‘Rent’s’ Jesse Dutlow Is Ready To Be Your Angel

Jesse Dutlow might still be a little new to the world of musical theatre, but they’ve quickly established themselves a performer to keep your eye on.

When we speak, they’ve just celebrated three years since their professional debut at the Opera House, where they’ll be returning in September for a run of Rent as the ever-endearing Angel, an HIV-positive drag artist with a passion for life in the face of inevitable adversity.

Although they sang Seasons of Love with their church choir growing up, Dutlow hadn’t actually seen Rent until during the audition process. 

“I grew up in a really sheltered Christian environment,” they explained. “So it wasn’t accessible to me as a kid or as a teenager.

“When the show toured last year, I was doing & Juliet, and we were just in the wrong city at the wrong time. I so desperately wanted to go support mates who were in the show, but just didn’t have a chance.”

Dutlow’s not alone- they tell me some of the other principal cast members are new to the world of musical theatre and were introduced to Rent through the job. 

The show comes with a weighty legacy. Jonathan Larson’s 1996 rock musical is critically acclaimed, has several Tonys to its name, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. And for good reason: with its explicitly queer characters and exploration of HIV/AIDS, it sits solidly within the queer canon, introducing audiences to a world many of them didn’t know anything about.

Dutlow was with with classmates when they got the call from their agent that they’d booked the gig, 

“I was in full body chills and shaking because it just meant so much to me to be able to do this specific role,” they said. “I think a lot of the roles I’ve done are so informed by Angel- May in & Juliet, even Saltypringl in Fangirls. I don’t think you would necessarily have that specific kind of representation without roles like Angel. I just felt the weight of that, but also, such joy. So I was screaming. There’s a video somewhere.”

Angel is one of the more iconic characters in the musical, with many of the themes Rent tackles being explored through her. Although she’s written as a drag queen,  Angel’s gender identity is frequently up for interpretation. The language around trans and gender non-conforming people wasn’t quite nuanced enough at the time. However the other characters see how important her femininity is to her, referring to her using she/her pronouns throughout the show.

“There’s no label that can really justify her,” Dutlow says. “I think the script struggles with that a little bit. There’s pronouns and mistakes people make and question marks, and I kind of love that ambiguity. 

“I can really, really engage with that and understand what that’s like. For me, my professional career and my coming out as non binary kind of coincide.”

However, they said that in watching the film, there was a sense of grief in only meeting her for the first time as a 29-year-old. 

“If I had known her as a teenager, even in my early 20s- oh, my goodness, it would have opened up so much for me. I think I would have arrived there sooner. And I know that no one really arrives, it’s always a journey. I think young Jessie, really, really, really, would have loved her.”

It’s clear that Dutlow really feels the weight that comes with the role of Angel. For some, the idea that they could be that sort of representation for another young queer person might be overwhelming, but Dutlow balances it well. 

Off stage, Dutlow is studying to be a teacher, having majored in drama and English teaching, and completed a masters of secondary teaching. They say they’ve always loved engaging with young people, and have been working as a childcare music, sports, and gymnastic coach in Melbourne for the past six months.

“The only reason I’m on stage and being able to do what I do is because I’ve had great music and drama teachers through high school. So I wanted to kind of give back in that way,” they said. 

“I think being on stage is such a bubble, you kind of feel a little bit removed from the rest of the world…teaching is kind of my way of connecting back with the rest of the world.”

It’s an auspicious time to be bringing Rent back to Australia. Massively anti-queer legislation is being passed across the globe. Countries are redefining what it means to be a woman to exclude trans people from legally identifying as such, and US same-sex marriage is being challenged after barely a decade.

If anything, it’s times like this that the show was made for. 

“I think the climate now is falling back a little bit, and we as queer folk really have to push it back and say, ‘actually, no, I’m gonna hold my ground. I’m not gonna shrink back’, Dutlow says. 

“I think for me, I just feel like a bit of a warrior, like I’m fighting in a positive way, for that representation, for that change, for social access. For young people to be able to come to the Opera House and see this and say, that could be me. That is me.”

Tickets for RENT at the Sydney Opera House are on sale now.