Theater News

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway Set for Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand

Cast members Renee Goldsberry, Andrea Goss,
Tracy McDowell, and Rodney Hicks at the Life Cafe
(© Tristan Fuge)
Cast members Renee Goldsberry, Andrea Goss,
Tracy McDowell, and Rodney Hicks at the Life Cafe
(© Tristan Fuge)

Cast members Renee Goldsberry, Andrea Goss,
Tracy McDowell, and Rodney Hicks at the Life Cafe
(© Tristan Fuge)
Cast members Renee Goldsberry, Andrea Goss,
Tracy McDowell, and Rodney Hicks at the Life Cafe
(© Tristan Fuge)

Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway, a recording of the final performance of the legendary Broadway musical, is now available on Sony Home Pictures Entertainment on both DVD and Blu-Ray Disc, and iN DEMAND Networks and Sony Pictures Television will also offer the contents of the DVD to cable subscribers as a Pay-Per-View event, February 7-17, followed by a Video on Demand run, beginning February 18.

The DVD was directed by Michael John Warren, and includes such bonus features as “The Wall, “The Final Curtain,” “The Final Lottery,” and “Rent: The Final Days on Broadway.”

The closing night cast featured Will Chase as Roger, Adam Kantor as Mark, Michael McElroy as Tom, Tracie Thoms as Joanne, Justin Johnston as Angel, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Mimi, Eden Espinosa as Maureen, Rodney Hicks as Benny, Andrea Goss as Alexi, Tracy McDowell as Mark’s Mom, and Jay Wilkison as Gordon, some of whom attended a special launch party on February 2 at the Life Cafe in New York’s East Village.

Loosely based on the opera La Boheme, the show was written by Jonathan Larson, who died suddenly before its official opening at New York Theatre Workshop in the winter of 1996. The show would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize, and the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Score, among numerous other honors. The show completed its 12-year run at the Nederlander Theater on September 7 after 5,124 performances.