Get to know the West End cast of 'RENT'

The exciting company is led by Gaten Matarazzo and also features Bella Brown, Daniella Fiamanya, Billy Nevers, and Jeevan Braich.

Summary

• RENT is having a major revival in the West End
• The cast is led by Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo
• It also features Bella Brown; Billy Nevers and Travis Ross
• Other cast members include Lazy Violet; Danielle Fiamanya; Jeevan Braich and Joaquin Pedro Valdes

There’s no day but today… to welcome the incredible cast of RENT! Jonathan Larson’s era-defining musical, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The show is returning to the West End for a major revival at the Duke of York’s Theatre, and producers have now announced the talented company.

They’ll be taking on iconic roles like filmmaker Mark and his bohemian friends who live in New York’s East Village, creating art, falling in love, and fighting for survival – all while singing legendary songs like “Out Tonight”, “Take Me or Leave Me”, “One Song Glory”, “Light My Candle”, “La Vie Bohème”, and of course “Seasons of Love”. Get to know this exciting cast ahead of your trip.

Book RENT tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Gaten Matarazzo

Matarazzo leads the show as our guide and narrator; his character Mark is a struggling documentary maker. The actor is best known to fans for playing lovable Dustin Henderson in the beloved Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things. But he’s an experienced stage actor too, with Broadway credits including Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, Godspell, and Dear Evan Hansen, as well as Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl. RENT marks his West End debut.

Travis Ross

Ross plays Roger, Mark’s roommate, a troubled musician who is a former drug addict and is HIV positive. The actor recently played Bobby in the acclaimed West End production of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, and his other work includes West Side Story, 42 Balloons, Cake: The Marie Antoinette Playlist, and, on screen, TV series Vera and Apple TV+’s upcoming crime thriller The Wanted Man.

Bella Brown

Brown plays Mimi, an exotic dancer who struggles with drug addiction and is also HIV positive. She forms a bond with Roger. Rising star Brown impressed as Rapunzel in the Bridge Theatre’s revival of Into The Woods, and also as the Mistress/Alternative Evita in the West End’s smash-hit revival of Evita. Her other West End work includes Hadestown and Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends.

Billy Nevers

Nevers plays Collins, an anarchic computer-age philosophy professor, and a gay man who is living with AIDS. Never is currently playing Simon/Alternate Judas in the electrifying Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium. He previously starred as Aaron Burr and Lafayette/Jefferson in Hamilton’s first UK and Ireland tour, and his other work includes Groundhog Day, & Juliet, and Legally Blonde.

Lazy Violet

Performer and musician Violet is reprising the role of Maureen, a charismatic, flirtatious performance artist who begins dating Joanne after previously being with Mark; they previously played Maureen in Landmark Theatre’s RENT. Violet’s other work includes SIX in the West End, as well as on the UK tour and for Norwegian Cruise Line, and Public the Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Danielle Fiamanya

Fiamanya plays Joanne, a well-educated lawyer with powerful parents and Maureen’s long-suffering partner. Her numerous credits include her Olivier Award-nominated performance in Brigadoon at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, as well as The Secret Life of Bees, Macbeth, Mandela, Otherland, The Color Purple, and appearing in the original West End casts of & Juliet and Frozen.

Jeevan Braich

Braich plays Angel, a good-hearted young drag queen who has AIDS and who forms a relationship with Collins. Braich shot to fame starring as Rusty in the hugely popular revival of Starlight Express at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. He won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Professional Debut, the Stage Debut Award for Best Performer in a Musical, and was nominated for a Black British Theatre Award.

Joaquin Pedro Valdes

Valdes plays Benny, Mark and Roger’s former friend and roommate, who married into a wealthy real estate family – and is now the duo’s uncompromising landlord. Valdes’s theatre work includes Death Note in the West End, the UK and Ireland tour of The Lion King, The Frogs at Southwark Playhouse, The Lightning Thief at The Other Palace, and The Baker’s Wife and Pacific Overtures at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Book RENT tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: The cast of RENT (Photos by Oliver Rosser and Jenny Anderson)