"Rent" Review

Rent is about the eviction crisis in the 1990s. The musical mostly revolves around the characters Mark Cohen, Roger Davis, Angel Dumott, Mimi Márquez, Maureen Johnson, Joanne Jefferson, and Tom Collins. Galloway did an amazing job with the production of the musical. The casting, the vocals, and the acting were all very impressive. Rent was the first Galloway production I have seen, and I really enjoyed getting to see and experience it.

As soon as the show began the cast brought the audience into the show, by handing out fliers for the protest, and eviction notices to make the audience feel like we were actually in the world of Rent with them.

The cast did an amazing job showing the story on stage. The whole cast committed to the roles they played. When Peyton Hunter (Maureen) did Maureen’s speech for her protest, I laughed so hard, because she fully committed to her role as Maureen. Maureen was painted as an eccentric, kind of odd but powerful voice in the movement, and Peyton really brought that character to life on stage. She was not the only one to deliver a powerful delivery to a role, Sawyer Sugarman (Angel) did amazing as well. When he jumped onto a table in his tall heeled boots I was very surprised and thoroughly impressed. He committed to his role as Angel and delivered a great performance. 

The cast was clear with their words and it was mostly easy to understand what they were saying, but there were times that the band in the background was a little loud and almost drowned them out. I have seen the first half of Rent, and I was worried that it would seem very watered down, or that they would not cover some of the more adult topics discussed in the original, but they did, and they did it very well. They said what they needed to and got the message across without going too much into the not-school-appropriate pieces of the play. 

Overall I was very pleased with Rent. The show was amazing and I can not wait to see next year's production.