Pamela Raith Gaten Matarazzo remembers exactly where he was when he heard that beloved musical “Rent” was getting a revival on London’s West End — and that he had a shot at the lead role.
“The email came in when I was in the shower, and I scrambled,” he recalls, a grin spreading across his face. “I didn’t even grab a towel before I got on the phone to say, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’”
Matarazzo had just completed work on “Stranger Things,” the massive Netflix hit that had made him a star but also dominated his career for nearly half his life. He became a household name as the nerdy, lovable Dustin Henderson — but what many fans didn’t know was that he’d gotten his start on Broadway at age 9, playing roles in “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and “Les Misérables.” Though Matarazzo hadn’t been born when “Rent” premiered Off Broadway in 1996, it was an early favorite when he was a kid.
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