"Rent" by Jonathan Larson.

Kristian Thomas Company

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

"Rent" tells the story of a year in the life of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village and is based loosely on Puccini's opera, "La Boheme".

Mark is an aspiring film maker, struggling to find his place in the world. Roger, his room mate is an HIV positive musician who is worried about how he will leave his mark on the world before he dies. Mimi and Angel are searching for real love as HIV positive young people, facing the harsh reality of the world as it is at that time. Joanne is looking for fidelity from her performance artist girlfriend, Maureen, who has a bit of a wild streak about her.

The group's aspirations and dreams are woven throughout the musical, painting a not very rosy picture of life in Bohemian New York City in the late 1980's under the dark clouds of HIV/AIDS.

First of all, let me say that this entire cast have worked really hard on this production. How do I know this? Because it shows in the emotion and passion that comes through their acting, as well as the looks of determination on their faces as they play their roles.

Roger Davis is played by Max Henshaw and for me one of the powerhouse vocals in the show. I thought he started out just a little wobbly, but he soon proved me wrong. He shows great passion for this passionate of roles, and in Act Two when he is knelt over Mimi's weak body, not the most comfortable of stances to sing from, he produced the most amazing of vocals in "One Song Glory".

Mark Cohen is played by Ben Hale. Ben is one of those actors who is very confident in what he does, and that shows here. Another very capable singer in the company - this company though is full of them. You just can't miss Ben due to his height and his fresh and young looking features.

Mimi Marquez is played by Amelie Turner. Her singing voice grew on me throughout the production and seemed to get more powerful as the show progressed. It could be that her seduction song, "Light My Candle" is quite low key, and as the character built, so did the vocals

Angel Schunard is played by Max Fuller. I have seen several Angels over the years that I've been reviewing, but Max's "baby face", or should that be "angelic" face, has to be one of the youngest visages to play this drag artist character. I loved the "exit" of Angel, as I can't remember the character exiting in this way before. There are not many young actors who can pull off the full drag look with the over the top character, so it was quite different to see Angel played not for dramatic purposes, but quite refreshing as well. Having seen Max act before, I knew that I'd have no issues with his character acting.

Benny Coffin III is played by Jake Lightbown. Benny is the man who, after squatting with the rest of the young Bohemians, then went on to own the building and started requesting rent from the same squatters as he had been squatting with. He then goes on to develop his nasty piece of work persona by stealing Mimi from Roger!. Jake played the role with just the right amount of smarm and slimeball appeal. Enough for you not to dislike him completely, especially when the end of the musical is in sight, and he changes faces.

Tom Collins is played by Bailey West. Bailey, having seen him perform before, reminded me just what a deep, bluesy voice he has. He also reminded me that he can play emotive scenes extrmely well; just watch the Angel scenes where Tom takes care of Angel and then the final Angel scenes.

Maureen Johnson is played by Savannah Pinto. I love Maureen's voice. There is so much power, control and passion she has with her vocals, her duet with Joanne, "Take Me Or Leave Me" is spectacularly good, giving me waves of goosebumps. I also love the "performance" section of her role, milking it just enough so as not to take it over the top, and giving a nice comedic moment within the story. Another section which involves Mark where he helps with the P.A. used for Maureen's performance art, and is one of my favourite scenes is "The Tango Maureen". Their voices and harmonies work so well together.

Joanne Jefferson is played by Orlagh McAleese. Orlagh and Savannah work really well together in these roles and have wonderful chemistry, and their voices blend beautifully with some impressive harmony work. These two characters are fiery and I expect that these two ladies had great fun with these scenes, which incuded, I bet, more than a couple of giggles. The characters are so lovely as a couple.

Directed by Katy Maclaughlin, she has created a difference with Rent from the other productions I've seen. This will be difficult to explain unless you have seen other productions, and it's the little changes that have been incorporated that made this production very fresh. So if you think that this is just another production, take a look because there are quite a few refreshing viewpoints from the Director chair. Nothing major but enough to make me sit up and take notice!

Choreographed by Shannon O'Donnell. With the amount of leads and ensemble, I imagine that this job was not easy, but I loved the result, and especially in conjuction with Katy as Director for the reimagined outlook in some of the scenes.

Musical Direction is by Sam Hedley. The soundtrack is full of emotion and to wring every bit of emotion from this soundtrack takes a good MD. I've seen Sam's work before so when I saw her name in the programme, I knew that the music would be quality; and it was. Stand out musical pieces just has to include "Seasons Of Love" with its' layered and complex harmonies. This and the other songs I've mentioned within the review, makes this musically incredibly enjoyable.

Sound Design by Peter Gough, and while there were places where the volume could have been toned down a smidge so that the actor's voices could be heard more, 99% of the sound tonight was crystal clear. You could hear the words of the songs, and the emotion, and teamed with the clarity of the musicianship, I just let the sound wash over me.

Lighting Design by Stephen Greatorex is excellent. The explosion of colour gave a new level of excitement to this show. With the emotional scenes, the stage was bathed in subtle lights. With the uptempo tracks, the lighting hyped everyone up making it a visually exciting piece of theatre to behold.

Production Co-Ordinator is Katie Lawson.

As I said previously, I've seen "Rent" quite a few times, and I've seen some different touches applied, and this is one of those productions that, like Mimi's candle, re-ignites the passion for the musical. The whole cast, mains and ensemble, fully deserved their standing ovation they received. It's a brave decision to stage a musical of this calibre, complete with the emotion and subject matter, but the decision paid off royally.

"Rent" will be at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 28 January.