Rent Original Cast Album Will Receive Vinyl Release for 30th Anniversary

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Jonathan Larson’s Rent, the musical’s Original Broadway Cast Recording will be released on vinyl for the first time November 13.

Created in collaboration with the Larson estate and members of the original cast and creative team, Rent: Original Broadway Cast Recording (30th Anniversary Edition) will be newly mastered for vinyl by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. The three-LP set will be available in the standard black vinyl as well as a limited-edition vinyl with the color, “Avenue B Brick.”

The vinyl edition will feature packaging inspired by the original album artwork and marketing materials. The three records will be housed in a custom quad-book-style gatefold jacket with a premium rigid cover, incorporating archival material documenting Larson’s life and the development of Rent. The package will also include printed poly-lined inner sleeves and a collectible ephemera envelope inspired by the Nederlander Theatre, the musical’s Broadway home.

Archival materials from the Jonathan Larson Papers at the Library of Congress and Larson’s collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts are also included. Among them are Larson’s original handwritten and typed lyrics, as well as notes documenting the musical’s development.

The set comes with a stitched 24-page booklet containing the complete lyrics and an original, nearly 20,000-word oral history of the recording and its songs. Written by theater historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper, the oral history draws on 19 new interviews with members of the original cast and creative team, offering firsthand recollections of the making and lasting impact of Rent.