Rent turns 30 with a special celebration

Two years after its Broadway debut, Rent is bringing generations of performers together for an anniversary concert benefiting Broadway Cares' Equity Fights AIDS. So more people just love the show, seeing any cast, because it's a great show. A lot of gratitude. It does feel like a long time ago in some ways, but also it was like yesterday. For rap, one opening night memory stands above the rest, seeing his mother in the audience. She was fighting cancer. night long I can look up at her and sing to her is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. That connection goes far beyond the stage. It's about community, it's about freedom, it's about self-discovery. And the fan club? It's star-studded. I thought it was like the coolest musical to exist. Harris went from fan to cast member and directed the show at the Hollywood Bowl. I've lived in Los Angeles, I auditioned for the Benny Company, I got cast as Mark in the Benny Company. Love and loss and the life that happens in between and how life really does just keep moving forward. For Jordan Fisher, discovering the cast recording helped him set his own course. It's all I listened to for like a year and a half, two years. Rent will always be the show that made me go, oh, maybe this is the thing that I really want to do. Three decades of memories also comes with a little perspective. We old. We old. Like an old folks home doing rent. No, It's so much fun. I'm sure you have so many different memories from doing Rent. What would be one of your favorite memories? Oh, gosh. I met Daphne Rubin Vega 15 minutes before the show, and then we had to make out 15 minutes later. So that was a memory. Hi, I don't know you at all. Let's make up. There are just so many memories. It's good to see all of them after so long. Different casts, different memories, and a score they're carrying with them. There's just so much of a deeper understanding for the lyrics and how precious life is and how precious love is. And picking a favorite song, that's a whole other production. Go-to Rent song, what would it be? What You Own. Another Day. Another Day. And Seasons of Love. It's a perfect, perfect, perfect anthem. Love You, Bo-Ams. That's probably my favorite. What about you? You don't want to hear my What You Own rendition in the shower, Neil, because it is epic. Is that right? Yeah. Do you sing both parts? Oh, I sing both parts. So one day we'll get together and we'll jam out to what you wrote. For original producer Kevin McCollum, the next generation can take a cue from how Rent began. Meet your friends, work with your friends, build your own stories. And hopefully the show has inspired many other writers to write a lot of their material. At the Richard Rodgers Theatre for News 12, I'm Joel Crump.