Like the '90s, this show is cool again

If I said it was Rent, you might well jump at the chance.

Or not. There was a time, not so long ago, when Rent was the epitome of '90s cringe - earnest, navel-gazing and self-absorbed.

But fashions change and the '90s are back, and so is Rent. It's now, well and truly, a period piece, but one whose time has come again.

A new production of composer-librettist-lyricist Jonathan Larson's musical - which is much more than the cynical, somewhat tongue-in-cheek assessment above - is coming to the Canberra Theatre as the final destination on its Australian tour.

The production has strong links to the ACT. Lead producer Lauren Peters, associate producer Toby Francis, and one of the lead actors, Thndo, all have ties to the nation's capital. And they all understand one of the show's central tensions, idealism versus pragmatism.

Rent has been presented many times but like Puccini's opera La Boheme, its inspiration, can still appeal to a large audience.

But it seemed, for a while, that the show's time might have passed.

It's now a cultural artefact of its era, like grunge and cargo pants. And some of its specificity has dated it. The music ranges from Broadway to pop to rock, a sometimes uneasy mix. Lots of people, not just impoverished and indolent artists, face financial challenges nowadays.

As often happens, Rent lost its cool for a while when tastes and the zeigeist moved on. The 2005 film version of Rent was a flop and an off-Broadway revival in 2011 barely lasted a year.

But what's old can and often does become new again. It helps if there's something timeless at its core.

"It's about love. Love never gets old," Peters says.

There's also the idealism and passion of youth, which, though sometimes self-indulgent and misguided, has its own power, both for the young and for those who can remember how they once were.

And there's the underdog factor, the cruelty of devastating illness and early death, and how those who remain cope and persevere.

All this helps Rent transcend its origins - like the 1960s relic Hair, it's a period piece that can still appeal.

The premiere of Larson's rock musical was a triumph marked by tragedy.

Larson spent years working in a New York City diner to support himself while he wrote and composed, hoping and preparing for a big break.

Rent was presented in a workshop production at an off-Broadway theatre in 1993 and had its premiere there on January 26, 1996, but Larson did not live to see it. He had died suddenly of an aortic dissection the day before, aged 35.

A few months later the show moved to a Broadway theatre. It ran for 12 years and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including best musical, book and original score.

Rent tells the story of a group of artistic types struggling to get by in New York's Lower East Side. Among them are Mark (Noah Mullins), a documentary filmmaker, and his musician roommate Roger (Jerrod Smith) who is HIV-positive, as is Roger's girlfriend Mimi (Martha Berhane), a stripper, who lives in the apartment below them.

Then there's Maureen, a performance artist who used to be Mark's girlfriend and is now involved with Joanna, a public interest lawyer, and Tom Collins (Nick Afoa), an anarchist professor with AIDS who is in a relationship with Angel (Carl De Villa) a drag queen who also has AIDS.

Their former friend Benny (Tana Laga'aia) married into a wealthy family and is now Mark, Roger and Mimi's landlord, which creates its own tensions.

The title Rent has a double meaning - not only do the characters struggle to pay their rent, but they're also torn - between commitment and the fear of being hurt, between obligations and desires, between idealism and reality.

Peters and Francis met while in a Hawker College production of Grease and both moved to Sydney to pursue careers in show business.

Mounting a musical is in itself a combination of idealism - wanting and having the confidence to create and offer something - and pragmatism: what will work? will it sell? how can it be organised?

Francis studied at the Australian Institute of Music and Peters at Enmore Design Centre and became involved with the Hayes Theatre Company, working and learning as well as pursuing other activities together and separately.

Peters designed The Drowsy Chaperone and High Fidelity at the Hayes, with Francis playing the lead in the latter.

He also starred in the Australian premiere of Kinky Boots and toured with the Ten Tenors.

In 2015 Peters and Francis co-produced Rent at the intimate Hayes venue, with some seed funds from the theatre as well as their own money. It was mounted on a co-op basis for about $60,000.

The production made money and everyone involved got paid - it was so successful it had a return season the following year.

Francis, like his colleagues, does not remain idle between gigs. He worked at the bar in the Hayes to support himself, has created his own shows, and recently moved to London to pursue opportunities there.

He says that while the somewhat shiftless characters in Rent have an obnoxious side, they are relatable, especially to people in the arts, in their ambition and desire to connect, not only with their own self-made community but with their creations with others.

"You see what they're trying to do."

The Zimbabwe-born Thndo (real name Thando Sikwila) grew up in Canberra and knows about juggling art and responsibilities and seeking opportunities.

Thndo knew what she wanted and wasn't going to let anything stand in her way.

As well as being an actress, she is a single mother and an R&B songwriter and singer who appeared on The Voice in 2022 and has recorded her own music. She's committed to her work.

"I have no choice but to be good at what I do."

After the Hayes Rent revival, Peters went on to produce Catch Me If You Can and Cry-Baby and co-produced another production of Rent at the Sydney Opera House in 2021.

This new touring production of Rent was a much greater undertaking than anything she'd attempted.

"Everything got bigger and bigger...the venues got bigger, the cast got bigger.

"People were excited by it," she says.

Peters assembled a seasoned creative team - opera, musical and theatre director Shaun Rennie, musical director Andrew Worboys and choreographer Luca Dinardo - to bring this Rent to the stage.

The production began its tour in Brisbane in February with 42 people on the road - cast, crew and a five-piece rock band - with a budget of about $4 million, with some Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) funding, a number of Australian and overseas investors, as well as ticket sales.

Canberra Theatre Centre director Alex Budd saw the original Australian production of Rent in 1999 and remains a fan - "It's so raw and revolutionary" - so he was receptive to having the production come to the theatre.

Rent is, he says, one of a number of latterday Broadway musicals, like the rap-based Hamilton, that don't just play things safe but test and expand the form.

And when such creations strike a chord with audiences, they can be huge hits that are eminently revivable when the time is right.

And this production has been a success with audiences, Peters says.

Rent is speaking to people again.

Shows such as Rent have proven successful touring on a relatively modest scale.

However, to attract really large-scale productions, the Canberra Theatre Centre needs a larger space to make them economically viable for producers - and is in the process of getting one.

Budd says the planned, long-anticipated 2000-seat theatre "is halfway through a long design process".

It might be built by about 2028, he says, but "there are no guarantees in these things".

Even so, producers, who plan years in advance, have already expressed interest in bringing bigger shows to Canberra as part of their national tour schedules - not just commercial musical theatre but concerts and productions from the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia.

Not only will the new theatre add another performance venue to Canberra, it has the potential to be of significant economic benefit to the city.

Budd hopes the upcoming larger space and its offerings will help make Canberra a theatre destination, with visitors planning shows as part of their itineraries here rather than going to other big cities to see them.

Modestly scaled touring productions regularly come to the Canberra Theatre Centre. Two 21st-century musicals, Come from Away and Six, were recent hits, suggesting new shows can take their place alongside the familiar favourites. Come From Away is set in the relatively recent past - it's about a Canadian town that faced an influx of people on September 11, 2001 - and Six recasts the wives of Henry VIII as competing pop divas.

But the classics keep coming too. A touring production of another musical that found a new lease on life, Chicago, is scheduled for later this year.

Just imagine what might come to town when we have that new venue.