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.