Rent musical review and star rating: ★★★

It’s pertinently ironic that Rent’s press night coincided with the London Film Festival premiere of Elsinore, Andrew Scott’s remarkably tender AIDS drama. Perhaps in the late-eighties when this musical was conceived, even talking about the epidemic on a stage was politically powerful, even if it were sprinkled as a theme rather than addressed head-on like dramas do today. 

By those standards, Jonathan Larson’s Rent, which follows a group of creatives fighting eviction from their New York building, was once fearsomely progressive. But by today’s standards, taking something so horrific as AIDS, which took the lives of 20,000 Brits alone, and putting it as a backdrop to a central story about people getting kicked out of their flats (which is dealt with with far more emotion) feels strange and tone deaf.

Rent musical: go for the music

In act 2 there is one attempt to go beyond two-dimensional representation with the platforming of the death of one character, Angel, to the disease, which is treated with more sensitivity via the track I’ll Cover You, but this production lets down the attempt: dressed in y-fronts and disappearing within sheets, Angel’s death feels bizarre and emotionless rather than profound.

Regardless, the pop-rock songs are fun, most notably Seasons of Love, famous more recently from Glee, even if many are strangely buoyant given they’re often about dying and how many of the characters have the disease.

If Rent is for one thing, it is taking in these spectacular songbooks, which includes bangers like La Vie Bohème, One Song Glory and Take Me Or Leave Me. Olivier Award-winner Luke Sheppard’s conventional production doesn’t play much with the formula; David Woodhead’s set is similarly predictable, centring upon a shabby-looking apartment.

Huge fan clout

Beyond that though, the story line often there to service the arrival of the next song rather than advancing the plot, especially when central character Mimi is about to die from AIDS related conditions but is saved when her partner Doug walks in and apparently sings her back to life, which feels problematic in just about every way possible.

Anyway, who cares what I think, Rent holds huge fan clout. Sit back and listen to the music and you’ll have a nice time. 

Rent plays at The Tom Stoppard Theatre until 29 May 2027