Exclusive: Gaten Matarazzo Says ‘Biggest’ Missed Opportunity Was Not Having Lin-Manuel Miranda Play Mark in RENT

Gaten Matarazzo is campaigning for a Lin-Manuel Miranda-led production of Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. 

Though the Stranger Things alum is currently playing the role of filmmaker Mark Cohen in the London production of the musical celebrating the show’s 30th anniversary, he would still geek out over watching the Hamilton creator do it.

While in the West End, Matarazzo exclusively tells BroadwayWorld that he and his co-stars purchased a link to the livestream of the 30th anniversary Rent reunion held on October 26 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City. 

“They started playing it in the theater,” Matarazzo explains. “I watched a good bulk of it, and it was so full of love. It was so wonderful. It’s exactly what it needed to be. And for it to be done on the Hamilton set … I got to know Lin over the course of the last summer and learn how much of a Renthead he is.” 

Matarazzo, who is part of the star-studded cast of Miranda’s upcoming film adaptation of Dave Malloy’s Octet, says that the Tony Award winner is the “epitome of the ultimate Renthead.” 

The tick, tick… BOOM! film director has, in fact, been very vocal throughout the years about his love for Larson’s musical about artists trying to get by in the Big Apple amid the AIDS crisis in the early 1990s. When Miranda first saw Rent for his 17th birthday, it changed the course of his life and relationship with the theater.  

“One of the biggest missed opportunities was his Mark,” Matarazzo tells BroadwayWorld, explaining that Miranda should’ve played the part by now. “I would’ve loved to see his Mark so, so bad.” 

“He’s obsessed with the show,” Matarazzo says. “He knows every lyric to this show. It is a huge contributing factor to why he joined this world of musical theater, and then of course was able to make one of the biggest impacts on it — several of the biggest impacts on it — of the 21st century, of musical theater history.” 

Watching the celebratory Rent revival via the livestream, “That’s what stuck out to me the most — seeing it done on that stage and knowing how much it must have meant to him and how full of joy and love it really is,” Matarazzo adds. 

The actor also points out that Larson’s work is so good, it doesn’t need a fully realized set or complete staging to still be effective.  

“Even though it’s not staged, even though it’s just a group of friends getting together after a few rehearsals and just having fun, it still resonates so much,” Matarazzo says. “You pan to the audience, and everybody is still weeping.” 

“It’s a testament to the show and how exceptional it is,” he adds. 

In an exclusive interview with BroadwayWorld, Matarazzo said the role of Mark is “difficult to navigate, and he’s hard to get right.”

However, he added, “That’s what’s been really fun about tackling him.”