Rent - Drama Barn
The Drama Barn never really comes across as the best place to put a musical but Rent twists that, almost feeling like it would struggle in a bigger place. Following the recent spurt of using the Barn's back room, Rent sort of meanders about at the beginning before kickstarting with the cast frantically ushering you into the seating area. And from that moment, it doesn't let up.
The set, three levels with the band in the centre, was a great concept, providing lots of locations and meaning that the cast could really fill the space when they needed to. The lighting did a similar thing (note: while watching The Producers the week before, I was struck by how much more difficult lighting the stereotypical 'musical' can be) - helping to set the scenes and in some cases - Angel's exit - give some of the best non-singing moments in the piece. Rent isn't the best story by any means but the songs are catchy as hell and nearly all of them sound sort of familiar. The direction (Tom Ryalls) has all the touches of a Third-Year final production in the Barn - I think it'll be a while before we see something so accomplished that understands the dynamics and intricacies of the space so well. Similarly, the movement/choreography really help the sense of fun that this production had.
It's hard to single out specific actors. The ending (I saw the final show) was testament to how close the cast had become and for good reason. Nobody really stands out because the performances are so high; there are some great acting performances, some great vocals, some great all-round performances but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't improve the show in the some way.
Being fair, it's not the perfect production by any means. It's very polished and very enjoyable but some bits don't hit it for me - a couple of songs felt like the person was doing laps of the stage while singing and some of the humour didn't translate. I enjoyed the production so much that I watched the film a couple of days later and actually if the production were less faithful to the film then I think it might have been improved.
Does the nitty-gritty matter though when I (and the rest of the audience) had such a good time? I'd probably say no. By all accounts, the Barn was packed for four nights and nobody has been anything other than positive about it. It's definitely not easy to do a musical well, even without the added difficulties of the small space, but it did a brilliant job. Rent was a smash.
