Broadway Rewind: Adam Kantor Takes BroadwayWorld Backstage at RENT

On this day in 2008, the long-running, Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent closed on Broadway after 12 years and 5,123 performances. 

In 2008, in celebration of the show and its history-making run, BroadwayWorld gave the cast a video camera so they could give us their view of life backstage.

Check out the video!

The closing cast of Rent included Tracie Thoms who starred as Joanne in the movie of Rent and came to the Broadway company in the same role as well as Will Chase as Roger, Reneé Elise Goldsberry as Mimi, Eden Espinosa as Maureen, Michael McElroy as Collins, Adam Kantor as Mark, Justin Johnston as Angel, Rodney Hicks as Benny with Shaun Earl, Andrea Goss, Marcus Paul James, Telly Leung, Tracy McDowell, Jay Wilkison, and Gwen Stewart ("Seasons of Love" soloist). Rodney Hicks and Gwen Stewart were both in the original company of Rent and have rejoined the cast to close the show.

Rent, written by Jonathan Larson and directed by Michael Greif, opened at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre, on April 29, 1996. The musical tells a story of a group of destitute artists and musicians struggling to survive and be heard in New York's Lower East Side. Rent was one of the first Broadway musicals to feature an ethnically diverse cast, including homosexual and bisexual characters.