Rent Press Release

“I would have been happy to have paid £25 or even £30 to have seen this production of RENT!” This seemed to be a typical comment from ecstatic crowds leaving the Alexandra Theatre over the weekend having just paid £12.50 for the privilege of seeing a show that everyone is talking about.

RENT is about the onset of AIDs and debauched living in the eighties and was a spectacular success for Rox Music & Arts who produced it and The Alexandra Theatre who hosted the show, with almost three full houses and standing ovations for each of the (sadly) short run of three performances. Jamie Kluckers, theatre manager said, ‘My background is in professional theatre and the West End.

RENT was excellent and could easily have been a professional production. It was very high quality and could have been easily mistaken as a National Tour; not a local production. The lighting and the sound were amazing and the cast were fantastic. We were really sorry that it was only on for three days.Great, we can't wait for the next one"

Featuring cast selected from the local area as well as from Winchester, the Isle of Wight, Worthing and Hampshire this was an absolute treat for theatre lovers and ‘Rent Heads’ themselves as the story of love, illness and loss unfolded before a disbelieving audience. It’s hard to identify a particular character or actor that stood out because collectively this was a masterpiece. Jonathan Larson’s extremely intricate and complex harmonies were all treated with total respect and vocal coach Jedd should take enormous credit; visually it was beautifully directed and choreographed. Calling in favours from all quarters, Director Robbie Cameron managed to bring a small team of West-End theatre musicians together led by the energetic and highly talented Musical Director, Matt Greaves. Those in the know would recognise the name Gareth Owen who came down during the technical rehearsal to run his trained ear over the sound system, engineered excellently by Andi Johnson who worked on Rent remixed in the West-End only two years ago.

The Terrence Higgins Trust were present with a team of students from the local community college lead by Heather Ford and between them and the donation from the programme sales they managed to raise over £170 for the trust.

A final word is for the cast; what a well trained and talented bunch of performers! The songs were all moving and the characters so credible that it’s difficult to find anything to criticise them for. Leonn Summers who had to don tresses and dresses for the part of’ Angel’ the transvestite was courageous and excellently portrayed. Matt Sackman a strong and reliable ‘Collins’, Mike Brook and Amy Shurey were outstanding as ‘Roger’ and ‘Maureen’ but the star of the show was Charlie ‘Mark’ Frame. As the narrator he told the story with real honesty and passion and for a 17 year old, real maturity – look out for this guy in the future, he is currently training at Chichester College.



Robin Parker for Rox said, ‘I wasn’t really sure what to expect and to be honest I was totally blown away by the sheer skill, passion and professionalism from everyone concerned. I’d seen a few of the early rehearsals when the cast were just starting to get to grips with the intricate harmonies and melody lines and to see it all come together in this fantastic production was awesome and it was a fine example of what the Bognor community is capable of - a great shot in the arm!’ Overall this was a superb show and ‘congratulations’ to The Alexandra for hosting such a hard hitting and controversial piece of work. Rox Music & Arts look forward to working in partnership on other projects in the future.