Rent the Musical

A stellar cast has been signed to present the Auckland season of Rent - one of the world's most controversial and successful musicals.

Annie Crummer -- who played the Killer Queen in the outstanding season of Queen's We Will Rock You – is Joanne Jefferson, an Ivy League-educated public interest lawyer.

Her lover Maureen will be played by NZ’s Got Talent finalist, Melissa Nordhaus – fresh from a season of Miss Saigon.

Central character Mimi Marquez – an exotic dancer – will be played by the beautiful Rebecca Wright, star of Starlight Express.

Actor and extreme performance master Kristian Lavercombe plays the coveted role of filmmaker Mark Cohen. Lavercombe’s experience on stage is extensive, including roles in The Rocky Horror Show, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oliver!, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Lady Windermere’s Fan. His extreme live performances have included shows with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Barry White, The Crusty Demons, The Notting Hill Carnival, The Glastonbury Festival and a residency at Ibiza’s Privilege (The world’s largest club).

NZ Idol runner-up Michael Murphy will play Roger Davis, a songwriter and former drug addict whose girlfriend committed suicide upon discovering that they were HIV-positive.

Leand Macadaan – the actor who bought us Mexi-Doug on the hugely popular Instant Kiwi ads – has also joined the cast. Aside from the hilarity he has delivered to millions of fans with lines such as “Get a Perm” and “Do It Doug”, Macadaan is a seasoned theatre performer.

Soul singer Tama Waipara will play Tom Collins, a philosophy professor and anarchist with AIDS; Golden Guitar winner Cameron Clayton plays Angel, a drag queen percussionist.

Rent is a rock opera that tells a story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of aids.

"Measuring their lives in love", these starving artists strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and loss; all while celebrating their creative spirit, choosing to live life as if there is No Day But Today!

The musical was first seen in a limited three-week workshop production at the New York Theatre Workshop in 1994. This same New York City off-Broadway theatre was also the musical's initial home following its official January 25, 1996, opening. The show's creator, Jonathan Larson, died suddenly the night before the off-Broadway premiere. The show won a Pulitzer Prize, and the production was a hit

On Broadway, Rent gained critical acclaim and won a Tony Award for Best Musical among other awards. The musical is largely responsible for helping to increase the popularity of musical theatre amongst the younger generation. The Broadway production closed on September 7, 2008, after a 12-year run and 5124 performances, making it the eighth-longest-running Broadway show, and grossed over $280 million.

Rent was one of the first Broadway musicals to clearly feature gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender characters. It is also noted for its ethnically diverse cast, which includes many racial minorities in its ensemble and leading roles.

Rent is considered revolutionary for bringing controversial topics and counterculture to a traditionally conservative medium, and is credited with increasing the popularity of musical theatre in the younger generation.

Many critics have also mentioned how the show speaks to Generation X the same way that the musical Hair spoke to the flower generation, calling it "a rock opera for our time, a 'Hair' for the 90's."

Cast:
Michael Murphy - Roger Davis
Kristian Lavercombe - Mark Cohen
Rebecca Wright - Mimi Marquez
Annie Crummer - Joanne Jefferson
Melissa Nordhaus - Maureen Johnson
Tama Waipara - Tom Collins
Cameron Clayton - Angel Shunard
Paul Fagamalo - Benjamin Coffin III