Gaten Matarazzo is playing Rent in the West End. Here’s what changed after Stranger Things

Gaten Matarazzo is playing Mark in the West End revival of Rent at London’s Tom Stoppard Theatre, and a BBC Newsbeat interview published on 8 October explains how he is adjusting after Stranger Things. He says performing live means getting it right in front of an audience without the repeated takes available on a television set.

The difference is practical as well as artistic. Matarazzo told the BBC that a regular schedule and remembering to stay hydrated have been a refreshing change from filming. He calls the series that made him famous the greatest honour of his life, while saying he still wants to keep acting.

What Gaten Matarazzo said about life after Stranger Things

Matarazzo played Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things, which ran for five seasons. He told Newsbeat that filming finished in 2024 and that there is no more of the show to film. His comments describe a move into his current role, rather than a decision to leave screen acting behind.

Theatre gives him a rhythm he values. ‘My favourite part of theatre specifically is the schedule,’ he told the BBC, describing the appeal of going to bed and waking up at consistent times. Onstage, though, that routine leads to a performance he must deliver in one go: as he put it, there are no ‘thirty takes’ before a live audience.

Why Rent is a return to the stage

Rent is Matarazzo’s West End debut, according to the Guardian, but it is not his first musical. He told the newspaper that he made his Broadway debut at nine in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He left Les Misérables in March 2015 and booked Stranger Things that June, placing his early theatre work before the television role that brought him wider recognition.

The Guardian also reported that he appeared on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen in 2022 and Sweeney Todd in 2023, while Stranger Things was still part of his career. Asked about the advantage that television fame might bring to stage casting, Matarazzo acknowledged that his previous work probably played a significant role in opening up opportunities such as Rent.

In this production, Mark is a struggling filmmaker who chronicles the lives of his friends. The official Rent website names Luke Sheppard as director and lists Travis Ross as Roger alongside Matarazzo. That matters to the way the cast presents the show: Ross told the BBC it is an ensemble piece in which other performers also have their moments to tell the story.

What Matarazzo and the cast say about Rent now

Rent first opened off-Broadway in 1996. Its story follows young friends and artists in New York against the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the BBC notes that its focus on LGBT lives and social taboos was considered groundbreaking at the time. In the Guardian interview, Matarazzo stressed that the show’s HIV/AIDS setting should retain its historical specificity.

He has also pointed to a song that feels current to him. Matarazzo told Newsbeat that What You Own resonates as a reflection on information overload; in the Guardian interview, he likewise connected it to constant media noise. That is his reading of the song today, alongside the production’s original setting and themes.

Ross, who plays Roger, told the BBC that the show’s themes still ‘ring true’. He described a connection with audiences who care deeply about its message and called Rent a ‘really beautiful community-driven piece of art’. His comments also draw attention to the wider cast, even as Matarazzo’s television profile brings interest in this run.

How long is Gaten Matarazzo in Rent?

The production website says Matarazzo is currently scheduled to perform through 10 January 2027. It has not confirmed appearances after that date and cautions that a particular cast member’s appearance at any performance is not guaranteed. The schedule therefore gives audiences a current plan, not a guarantee for an individual show.

As for what follows, the interviews establish Matarazzo’s interest in continuing to act, not a fixed next job. For now, his move is concrete: after years identified with Dustin, he is performing Mark live in a West End production that draws on theatre experience he had before, and during, Stranger Things.