Rent immersive production casting announced

Full casting has been announced for the upcoming promenade production of Rent, which opens at the world's oldest working paper mill next month.

Connor Dyer (Parade) will play Mark, with Aran Macrae (Bat Out of Hell) as Roger. Lizzie Emery and Casey Bird will make their professional debuts as Mimi and Maureen respectively. Natalie Winsor (Dirty Dancing) will play Joanne with Benjamin Froehlich as Tom and Andrew Rawlinson-Heath as Angel. Dom Curtis will also make his professional debut as Benjamin Coffin III.

Loosely based on Puccini's La Boheme, Jonathan Larson's award-winning musical follows a year in the life of a group of impoverished artists struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. It features the songs "Take Me Or Leave Me", "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Boheme".

The rest of the cast includes Daniel Mack Shand, Ben Hutt, Iona Crampton, Gabrielle Jones, Danielle Cross, Ruby Young, Megan Ellis, Rebecca Brough, Harriet Doyle, Mia Yuill, Chris Gannon, Eva Solange Bortalis and Tre Copeland-Williams.

The promenade event will be staged at the Frogmore paper mill in Apsley from 10 to 21 July, and will be the second professional production to help restore the life and use of the mill following the venue's Parade last year. Audiences will move throughout the building during the performance.