"No Day But Today": Original Rent Cast Reunites for Emotional 30th Anniversary Celebration

Season of love? Try decades of love.

Nearly the entire original Broadway cast of Rent reunited on Saturday, August 15, for an emotional celebration of the 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking Jonathan Larson musical. The reunion took place at The Festival, the new three-day musical theater gathering at Hutton Brickyards Riverfront Hotel + Venue in Kingston, New York.

Thirteen of the 15 members of the original company took part in the historic reunion. The star-studded lineup included Adam Pascal (Roger Davis), Anthony Rapp (Mark Cohen), Taye Diggs (Benjamin Coffin III), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Mimi Márquez), Fredi Walker-Browne (Joanne Jefferson), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Angel Dumott Schunard), Byron Utley (Mr. Jefferson), Aiko Nakasone (Alexi Darling), Gilles Chiasson (Steve), Gwen Stewart (Mrs. Jefferson and the "Seasons of Love" soloist), Kristen Lee Kelly (Mark's mom), Rodney Hicks (Paul) and Timothy Britten Parker (Gordon).

The only two original cast members absent were Idina Menzel, who originated the role of Maureen Johnson and was attending Disney's D23 festivities, and Jesse L. Martin, the original Tom Collins, who was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. However, their roles weren't left entirely unfilled. Tony Award winner Lauren Patten stepped in for Menzel to join Walker-Browne for Maureen and Joanne's fiery duet "Take Me or Leave Me," while Hicks stepped into Collins' shoes for the reunion performance.

Thousands of fans packed into The Festival's Broadway Direct Stage for what had become one of the most anticipated events of the weekend. Many arrived wearing Rent shirts and other memorabilia, while at least one particularly dedicated attendee paid tribute to Angel by dressing in the character's iconic Santa-inspired ensemble.

For the cast, the afternoon offered a chance to look back at the show that changed their lives and Broadway along with it. Together, they reminisced about creating Rent, shared memories of working with Larson, and reflected on the musical's lasting impact three decades after it first opened at New York Theatre Workshop in 1996 before transferring to Broadway.

Larson famously died unexpectedly at age 35 on January 25, 1996, the night before Rent was scheduled to have its first preview Off-Broadway. He would never see the phenomenon his work became. Inspired loosely by Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, Rent followed a group of young artists struggling to create lives for themselves in New York City's East Village amid the HIV/AIDS crisis. Its rock score and frank depictions of sexuality, addiction, poverty, and disease helped usher in a new era of musical theater. The show went on to win four Tony Awards, including Best Musical, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and ran for more than 12 years on Broadway.

On Saturday, however, its original cast seemed less interested in listing the accolades than celebrating the community that has kept Larson's work alive. The performers repeatedly expressed their gratitude to the generations of fans who have embraced the show and its messages over the past three decades, returning again and again to the Larson mantras that have become embedded in musical theater history: "No day but today" and, fittingly for an afternoon spent looking back, measuring a love life.

There was plenty of love in the room and music. The company revisited selections from throughout Larson's score, performing "Rent," "La Vie Bohème," "Out Tonight," "Take Me or Leave Me," "I'll Cover You," "You'll See," "Another Day," and "Finale B," among other favorites.

Of course, remembering songs first performed three decades ago occasionally proved to be its own adventure. Diggs, who originated the role of Benny, jokingly admitted early in the reunion that he was "very ill-prepared" and would be relying on his phone to help him through some of the lyrics. He wasn't alone in occasionally needing a refresher, and the forgotten words quickly became part of the fun, with Diggs' phone-assisted performances emerging as something of a running gag throughout the celebration.

If anything, the imperfections only added to the reunion's warmth. This wasn't about recreating Rent exactly as it had been in 1996. It was about watching the people who were there at the beginning come together again, laugh about the intervening years, and revisit music that has remained a defining part of their lives.

The reunion was also particularly fitting for The Festival, which was created by founders Joshua Saltman and David Schwartz as a place where Broadway fans could experience the kind of unexpected collaborations and one-of-a-kind performances that aren't possible during a traditional night at the theater. Schwartz previously told PEOPLE that he saw the original company of Rent some 15 or 20 times, even sleeping on the sidewalk at least once for lottery tickets, and called bringing the cast back together one of the centerpieces of The Festival's inaugural weekend.

"Rent really redefined Broadway," Schwartz told PEOPLE ahead of the event. "It reinvigorated the industry and introduced so many people to musical theater."

Saturday's crowd offered plenty of evidence of that legacy. Fans who had been with the show since its earliest days stood alongside those who discovered it through later Broadway casts, tours, the 2005 film adaptation, and subsequent productions. Together, they cheered the familiar opening notes, laughed along with the cast's stories, and sang along with songs that have long since escaped the walls of the Nederlander Theatre.

And there was only one song that could bring it all to a close. The original company came together for "Seasons of Love," Rent's enduring anthem about measuring a year not in minutes, but in the moments and relationships that give those minutes meaning. Thirty years after they first introduced it to audiences, the message and the musical clearly still resonate.

No day but today, indeed.