The famed Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway rock musical set in the scary late 1980s HIV era in New York’s East Village has long lured fans in Japan.
Playing the iconic adolescent in the musical’s central character, several promising young actors have acted the role of Mark — an independent film-maker who is also the story’s narrator — before using that as a springboard to further their careers.
In this new production, however, as a surprising and welcome casting, Koji Yamamoto, who played Mark in the first Japanese version in 1998, is set to reprise that role in what he’s said has been his heartfelt wish for the last 26 years.
Along with Yamamoto, the Japanese-American singer, songwriter and actress Crystal Kay plays the role of the bisexual performing artist Maureen, while American actors such as Alex Boniello, a star of the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen”, and Jordan Dobson — known as the prince of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cinderella” — also enhance the lineup for this glittering international collaboration along with Leanne Antonio from the Broadway and US national tour cast of “The Lion King”.
Commenting on this production, which is fundamentally based on 1996’s original version by Michael Greif, its director, Trey Ellett, said, “Koji Yamamoto has great sense of moving and acting, and he is a great singer and dancer. I was so impressed by his splendid talent. In the rehearsal studio, too, we have lots of fun and we can recognize the bonds of friendship just like the youth in “RENT”.
“RENT” is performed in English with Japanese subtitles. It runs Aug. 21–Sept. 8 at Tokyu Theatre Orb, a 3-minute walk from JR Shibuya Station in Tokyo. It then plays at SKY Theatre MBS in Osaka from Sept. 11-15.
For more details, please visit https://rent2024.jp/ or https://ko-umeda.pia.jp/.