Rent: Anthony Fedorov and Natalie Wachen

Anthony Fedorov and Natalie Wachen join the cast of the Off-Broadway revival of Jonathan Larson's Tony Award winning musical Rent on 11 Jul 2012, playing the roles of 'Roger' and 'Mimi' respectively.

Anthony Fedorov was a finalist on the 2005 season of "American Idol." He played 'Matt' in the off-Broadway revival of 'The Fantasticks.' His regional credits include 'Rent,' 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,' 'Cinderella,' and 'Hairspray.'

Natalie Wachen played the recurring role of "Lauren" in the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" and was featured in the web series "Tyler's Ride." Regional credits include 'Dreamgirls,' 'Show Boat,' 'Into the Woods,' 'Godspell,' 'West Side Story,' 'Ain't Misbehavin'' and 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'

In further casting news, Shaleah Adkisson assumed the role of 'Joanne' on 11 Jun 2012.

Shaleah Adkisson appeared in the Broadway production and first national tour of 'Hair.' Her regional credits include 'Ain't Misbehavin',' 'Grease,' 'The Hot Mikado' and 'Grease.'

The current cast of Rent is Shaleah Adkisson as 'Joanne,' Nicholas Christopher as 'Collins,' Arianda Fernandez as 'Mimi,' Josh Grisetti as 'Mark,' Emma Hutton as 'Maureen,' Justin Johnston as 'Roger,' Rashad Naylor as 'Benny,' MJ Rodriguez as 'Angel,' as well as Margot Bingham, Amber Iman, Marcus Paul James, Aaron LaVigne, Taylor Trensch, Morgan Weed, Xavier Cano, Sean Michael Murray and Genny Lis Padilla.

The Off-Broadway revival of Rent opened at New World Stages on 11 Aug 2011, following previews from 14 Jul 2011.

The musical opened to mixed reviews: [Does not] warrant revisiting (NY Times); Appealing young ensemble animates (Bloomberg); A museum-like quality strangely pervades (Newsroom Jersey).

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

The creative team includes 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.