RENT AT THE ARENA THEATRE, WOLVERHAMPTON
Theatre Run: Friday 26 - Saturday 27 July
Performance Reviewed: Saturday 27 July (matinee)
Reviewed by Kyle Pedley
Most major musicals bring their own set of challenges and dilemmas to an amateur adaptation, be it a requirement for expansive sets and staging, period or niche costume and production design or elaborate, demanding choreography, all of which often have to face the constraints and practicality of budget and available talent. Relatively speaking, RENT is a somewhat barer, more raw piece of musical theatre in those particular regards, and one whose expressionist, bohemian slant makes it a more malleable beast for the amateur treatment. However, therein lies the inherent challenge of tackling the show - there are no major set pieces or spectacle to hide behind, it is a story and production that is raw, pure, innately human and relatively uncompromising - and if the cast cannot rise to the occasion the show can be a floundering mess of youthful post-modernism and half-baked theatrical expressionism. It truly is a show that is only as good as those in whose hands it is placed.
