Rent announces cast

The cast has been announced for the Off-Broadway revival of Jonathan Larson's Tony Award winning musical Rent, that played on Broadway for over 12 years, opening at New World Stages on 11 Aug 2011, following previews from 14 Jul 2011.

The revival will once again be directed by Michael Greif, who helmed the original Off-Broadway and Broadway productions. The revival will be produced by Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum and Allan S. Gordon.

The cast will feature Annaleigh Ashford (Maureen Johnson), Margot Bingham (Alexi Darling, Roger's Mom, and others), Adam Chanler-Berat (Mark Cohen), Nicholas Christopher (Tom Collins), Arianda Fernandez (Mimi Marquez), Marcus Paul James (Mr. Jefferson, Paul, and others), Tamika Sonuja Lawrence (Mrs. Jefferson, woman with bags), Corbin Reid (Joanne Jefferson), Michael Rodriguez (Angel Schunard), Matt Shingledecker (Roger Davis), Ephraim Sykes (Benjamin Coffin III), Ben Thompson (Christmas caroler, Mr. Grey, The Man, and others), Michael Wartella (Steve, Gordon, Waiter, and others), and Morgan Weed (Mark's Mom and others). Also in the company is Sean Michael Murray, Xavier Cano and Genny Padilla.

The creative team will include choreographer Larry Keigwin; music supervisor Tim Weil; set designer Mark Wendland; costume designer Angela Wendt; lighting designer Kevin Adams; sound designer Brian Ronan, projection designer by Peter Nigrini.

Rent tells the story of a group of young artists struggling in New York's East Village in the early 1990's and the obstacles they face, including AIDS, homelessness, poverty, lack of healthcare, and homophobia.

Rent's sadly ironic tragedy of course, is that its young creator, 35 year old Jonathan Larson, never got to see his show's success, having died of an aortic aneurysm (possibly as a result of Marfan Syndrome) early morning 25 Jan 1996, after the show's final dress rehearsal the previous evening.

Rent first premiered on 13 Feb 1996 at New York Theatre Workshop where it played a sold-out engagement. It transferred to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre on 29 April 1996. The musical went on to win every major best musical award, including the Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award. Additionally, Rent is one of only eight musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In all Rent won four Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, two Theatre World Awards, and Obie Awards for its creator, director, and entire cast.

Rent closed at the Nederlander Theatre on 7 Sep 2008, after playing 5,124 performances and 16 previews. When the musial closed it was the seventh longest running show in Broadway history, and is currently Broadway's 9th longest running show.

In 2005 the screen adaptation of Rent was released by Columbia Pictures.