Denise Van Outen to Star in Revised West End Production of Rent

You're the One That I Want host Denise Van Outen is set to play the role of Maureen in a "new, contemporary" version of Jonathan Larson's Rent in the West End. This "remixed" production begins performances at London's Duke of York's Theatre on October 2 and opens on October 16.

Van Outen's theater credits include starring as Roxie Hart in both the West End and Broadway productions of Chicago, Tell Me on a Sunday, Les Miserables, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Stop the World. Before co-hosting the U.S. reality show to pick the stars of the current Broadway revival of Grease, she appeared on London TV in The Big Breakfast with Johnny Vaughn and This Morning and served as a judge for for the BBC's reality casting program Any Dream Will Do.

The full cast of Rent features Siobhan Donaghy as Mimi, Luke Evans as Roger, Oliver Thornton as Mark, Leon Lopez as Collins, Jay Webb as Angel, Francesca Jackson as Joanne and Craig Stein as Benny. The rest of the cast includes Ruth Augilera, Jamie Sampson, Antony Luperi, Earl Perkins, Lewis Griffiths and Philippa Stefani.

Directed by William Baker, this new version of Rent has been reworked and re-orchestrated by Baker and Steve Anderson, the creative team behind Kylie Minogue.

Larson's show opened at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1996, and is still running. Rent first came to London in 1998, in a recreation of Michael Greif's original staging, where it ran at the Shaftesbury Theatre for 17 months. It subsequently had another West End run, in a different production, at the Prince of Wales Theatre in December 2001.