'Rent' returns with two key original Broadway cast members

Who says you can't go home again? Alums of the Broadway phenom "Rent" are returning to their old stomping grounds in a tour of the Jonathan Larson musical.

It is not hard to find experienced "Rent"-ers to fill a cast with veterans of the show, which ended a 12-year Broadway run in 2008 and has spun off many tours. And this cast is well-stocked with alums.

What's special here is the presence of two key original cast members, who worked with composer-author Larson as he created his pop-rock opus at New York Theatre Workshop. (Larson died suddenly, at 35, just before the 1996 pre-Broadway debut of "Rent.")

On tour, Anthony Rapp is reprising his role as Mark, a scruffy New York filmmaker. And Adam Pascal encores his turn as Roger, an HIV-positive rocker who falls for young Mimi, who also has HIV.

Praised for his "golden-voiced" performance, Pascal was mainly a musician before "Rent," which landed him a Tony nomination and an Obie, and launched him into another hit show, Disney's "Aida."

Now 38, Pascal lives with his wife and two sons in Los Angeles. He chatted candidly by phone about "Rent" on stage and film, and his new project with a famed local band.

Q: How did this "Rent" tour come about?

A: It started when Anthony and I went back in 2007 to do 10 weeks in "Rent" on Broadway. That was an experiment. We were apprehensive, but by all accounts the return was a success. At that point a tour seemed like a great way to finish out my connection to "Rent."

Q: How do you react to people saying you're too old for the show now?

A: There's an assumption that these characters are in their early 20s, and they're really not. There's no indication of how old any of them are in the script, except Mimi, who is 19. A lot of the people Jonathan was writing about were in their 30s.

Q: So what's it like to be Roger again onstage?

A: I think I see him in a richer way. I'm older and have had a tremendous amount of life experience, personally and professionally. It's really rare that an actor gets to come back and do a great part again. I'd say that any decent actor would come back and do it better.

Q: "Rent" was a huge, instant hit, but the rock-music world was skeptical at first.