Review Roundup: What Did The Critics Think Of Gaten Matarazzo in RENT?

Set in New York's East Village, Rent follows a group of young artists, musicians and friends, navigating love, ambition and creativity while trying to build lives on their own terms. Inspired by Puccini's La Bohème, this iconic musical captures the joy, uncertainty and resilience of a generation determined to make every moment count. Featuring an unforgettable score and a story that continues to resonate, Rent is a powerful celebration of community, connection and a call to live every minute as if it were your last. No day but today.

The production stars Gaten Matarazzo as Mark, Travis Ross as Roger, Alexa Lopez as Mimi, Billy Neversas Collins, Lazy Violet as Maureen, Olivier Award nominee Danielle Fiamanya as Joanne, Jeevan Braich as Angel and Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Benny. 

What did the critics think?

Rent is currently booking at The Tom Stoppard Theatre until 29 May 2027

Photo Credits: Pamela Raith

Aliya Al-Hassan, BroadwayWorld: The decision to bring some of the audience on stage works best for those who want to be right in the thick of it, especially as the cast spend much of the time sitting on chairs around the central stage animatedly waiting their turns to be part of the 'central stage' action. Sheppard also makes full use of the revolve, allowing for minimal disruption to sightlines, but The Tom Stoppard stage is not the biggest and there are points where the action feels overly crowded.

Marianka Swain, London Theatre: Matarazzo is a genial guide as wannabe documentary filmmaker Mark, and particularly funny when paired with Joanne, the new partner of his high-maintenance ex (their “Tango: Maureen” features great physicality from both him and the excellent Danielle Fiamanya). Strong too are Travis Ross as angsty musician Roger, Alexa Lopez as his desperate drug-addict girlfriend Mimi, and Lazy Violet as self-absorbed performance artist Maureen.

David Jays, The Guardian: This show gives good value to Larson the composer – the band gunning through the score up on a gantry, the cast unleashing some rib-shaking vocals. Larson the lyricist emerges less well, engulfed by a wall of sound. The revival is produced with devotion but, nudging three hours, also needs dramaturgical tough love. Some lachrymose ballads don’t earn their stage time, while Maureen’s dairy-based activism (“Moo for me!”) has lost its bite. Keeping eight principal characters in play is tricky – Mark too often fades from his own story.

Clive Davis, The Times: A battery of TV screens flicker into life whenever Mark takes up his camera and tries to capture the whirlwind sweeping all around him. As Angel, Jeevan Braich makes a convincingly doomed drag queen. The alt-rock singer who goes by the name of Lazy Violet brings a raucous edge to Take Me or Leave Me, Maureen’s duet with Danielle Fiamanya’s Joanne. Joaquin Pedro Valdes adds a villainous sheen to Benny, the yuppie landlord who suddenly sees the light. Even if the show’s ending is improbably upbeat, this musical still burns brightly.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: Sure, the ending is tritely feel-good, but a bit of schmaltz can’t hurt. With its carpe-diem affirmation of creative liberty over conformity and encroaching technology, the show echoes the hopes and fears of the Hair generation, will remind Generation X of its bittersweet, Aids-blighted heyday and should also speak to the doom-scrolling, cash-strapped youth of today.

Tom Wicker, The Stage: And while the characters are, perhaps necessarily, compressed into types, the cast makes you care. Matarazzo is the big name, but Mark’s role as quasi-narrator often leaves him, engaging as he is, on the sidelines. As mismatched, incorrigibly in-love couple Maureen and Joanne, Lazy Violet and Danielle Fiamanya make their clashes sing – quite literally, in Take Me Or Leave Me, Larson’s irresistibly catchy anthem to difference.

Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: Sheppard’s direction is also cleverly paced, letting big scenes – Maureen’s “arty” performance to demand proper housing for the homeless, the meeting at the Life Café – unfold with panache, while keeping the focus on the individual stories that are being told. The actors are all are terrific. Travis Ross constantly suggests the man Roger might have become, if illness hadn’t destroyed his prospects; Alexa Lopez is a brilliantly agonised Mimi while Lazy Violet suggests just the right amount of kookiness for Maureen.

Louis Chilton, The Independent: It works, then, that Luke Sheppard’s production opts to reiterate more than reimagine, in everything down to the costumes (designed by Gabriella Slade, they have that familiar shabby, chic Rent look). There have been some technological advances since its original staging in 1993 – a judiciously used rotating floor works wonders as Ross sings the mournful “One Song Glory” early on, while live footage from Mark’s video camera is frequently fed through live to a constellation of retro TV screens dotted around the peripheries. But by and large, this is Rent as you’ve seen it before; the musical’s fresh relevance is supplied, by the audience, and the changed world that lurks outside the theatre.

Average Rating: 77.5%