Director Timothy Hill Has Come Full-Circle In Reviving One Of Broadway's All-time Greatest Hits

Queensland-based director Timothy Hill was a typical '90s teenager when he first heard the original cast recording of beloved Broadway hit Rent, including the vocal talents of yet-to-be-household names Idina Menzel and Anthony Rapp. 

More interested in listening to Pearl Jam and Nirvana than his parents' penchant for Rodgers and Hammerstein, it was his older sister who first suggested he check it out. "Musical theatre wasn't really on my radar, but I listened to it and I was like, 'Oh my god, this is an entire story told as a rock opera,' with music that was so relatable to me and brought me right into it," he says, recalling the moment it all changed for him. 

Now 33, Hill managed to catch the show, very loosely based on Puccini's La Boheme, at its spiritual home of Nederlander Theater on 41st Street near Times Square not long before its 12-year run ended. "When Rent got put in front of me, it was a changing point. As I have progressed in my career as a director, bringing this show to Queensland Performing Arts Centre's (QPAQ) Cremorne Theatre feels like a really nice circle."

Starring Trent Owers as Angel, Stephie Da Silva as Mimi, Luigi Lucente as Roger, Kirrah Amosa as Joanne, Tom Oliver as Mark, Ruby Clark as Maureen and James Shaw as Tom, Hill admits to being a little scared at the prospect of re-staging it almost exactly 22 years after its first bow. "This show means so much to so many people, including me, so the first thing that goes through your head is fear and then you also feel a great deal of responsibility, because this was a game-changing show," he says.

With its racially and sexually diverse cast of characters, and in the way it depicted the HIV/AIDS crisis ravaging the bohemian arts communities in New York's lower east side, it really did shake things up in its day. The move to Broadway also came with an innovative approach to ticket pricing, with $20 tickets available on the day ensuring huge crowds of predominantly younger would-be audience members queuing up around the block and sometimes camping out to secure their spot. Becoming knows as Rent-heads, the term soon became more broadly applicable to any of the show's ardent fanbase, of which Hill is a proud member, but he had to find a way to make it his own.

"This show means so much to so many people, including me, so the first thing that goes through your head is fear, and then you also feel a great deal of responsibility."

"It's a show about a really specific time and to bring it back for a new generation, it's actually now a period piece," he says. 'The lower east side of New York doesn't exist anymore like it did back then, and certainly in America today, the way AIDS is affecting the population is very different. So that is probably the starting point for me: getting my head around finding a way back into that world but also asking, too, 'Why is that world relevant today?'"

In these tough times for creatives across Australia, one way in for Hill and his cast and crew was to focus firmly on the struggling-artist aspect. "That's still a very real thing today and yet we still choose to live our lives this way. It's probably not the easiest thing to do, but it's what we have to do and I think that's the way in for all of us, really."

While many musicals will evolve considerably as they make the move from off-Broadway onto bigger theatres and out internationally, Rent is in a fairly unusual position in that Jonathan Larson, writer of the Tony- and Pulitzer-award-winning show, tragically died of an aortic aneurysm the night before it opened. As a result, it has been left pretty much as is in tribute to his work. What that means, however, is that there are a few dramaturgical challenges inherent in bringing the show to life.

"With a lot of the characters, there are massive assumptions that are made about them without necessarily conveying that to the audience, and sometimes you get very little time to build the affection needed," Hill notes, pointing to Angel, a HIV-positive drag queen and percussionist, as a prime example. "He is incredibly important to the journey of the show, but you actually get very limited time with him on stage to do that."

Thankfully Owers has the abundant charisma to carry it off, Hill says. "It's a great challenge for an actor. It's so important that the audience falls completely in love with Angel and, luckily, with a guy like Trent, it's sort of hard not to fall in love with him the minute you meet him - that's part of the appeal in casting him in the first place."

Hill credits production designer Maria-Rose Payne, who recently worked on both Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok and DC's Aquaman in a cross-comic book house act of diplomacy, as a huge driving force behind their unique vision of Rent. "She has been a gift, because she's been absolutely with me in making that journey; ask who the artists were who were important to that time and place and you'll see a lot of their work intertwined into the design in such a beautiful way, including an Australian who was a big part of the New York scene then."

While One Song Glory is his personal favourite song from the musical, Hill has been thrilled by the ensemble's powerful rendition of Seasons Of Love. He hopes newcomers to the show will be as blown away as he once was by what he lovingly refers to as "the Hamilton of its day."

"I read a really interesting article recently about how Broadway is making a move back towards non-escapism theatre, and this was one of those early examples," he says. "We're not inviting the audience to come into the Cremorne to switch their brains off for two hours. We want to keep challenging them. These characters and their acceptance and love for each other in spite of the difficulties in which they live - I mean, I think they are lessons we can definitely still be taking on today, 30 years after it was set."

QPAC present RENT, playing until 20 May.