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rent-1996_l
CAST OF RENTFrom left: Jesse L. Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Adam Pascal
Joan Marcus

Daphne Rubin-Vega, Mimi: I was in this Latino comedy troupe called El Barrio, USA. And I had a purple beeper, and I got beeped by an agent. She talked about this musical based on La Bohème. And I remember not wanting to hear the word musical. I never wanted to be Annie — that was not my thing.

Anthony Rapp, Mark: I was working in a Starbucks on the Upper East Side. I hadn't done a musical in years, and I went in and auditioned for this Off Broadway rock opera — and that phrase, admittedly, didn't fill me with a tremendous amount of confidence. After doing the ['94] production, it was very clear to me that this was something extraordinary. I kept saying to my friends, ''I think this is gonna make kind of a splash.'' These stories had not been told in a mainstream way. Two HIV-positive gay men, one of whom was a drag queen, falling in love. A lesbian couple. A straight couple who were HIV-positive. There was an authenticity that people could really connect to — suburban housewives, and small-town teenage girls, as well as gay men.

Seller and New York Theatre Workshop agreed to produce a full Off Broadway workshop of Rent in winter 1996. With Greif, Rubin-Vega, and Rapp already in place, casting began for the rest of the ensemble, as Larson struggled to shape the show.

Greif: Jonathan loved collaboration, in that he loved getting input, he loved getting opinions. He just ate and drank and slept and wrote the musical. I don't think there's any truth to the idea that he had problems with collaborating. He just wanted to collaborate all the time. [Laughs]

Larson: He would call and play each new song on the phone. Even if you weren't there.

Greif: I knew we had to cast it very authentically. It was very important to me that the flaws of the young characters were always evident, that their youth and naïveté was very much a part of what made them so likable.

Idina Menzel, Maureen: I was singing at weddings and bar mitzvahs all over the tri-state area. January and February are slow months for weddings, because it's cold. So I needed a job.

Taye Diggs, Benny: I had just gotten back from Tokyo Disneyland, doing this Caribbean carnival show. I remember making a conscious decision to focus on television and film, and this audition came up. I thought I was just gonna have a cool, artsy musical to put on my résumé and I could go back to trying to be a big fat movie star. I had no idea.

Jesse L. Martin, Collins: I'd been doing the whole regional theater thing up until then, and I was just psyched to be near home and doing a play. I was living in Tribeca. That's when Tribeca was nothin'. It was a no man's land. We were living in a straight-up ghetto palace.

Adam Pascal, Roger: I was working as a personal trainer. I was just intrigued by the concept of auditioning for something — which I've come to not be quite as intrigued by. After my first open call, I had three auditions, all in the same week. After the third time, I got a call: ''They want you to come back again.'' I was like, ''Are you kidding me? After seeing me three times they can't decide? F--- that!''

Seller: When I met Adam for the first time, he'd never been in a play in his life.

Martin: I had no idea that Adam didn't have any experience. He only said that later in the process. I was like, ''Wait. You've never, ever been on stage?'' He was like, ''I've been in a rock band...'' If he didn't know what he was doing, acting-wise, I never knew.

Pascal: I got the part. I wasn't head-over-heels. I was really more like, ''Okay, this is gonna be something new and interesting...and how am I gonna manage to keep my job from 6 to 10 in the morning while I rehearse all day and do the show at night?''

Seller: And within four months he's on the cover of Newsweek.

Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Angel: In the audition they asked, ''The character's a transvestite — do you have problems wearing heels?'' and I said, ''I'm an actor, I'll do anything.'' So we went to Trash and Vaudeville on St. Marks, and bought those platform heels. They hurt like hell.


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