Rent 'Remixed'

Duke of York’s Theatre - 5/11/07
7.45pm

When part of a plays’ soul is removed it rarely has a chance for survival, this is what has happened to RENT. The late Jonathan Larson’s play about a group of New Yorkers who live and survive while suffering in poverty under the shadow of AIDS.
‘Remixed’ by William Baker, the creative force behind pop concerts such as Kylie Minogue’s Showgirl tour. RENT is a shambolic cabaret of its former self, with direction so poor the actors seem completely unaware of what they should be doing while they are onstage.
In his programme notes, Baker explains his decision to ‘remix’ the show, arguing that, “The world is a very different place now to what is was when RENT first opened.” He also goes on to say that, in his opinion; RENT is about, “connection in an isolating age”.
Both points he makes are very valid; however, Baker fails in attempting to convey either of these points on stage, the only real suggestions we are given that this version of RENT is based in 2007 rather than 1996 is that the character of Mark uses a Hard Disk camcorder rather than an 8mm film camera.
RENT appears in my opinion to have actually been remixed to allow Baker to cast actors who are completely wrong for the character they are portraying.
The key example of this being Mark Cohen, the Mawkish, Broke, Angry, Jewish, New Yorker; who obsessively films everything he sees and acts as narrator to the entire show. In this ‘remixed’ version we are introduced to a flamboyant upper class Englishman who doesn’t seem to understand what either poverty or obsession are. The casting works about as well as if Dame Edna was cast to play Juliet.
The actors do their best with the confusing mess that Baker has given them; however they are constantly shown to be faltering when it comes to showing any real emotion as their character, the only exceptions coming from Francesca Jackson as Joanne and understudies Craig Stein and Jamie Sampson as Angel and Benny respectively.
RENT ‘Remixed’ is solid proof that a winning formula should never be messed with.