Gaten Matarazzo has found another pretty exciting post-Stranger Things project: the West End revival of Rent.
The young star’s outing as Mark Cohen will mark his London theater debut, with the musical set to open in September at the Duke of York Theatre. Cohen, the narrator of Rent, is a struggling documentarian living in New York City during the AIDS crisis in the early 1990s.
Luke Sheppard, who just last month won an Olivier Award for Paddington: The Musical, will once again direct Rent, his second time at the helm of the show following a successful run at the Hope Mill Theatre five years ago. “This is Rent in the hands of a new generation of performers who love and adore this piece, and with Gaten Matarazzo playing Mark, it promises to be a thrilling experience,” said Sheppard on Tuesday.
The rock musical, created by Jonathan Larson, premiered off-Broadway in 1996 before transferring to Broadway, where it went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and multiple Tonys.
Producers Chris Harper and Sonia Friedman said about the revival of Rent: “We were completely exhilarated when we first saw Luke Sheppard’s staging at the Hope Mill Theatre in 2020 — it felt immediate, emotional and utterly alive.”
“Jonathan Larson’s musical remains as powerful and resonant as ever, and Luke has found a way to honour its legacy while making it feel thrillingly fresh for today’s audiences,” they continued. “We cannot wait to share this production and all that we have planned for it. It promises to be a truly special theatrical event.”
Matarazzo will balance the show around the new film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Octet, which also stars Amanda Seyfried, Rachel Zegler, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Philipa Soo, Jonathan Groff, Tramell Tillman and Paul-Jordan Jansen.
