On Monday night, members of the original Broadway cast of Rent—the iconic rock opera that dropped the plot of La Bohème into Alphabet City during the HIV/AIDS crisis—united with a sprawling company of theater talent to celebrate the show’s 30th birthday before a sold-out crowd at New York’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Rent played its first preview off-Broadway, at the New York Theatre Workshop, on January 25, 1996—the same day that Jonathan Larson, its 35-year-old composer and librettist, died suddenly at his home in Manhattan. Three months later, on April 29, it opened at the Nederlander Theatre, going on to earn 10 Tony nominations (the most of any production that season) and four wins, including for best musical.
After making stars of its young actors, including Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Taye Diggs, and Idina Menzel, Rent’s subsequent iterations across the country, in regional and touring productions, also helped to launch the careers of performers like Aaron Tveit, Brandon Uranowitz, and Norbert Leo Butz. (Its Broadway run ended in 2008, after a dozen years and 5,123 regular performances.) To mark 30 years of Rent—and to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS—nearly 70 actors and singers whose lives have intersected with the show in some way, from Neil Patrick Harris (who starred in the 1997 national tour) to Rachel Zegler (who had to quit a high school production to make her screen test for West Side Story), took the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne for a rollicking and emotional one-night-only concert. (The full thing is available to stream until 11 p.m.) On the scene to capture the staging’s stars was photographer Curtis Brown. See his portraits—and relive the concert’s joyous celebration of one of musical theater’s most groundbreaking and influential works—below. Anthony Rapp Adam Pascal Daphne Rubin-Vega Fredi Walker-Browne Wilson Jermaine Heredia Idina Menzel Rachel Zegler Aaron Tveit Nicholas Christopher Neil Patrick Harris Jordan Fisher Tracie Thoms Norbert Leo Butz Eden Espinosa Wilson Cruz Merle Dandridge Ephraim Sykes Tamyra Gray Will Chase Lencia Kebede Director Michael Greif
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