SO effective). The grittiness and dirt of RENT is often only refelcted in the staging and costume, not always in the stage direction so this was great.
I could go on for pages and pages here but suffice it to say, this is BRILLIANT. The direction and the ensemble cast are the absolute key points to recommend it with. If you have never seen RENT, this is a great way to see it. If you've seen it before, or even slightly jaded by it, this is a great way to refresh why it was such a huge hit. Emotional, powerful, fun, brilliantly acted, directed, played.
You will not regret seeing this.
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Post by tlppi on Jun 24, 2024 15:31:36 GMT
Box Office very helpful woman said they'd been rehearsing somewhere else, and once the stage was built they discovered they'd need an earlier start. i'm struggling to follow that one... what? why? |
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Post by londonmzfitz on Jun 24, 2024 20:14:39 GMT
Yeah, it's not like there's a lot of set to be moved during the show, in the interval ... An hour earlier, not just 30 minutes. And the helpful BO woman said she'd had to contact thousands of people (which it felt rude to question as Sunday was about 1/3 full).
If you follow Jack Reitman on Twitter he's reposted a bit of the final bows. I liked him a lot in this.
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Post by theatreian on Jun 24, 2024 22:25:03 GMT
Hope this can get a longer run in more venues as Barnstaple is not too easy to get to and would love to see this production based on what others have said.
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Post by SilverFox on Jun 28, 2024 13:58:20 GMT
Landmark seem to be all over the place with the running time of this show - sadly to my cost, starting late before BOTH acts on Tuesday, causing me to have to dash out before the end to catch the final train home - very annoying, after I had checked before booking what the finish time would be (post opening performances).
Nevertheless, it was a terrific production from a young and enthusiastic cast. I can't help thinking it would have fitted better into the Key Theatre, rather than the New. Theatre was only around one third full.
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Post by SilverFox on Jun 29, 2024 11:23:24 GMT
Just a quick correction to the OP - and I had to look it up to be sure - but Landmark Theatres is the new name of Selladoor, so not 'new' owners of the New Theatre. TBF it has changed hands, and gone through some ups and downs (and names) in the past decade! If they start producing more theatre of the quality of "Rent" in Peterborough that is good news. www.landmark-ilfracombe.com/2023/05/31/4020/ |
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Post by jj on Jun 30, 2024 15:21:34 GMT
Rent wasn't high on my wish list but it was playing in my home town and is probably a musical every musical theatre lover should see at some point so I thought I would give it a go.
What a great production! I knew very little about Rent and I'm no expert on musical theatre but I've seen a lot of musicals both locally and on the West End and this one was definitely up there. Fantastic cast given a long standing ovation by a very appreciative audience.
I hope it gets a longer run. It's such a shame that it's not selling that well, though on Saturday night it was perhaps 3/4 full with a great atmosphere.
Support this in Barnstaple if you can!
Nb further to a previous post both acts started and finished pretty much on time.
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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Jun 30, 2024 17:56:49 GMT
Just a quick correction to the OP - and I had to look it up to be sure - but Landmark Theatres is the new name of Selladoor, so not 'new' owners of the New Theatre. TBF it has changed hands, and gone through some ups and downs (and names) in the past decade! If they start producing more theatre of the quality of "Rent" in Peterborough that is good news. www.landmark-ilfracombe.com/2023/05/31/4020/Thanks for the correction! Now you say that, I remember it being the case. And sorry to hear their timekeeping let you down, that's always so frustrating. |
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Post by simon on Jul 5, 2024 15:00:05 GMT
Saw this on Thursday and was impressed with the production values. Great set, lighting, costumes and on stage band. An enthusiastic cast led by a particularly charismatic" Mark". As a previous post commented RENT is perhaps showing its age, but still packs an emotional punch at times. At 3hrs with an interval it does seem a bit of a slog.
This production certainly deserves a life beyond the two dates scheduled. My one majori criticism would be audibility of the lyrics. Despite good sound balance between band and actors ,it was very difficult to hear whatt they were singing about and at times a bit like watching a foreign language production.
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Post by flouise on Jul 6, 2024 17:36:33 GMT
I saw the matinee today (and inadvertently sat on the table next to some of the cast at the Wetherspoons across the road afterwards!), fantastic production with some stunning voices and performances. I agree that the sound balance wasn't the best.
It would be a shame if this is the end of the road for this production. It doesn't seem to have sold well at all, I'd struggle to say that the stalls were even a third full, and I think they had shut the circle. The people who were there all seemed to have a fantastic time- there weren't many dry eyes at the end!
In other productions do they usually repeat Seasons of Love at the end? I can see why they did it, but it did take away from the emotions at the end of the show a little for me.
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