Gaten Matarazzo Makes West End Debut in First Major 'Rent' Revival in 20 Years

Gaten Matarazzo opens Oct. 8 as Mark Cohen in the first true West End revival of "Rent" in two decades, directed by Olivier Award winner Luke Sheppard at the newly renamed Tom Stoppard Theatre.

The "Stranger Things" star, 24, landed the role after a frantic phone call. "The email came in when I was in the shower, and I scrambled," Matarazzo recalls. "I didn't even grab a towel before I got on the phone to say, 'Yes, yes, yes!'"

The timing carries weight: 2026 marks 30 years since "Rent" premiered Off Broadway in 1996, the night before its composer, Jonathan Larson, died of an aortic dissection at 35. The show went on, transferred to Broadway after three months and ran a record-breaking 12 years, winning a Tony for best musical and a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Matarazzo makes his West End debut in the part, though he is no theater novice. He started on Broadway at age 9, appearing in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and "Les Misérables," and calls Mark Cohen a dream role since childhood. He says he watched the 2005 film adaptation "100 times."

How did the director and star connect?

Matarazzo set up a meeting with Sheppard, fresh off the blockbuster "Paddington the Musical," which won him an Olivier Award and a direct-to-Broadway order. "Instantly I was like, 'Oh my gosh, you should play Mark. This is going to be magical,'" Sheppard says.

This is Sheppard's second staging of "Rent." His first, at Manchester's tiny Hope Mill Theatre, was interrupted by the pandemic in 2020 and ultimately presented as a socially distanced version that October, later livestreamed. "When I wanted to direct 'Rent,' I never imagined it with everyone six feet apart, not touching," Sheppard says. "It felt like unfinished business."

The new production retains the show's period and New York setting. "It's a history lesson, in the most incredible way," the director says. "It's so important that we never forget what the AIDS crisis meant, the fear that it created, what people were living with. There is a responsibility — a privilege — to being able to tell this story 30 years later, on behalf of the people who lived through that time."

Who joins Matarazzo onstage?

The cast skews young, mostly in their 20s, and each member arrived by an unusual route:

• Travis Ross, 25 (Roger), pursued musical theater after appearing in a kids' "Rent Jr." production 10 years ago in County Durham.
• Alexa Lopez, 24 (Mimi), joined after original star Bella Brown dropped out with a vocal injury before August rehearsals; Lopez got her visa and flew to London within a week of submitting a self-tape.
• Lazy Violet, 27 (Maureen), had largely left theater for songwriting until an agent spotted them on Instagram.
• Jeevan Braich, 20 (Angel), told Sheppard at 17: "Come hell or high water, I will be playing Angel."
• Billy Nevers (Tom Collins) delivers "I'll Cover You (Reprise)," a moment that drew a rare mid-show standing ovation at a preview.

"Angel is the bundle of hope in the show," Braich says. "They are just that guiding light."

Ross and Lopez, whose characters are both HIV-positive, leaned on raw authenticity for the musical's most wrenching scenes. "It's taken me a while to be like, 'OK, I don't have to be pretty out there — I can show what's real,'" Lopez says. "That's what will make audiences resonate with our characters — seeing real people, as opposed to characters in a musical."

The production continues the original's commitment to cheap day-of tickets, and preview audiences have skewed young. "I don't think we have to do that much acting, you know?" Violet says of rehearsals. "We're all crying our eyes out, and doing that eight shows a week ain't gonna be good for anyone's nervous system."

Sheppard, who has transferred several productions to Broadway, dismisses talk of a New York move. "Not even thinking about it," he says. "I just feel so privileged to do it in this theater, with these people, and I really just believe that timing is everything. Who knows?"

Matarazzo frames the revival in longer terms: the show, he says, can live on "for a 50-year anniversary, a 60-year anniversary — whatever that may look like down the road."