It’s officially better to Rent than to own in Edmonton thanks to Two One-Way Tickets to Broadway Productions.
For the first time ever, Jonathan Larson’s rock opera Rent is coming to town and stage director Martin Galba is glad the long wait is finally over.
“The Edmonton crowd is ready for Rent and we wanted to be the first to put it on,” said the Slovakian-born actor/director. “We’ve just been waiting for the rights to be released and that happened last year, so we decided to do this now.”
Rent tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to create, express and ultimately survive in New York City’s Lower East Side, under the grim shadow of AIDS.
“Those people who know musical theatre, who know Rent, they will appreciate the complexity of the musical,” Galba said. “It is extremely challenging vocally, emotionally and musically.”
Galba said 120 people auditioned for roles in the Broadway musical, so he was able to find the right talent and the right voices for the production.
“We were able to double cast,” Galba said. “We were actually able to find two people for every role.”
From June 18 to 26, Rent will be running matinees and evening performances at La Cite. Galba said the local actors will alternate performances between matinee and evening shows.
Tickets for the show are $25 plus service charges and are available through Tix on the Square.
