Remixed

Rent was a big hit the first time round, so they decided to do what most musicians do to try and squeeze as much life (and money) as possible out of a song; they remixed it.
As most remixes tend to be overproduced pap, a lot of people were wary of Rent Remixed, although there were the few that had faith that the original hit would be even better with a bit of 21st century spice added to it.

Unfortunately it seems they were wrong. Atrocious, rubbish, disappointing, hideous and dire are the words used by unimpressed theatre-goers (that's not even the critics.)
With ex-Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy taking the key role of Mimi, some audiences were impressed by her vocals, others less so, but most agreed that her acting left much to be desired.

Denise Van Outen has earned respect in the West End for her solid performances in hits such as Chicago, although she hasn't personally received much criticism for her role as Maureen, even she couldn't save the show from the harsh words being thrown at it.

What about the music? They've plastered club beats all over the songs to give them that 21st century vibe of course and does it work? Did the Boogie Pimps version of Somebody to Love work? That'll be a no then.

The original, based on Puccini's La Bohème, was hailed by the New York Times as the return of the musical that dared to “take the culture's temperature and catch its tempo.”

That worked. Unfortunately the people behind Rent Remixed, who are also the people behind Kylie shockingly, thought this culture's temperature was tepid and the tempo was dance nation. This doesn't work.

This is a typical example of 'it it ain't broke, don't fix it' and Rent certainly wasn't 'broke' and didn't need any fixing or remixing.

Rent Remixed is showing at the Duke of York's Theatre on St Martins Lane.