Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle

Christ­mas has come early to Gryphon Theatre, with Kauri Theatre Company’s tin­selled up pro­duc­tion of Rent selling out before open­ing to those beg­ging for a chance to see cre­at­or Jonath­an Larson’s icon­ic Winter-set music­al.

I am grate­ful dir­ect­or Lox Dix­on has tackled such a huge artist­ic pro­ject to bring Rent back to Wel­ling­ton, so I can see these won­der­ful per­form­ances brought to life by incred­ible act­ors, per­fectly cast in his dir­ect­ing debut.

The cast’s energy and pas­sion is matched by the hard-work­ing pro­duc­tion team, start­ing with pro­duc­tion man­ager Emma Maguire, and hard-rock­ing band, with 45 music­al num­bers, con­duc­ted by music­al dir­ect­or Anna McK­ean. What a feat!

We should be excited. Rent was ori­gin­ally pro­duced by New York Theatre Work­shop, and took Broad­way by storm. There it gained cult status and won over hearts world­wide with its catchy, comed­ic and heart-wrench­ing bal­lads and rock songs, includ­ing La Vie Boheme, Take Me or Leave Me, and Without You. Our favour­ite, Sea­sons of Love, shines bright among the high­lights in this pro­duc­tion, but it’s hard to choose, and Over the Moon by Sta­cey O’Brien as Maur­een takes all the cakes with cher­ries and double cream on top.

Themes of poverty, loneli­ness, polit­ic­al drama and a health­care crisis sur­round­ing HIV/AIDS are doc­u­mented with care and pro­jec­ted with heart­break as our lucky audi­ence soaks up every har­mony, romance, and sequin-stud­ded dance num­ber.

An almighty cast of 21 is required to pull off this incred­ible story, includ­ing altern­ates. I was lucky to see both Ed Blun­den and altern­ate Sam Shields take on the mas­ter storyteller role of Mark Cohen with effort­less charm, cre­at­ively con­nect­ing this group of friends and mis­fits tack­ling their dreams and day-to-day life in New York.

They battle, and wit­ness the HIV/AIDS crisis first-hand, and face daily hard­ships along­side their tal­en­ted but strug­gling friends. This includes the tal­en­ted Den­nis Eir Lim as the spark­ling glue of the friend group, Angel. Den­nis shone spec­tac­u­larly in his first music­al lead role in cent­ral Wel­ling­ton, and I was lucky to see Angel altern­ate Owen Moo­ij rock the role also.

We want more, and cho­reo­graph­er Aroha Dav­id­son deliv­ers, the bow on top of this music­al gift being the mag­ni­fi­cent cos­tumes worn by all of the cast, brought to life by Hay­ley Knight.

The jaw-drop­ping Angel cos­tumes are by multi-tal­en­ted cast mem­ber Rich­ie Rewa, who plays the ever dot­ing Tom Collins, whose devo­tion to Angel and the group counter the cold-hearted role of land­lord and ex-friend Benny (Kwok Yi Lee) who’s rid­ing the high life in New York, a scene-steal­er, and a front door one too!

There are 10 dress­ers help­ing with these quick changes and the res­ult is effort­less and cap­tiv­at­ing as each scene brings new energy, and stand out moments by all of the ensemble. This includes the end­lessly tal­en­ted Mil­lie Fuller, Emily K Brown, Gracie Voice, Kristina Lee, Roy Hakim, Olivia Mar­shall and Zac Fitz­gib­bon.

Cho­reo­graph­er Aroha Dav­id­son also stepped in at least once to round out a full rotat­ing cast includ­ing fur­ther altern­ates Nadia New­man, Lexi Suth­er­land, Jason Mack­iewicz, and Tara Terry – our fiery Mimi altern­ate on Wed­nes­day who steals the show.

Some­times you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone, and many missed out on this icon­ic pro­duc­tion due to its lim­ited sea­son and seat­ing at Gryphon Theatre.

My high­lights from watch­ing not one, but two nights include the heart­break­ingly beau­ti­ful romance by music­al super­stars Chris McMil­lan and Rachel Te Tau as Roger and Mimi, whose duet Light My Candle had me entranced from the start.

The troubled romance of Maur­een and Joanne, played by Sta­cey O’Brien and Caitlin McDou­gall, had us all cap­tiv­ated and enter­tained, with We’re Okay and Over The Moon being spec­tac­u­lar high­lights, so much so I had to men­tion it twice!

Such a tal­en­ted group under one roof – I don’t know how the roof didn’t explode! Must have been the wrangling of stage man­ager Kate Bain.

We all need a candle to light our way as we head into winter ourselves.

I feel bet­ter know­ing these bright stars, and catchy songs hold a place in my heart and I only wish there was a cast record­ing to keep it there. Instead, watch out for these names, and sup­port music­al theatre, because these angels are all worthy of Broad­way and they’ll be back.

Those Christ­mas bells are still ringing.