RENT Opens 4/7 at Suffolk University C. Walsh Theatre

The smash-hit musical RENT, Jonathan Larson's legendary rock opera, opens April 7th at the Suffolk University's C. Walsh Theatre. RENT recounts the struggles and dreams of a group of young friends in Manhattan's gritty East Village in the 1990's. Winner of the Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize and Richard Rodgers Award, this rock musical sensation explores eternal themes of youthful passion and rebellion.

Says Marilyn Plotkins, Chair of the Suffolk University Theatre Department,

"RENT reflects the struggle of people fighting to survive within the city's ceaseless re-invention. We are privileged to have SpeakEasy Stages' Paul Melone as our guest director. He and his extraordinary team of theatre artists have led with enormous vision and creativity to tell this deeply moving, timeless story. Our students in the ensemble have given so much of themselves to this production. Their individual and collective performances are remarkable."

Eliot Norton award-winning director Melone leads the 16-member Suffolk University student cast. Musical direction is by Scott Nicholas with choreography by David Connolly. Soaringly beautiful and at times raucous and loud, the music of RENT delights audiences with songs like the rock-anthem title track, "Rent", the bittersweet "Seasons of Love" and heartwrenching "Light My Candle."

Melone is the General and Production Manager at SpeakEasy Stage Company where he has overseen and executed all aspects of physical production for over eighty plays, musicals, cabarets and special events. Melone reminisces,

"In 1997 I camped out at dawn in a sleeping bag on a Boston sidewalk under a theatre marquee. I was going to get my ticket to RENT, for a front row discount seat inches from the stage. I did not go as a fan but as a tourist, a skeptic, wary of the hype. That show cracked my young theatre-mind wide open. I thought musicals were about limitations and rules - but RENT broke every one of them."

RENT will be the final Suffolk University Theatre Department production in the C. Walsh Theatre.

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