By Cal
Link: https://hopemilltheatre.co.uk/events/rent-online £20
Available until: Shows Friday and
Saturday at 7.30pm and Sundays at 7pm. The final performance is Sunday 20th
December. The video is available from 7.15-11pm so you don’t need to watch it
live, but you do need to watch it on the same night.
Content warning: Drug-use, strong language & themes of adult content.
Parental guidance required for children under 15.
169 years ago, a man
called Henri Murger wrote a series of stories called Scènes de la
vie de bohème. This inspired not one but two composers to write an opera
called La bohème. Ruggero Leoncavallo’s 1897 opera is actually really
good, but it is Puccini’s 1896 opera that was embraced by the public – and
which inspired composer, lyricist and writer Jonathan Morgan to create a
musical based on La bohème but set in
Lower Manhattan in New York. Sadly he did not live to enjoy the success of the
musical, he died the night before the Off-Broadway premiere in 1996. But the
show has proved popular. There have been a number of UK productions including
three in the West End and one in a paper mill, as well as an eight-year run on
Broadway.
