RENT REMIXED
It’s always strange when a show you worked on comes back into the news, and that is exactly what has happened with Rent. On 16th October 2007, Rent Remixed opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End - which has recently been renamed the Tom Stoppard Theatre.
I was the Musical Director, and although it was a relatively short chapter in my career, it’s one that I have never forgotten. Now, on 26th September 2026, Rent is returning to the same theatre. None of the cast or creative team from our production are involved in the new version, but there is something nice about seeing the show return to the same stage exactly nineteen years later.
Our production was certainly not a conventional Rent revival. The idea behind Rent Remixed was to take Jonathan Larson's musical and give it a completely new musical identity. William Baker directed, with Steve Anderson as Musical Supervisor, and the score was transformed from its familiar rock sound into something much more influenced by pop, electronica and dance music. For me, that made it a fascinating project as Musical Director. Steve's arrangements radically rethought the score, and it was an absolute joy to work with the performers and musicians on this new version.
We weren't trying to reproduce the Rent that audiences already knew. We were taking a very familiar piece of musical theatre and asking what it might sound and feel like if we approached it from a completely different musical direction. What I remember most is the exciting process of making the show - the rehearsals, the new arrangements, working with the company and musicians, and gradually hearing everything come together. At its heart, underneath all the remixing, was still Jonathan Larson's extraordinary collection of songs.
Nearly twenty years later, another company is about to walk onto the same stage and tell the story again. It will be a completely different production, with a completely different cast and creative team, but I'll always have a particular affection for the version that I was lucky enough to be part of. I find it wonderful that, after all this time, I can walk past the Tom Stoppard Theatre (the Duke of York's Theatre as I knew it in 2007) and remember standing inside that building, working on a very unusual version of one of the most famous musicals of the last thirty years. Rent Remixed ran at the Duke of York's Theatre from 16th October 2007 until 2nd February 2008.
The cast was made up of Luke Evans (Roger), Siobhán Donaghy (Mimi), Oliver Thornton (Mark), Denise Van Outen (Maureen), Jessie Wallace (Maureen), Leon Lopez (Collins), Jay Webb (Angel), Francesca Jackson (Joanne), Craig Stein (Benny), as well as Ruth Augilera, Alexander Forster, Lewis Griffiths, CJ Johnson, Antony Luperi, Earl R Perkins, Jamie Sampson and Phillipa Stefani.
The creative team was William Baker (Director), Daniel Kramer (Director), Simon James Green (Associate Director), Steve Anderson (Musical Supervisor), Steve Hill (Musical Director), Mark Bailey (Set & Costume Design), David Howe (Lighting Design), Sebastian Frost (Sound Design), Ashley Wallen (Choreography) and Terry Ronald (Vocal Arrangements).
You can listen to Luke Evans singing One Song Glory by clicking on the link below.
