Full casting has been announced for the 20th Anniversary Concert tour of Rent. Joining previously announced Kerry Ellis as Mimi and Rory Taylor as Rodger are: Paul Ayres (Mark), Nikki Davis-Jones (Maureen), Leon Lopez (Collins), Ian Stroughair (Angel), Jemma Alexander (Joanne) and Kenny Thompson (Collins).
Speaking to West End Frame during a recent interview, Kerry Ellis said "I am looking forward to the show. I haven’t really got my head round it yet as it's crazy busy for me right now, but I love the songs from Rent and the beauty of being in a concert is that you get to sing songs you wouldn't usually get to sing. I'm looking forward to working with Rory Taylor again who joined me as a guest at my recent residency at the Hippodrome. He’s a rock star and I think the concert will be great fun."
Set in the East Village of New York City, RENT is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this musical has become a pop cultural phenomenon with songs that rock and a story that resonates with audiences of all ages. Based loosely on Puccini's La Boheme, the show follows a year in the life of a group of friends struggling to make it in the big city under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
The tour will visit city's including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Cardiff and Glasgow.
For more information and to book tickets, please visit www.rentinconcert.co.uk
So, no great black voices available for Joanne, then? Jonathan wrote Rent as, amongst other things, a celebration of all races together. He must be spinning in his grave.
ReplyDeleteIf it were a level playing field for all races in all roles, regardless of text, songs and era, fine, but as it is, white MT performers are slowly being allowed to corral the major roles that are traditionally written and cast as black, while blacks are only rarely and against the odds cast in trad white roles, ie, 'Javert' in 'Les Mis'. "'Little Shop of Horrors' scarcely has the Chiffon, Crystal and Ronnette girls as black now, despite the fact that that is clearly how they are written.
This really makes me angry, because there are thousands of fantastic black voices out there, thousands of brilliant singer/actors. I hope black people boycott this production.