This year's feature musical from the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation is likely to raise a few eyebrows - and possibly a few hackles. Rent, Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical, loosely based on Puccini's opera La Bohhme, is concerned with, among other issues, HIV/Aids, homelessness and homosexuality - hardly the troupe's usual fare.
'The Youth Arts Foundation works with young people aged from five to 25, and we usually do a lot of stuff which is very secondary school-style musical theatre - shows such as Bugsy Malone, Godspell, Grease, Fame, Footloose - those sort of shows,' says the foundation's artistic director, Lindsey McAlister.
She is adamant, nevertheless, that Rent is an appropriate choice, and says it gave the group the opportunity to attract a cast from the upper end of its chosen age range: 'We'd wanted to do Rent for some time, but I suppose we hadn't been bold enough to give it a go because it is quite an edgy musical that deals with some hard-hitting issues.
'Last year we did Sweeney Todd and that was serious and very difficult musically. We felt the quality and calibre of young performers who we were attracting warranted being able to take on something as meaty as Rent. Knowledge empowers us, we should not shy away from exploring issues that are considered controversial for a youth cast.'
The scale of the production is impressive. Adapted and directed by McAlister, with musical director Scott Gibson, choreographer Jun Mabaquiao and production designer Marsha Roddy, the musical has a cast of about 50 actor/singers aged from their mid-teens to mid-20s.
The show also includes prerecorded material that has been filmed professionally.