Tag Archives: Rent

Book: Jason Robert Brown Director: James Edgington Reviewer: Rebecca Cohen For their first in-house production, the beautiful Albert Halls in Bolton could have, and arguably should have, started with more of a bang. While the venue should be commended for its attempt to transform and experiment with theatre space, The Last Five Years is an overly ambitious choice to begin with ...

Reviewer:  Clare White Just last week, Idina Menzel was introduced on ITV’s Loose Women as ‘the star of Disney’s Frozen’. Indeed, as the voice of Princess Elsa in the 2013 animated film, she was propelled to global stardom and became a household name, but Frozen is just the tip of the iceberg - Idina was a stage and screen superstar ...

Writer: Jonathan Larson Director: Bruce Guthrie Reviewer: Chris Williams In 2016, Rent - the Pulitzer Prize winning rock musical - celebrated its 20th anniversary. This new production embarked on a UK tour in celebration, stopping in Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre. Based loosely on Puccini’s opera La Boheme - with our poets and painters modernised as a filmmaker or performance artist - Rent’s ...

Writer: Jonathan Larson Director: Bruce Guthrie Reviewer: John Roberts In 1993, New York’s Musical Theatre Workshop put on a reading of a new musical by the relatively unknown composer Jonathan Larson, several workshop productions later the show was set to open with a full production on the 100th Anniversary of Puccini’s La Boheme - the very opera that Larson had ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Nina Brazier Composer: Kim Ashton Reviewer: Michael Gray This 60-minute musical re-imagining of Shakespeare's problem play is a boldly ingenious experiment with the drama. This year has seen many Shakespeare-inspired performances. Song recitals, of course, but also Mendelssohn, Walton, Korngold et al in concert with extracts from the canon. And it's not long since The Winter's ...

Reviewer: Emily Garside Recorded live at New York’s Feinstein’s/54 Below, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp reunite for an acoustic mix of Broadway and Rock-pop. Ranging across classic 80s pop - as Rapp quips he’s ‘very much a child of the 80s’ across contemporary and classic Broadway songs with a twist, there’s a variety brought out by their different musical styles, ...

Writer: Jonathan Larson Director: Bruce Guthrie Choreography: Lee Proud Reviewer: Christy Ku Based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème, RENT follows the story of a group of young artists struggling to survive and live their bohemian lifestyles in New York City. Meanwhile, the HIV/AIDS epidemic rages on, affecting everyone they love and tearing their lives apart. This new production celebrates the 20th anniversary of ...

Book / Music / Lyrics: Jonathan Larson Director: Jake Norton Reviewer: John Roberts   It’s hard not to applaud the ambitious young producers Claire Eggison, Daniel Jackson, Liam McMullan, and Fay Parkinson who make up new company Peak Productions. The company has been formed by music, theatre and entertainment management students while still studying at the Liverpool Institute for Performing ...