Frontmezzjunkies reports: The original cast and generations of performers reunite for a heartfelt celebration of Jonathan Larson’s enduring musical.
By Ross
I woke up the morning after watching Monday night’s 30th anniversary reunion concert with Rent songs playing on repeat in my head, and honestly, I don’t think I could have asked for a better way to begin the day. Some shows find their way into your life and simply refuse to leave, and Jonathan Larson’s extraordinary musical has been one of those shows for me for decades. In my 2021 piece about seeing Rent on Broadway in 1996, I described the experience as “a moment of connection that I will never forget,” “allowing me to cry once again for RENT’s savage beauty, its utter brilliance, for the loss of its creator.” Watching this celebration brought so many of those memories rushing back. Seeing the original Broadway cast together again, with Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Fredi Walker-Browne, and so many others, was a heartfelt reminder of the times I saw the show on Broadway, both with the original company and with all the remarkable replacements who carried its music forward. They all sounded spectacular.
Directed by original Rent director Michael Greif and staged on the Broadway set of Hamilton, the concert had the electricity of a live event in every sense of the word. Lines were forgotten, lyrics went sideways, and technical difficulties made their presence felt, but those little hiccups only added to the affection and excitement that filled the room to overflowing. With only eight hours to rehearse the entire event, what this company pulled off was astonishing. The asides to the Hamilton surroundings and contemporary references, including the nod to ChatGPT, gave the evening a sense of immediacy and magnificent mischief. It was also so lovely to watch these performers reconnect with a show that has been part of their lives and careers, from ‘Rent Live‘ to Broadway and well beyond it. You could feel the history in the room, but you could also feel the joy of people finding their way back into the music together.
And then, of course, there was “Seasons of Love.” Hearing the original cast, plus a few others like Aaron Tveit, Rachel Zegler, and Neil Patrick Harris, sing that song, surrounded by generations of performers whose lives have intersected with Rent, was almost unbearably moving. I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the theatre. The voices were glorious, the emotion was palpable, and every note carried the weight of the years that have passed since Jonathan Larson first brought these characters and their world to life, layered with the enormous sadness in knowing that he died before he could see just how far his work would travel, how many lives it would touch, and how deeply people like me would carry it with them. The concert streamed in support of Broadway Cares, which provides vital support to the theatre community.
Thirty years on, Rent still makes me feel everything at once: love, joy, grief, gratitude, and that ache of knowing how precious the time we have together really is. I woke up with its songs in my head because they have never really left me, and after this reunion, they are carrying even more weight than before. I wish Jonathan Larson could have stood in that theatre and heard what his music has become, heard those voices filling the room, and felt the love coming back to him from every direction. Such love. Such joy. Such sadness. No day like today, indeed.