AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Rent - The Riley Smith Theatre, Leeds University, Leeds.

Set in the East Village of New York City, 'Rent' is about falling in love, finding your voice, and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 'Rent' has become a pop culture phenomenon. 'Rent' follows a year in the life of a group of penniless young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York’s Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

Johnathon Larson’s 1996 rock musical focus is around the interconnected lives of three couples: Roger (Jack Foster) and Mimi (Casiah Palmer-Sterling), Maureen (Anna Duffell) and Joanne (Phoebe Coldron), and Collins (Ajay Sahota) and Angel (Cam Griffiths). At the heart of the musical is an exploration of identity within LGBTQ + Community, encompassing conversations on drug addition, financial pressure, and grief within the context of the AIDS crisis at the end of the 20th century. Mark (Toby Bowen) is an aspiring filmmaker who narrates the show as he films the lives of his friends.

The production team did an amazing job on the set design, lighting, costume, and sound as this created the perfect staging for this production. There were a few technical difficulties with microphone timing but other than that they did a phenomenal job in allowing the cast to perform with maximum impact visually and audibly.

Excellent casting of Mark as Toby Bowen who delivered a sterling performance with his strong vocals, acting and dance skills, I especially enjoyed his Tango with Joanne. The strongest coupling was that of Angel and Collins where we saw Cam Griffiths and Ajay Sahota give a heart-warming delivery of their roles, with a rollercoaster of emotions. Huge credit to Cam Griffiths as the role of Angel is iconic and pinnacle to the plot of ‘Rent’ and can be a challenging role for any accomplished actor, however he delivered a faultless performance with his fabulous vocal range. Griffith’s rendition of ‘I’ll Cover You’ captured the character of Angel in all their kindness, affection, and hope on every occasion he appeared on stage.

It is clear that each and every cast member put their heart and soul into the performance and that was certainly evident tonight, 'Rent' isn’t the easiest repertoire with its demanding vocal range and can be a train crash at times to the untrained. The most impressive vocals were when the whole cast and ensemble delivered ‘Rent’, ‘Santa Fe’, ‘La Vie Boheme’, ‘Contact’ and of course the infamous ‘Seasons Of Love’.

Final credit to the band who played magnificently throughout the evening enabling the show to come together and for the cast to deliver their musical numbers. A well-rounded delivery from LUU Musical Theatre Society, as this is a hard production to deliver with its extensive vocal range required throughout.

Well done to all involved and a personal congratulations to Producer Emma Wilcox for a job successfully carried out.

Reviewer - Katie Leicester
on - 19.11.22