Kerry Ellis Rent Concert tour opens in Manchester, 25 April

A special touring concert celebrating 20 years of the hit musical Rent – featuring Kerry Ellis opens in Manchester for one night only in April.

Set in the East Village of New York City, Rent is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this musical has become a pop cultural phenomenon with songs that rock and a story that resonates with audiences of all ages. Based loosely on Puccini’s La Boheme, the show follows a year in the life of a group of friends struggling to make it in the big city under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

Kerry Ellis is well known on the West End stage but also as a recording artist with her debut album “Anthems.” Kerry originated the role of Meat, in Queen’s We Will Rock You and was the first British Elphaba in the West End smash, Wicked, for which Kerry won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Award for ‘Best Takeover in a Role’. She then immediately transferred to Broadway and played Elphaba at the Gershwin Theater for 6 months, where she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favourite Female Breakthrough Performance, before returning to London for 6 months in 2009. Her many other leading role credits include Nancy in Oliver! at the London Palladium, Eliza Doolittle My Fair Lady, Ellen in Miss Saigon and Fantine in Les Miserables.

Last month she starred in the Arena tour of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds alongside Jason Donovan and Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs when it came to Manchester and Liverpool.

The Rent 20th Anniversary Concert also stars Superstar runner up Rory Taylor and opens at the Manchester Opera House on 25 April.