"Rent" Film to Make Premiere at Ziegfeld Theatre

[SSkankin]

Posted: 10/26/05 at 10:36am

"Rent" Film to Make Premiere at Ziegfeld Theatre
By Andrew Gans
26 Oct 2005


The eagerly awaited film of "Rent" — based on the long-running musical of the same name — will have its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan.

The entire cast of the new movie, directed by Chris Columbus, is expected to attend the 7 PM celebrity-filled premiere on Nov. 17. The famed Ziegfeld Theatre is located in Manhattan at 141 West 54th Street.

"Rent," to be released by Sony Pictures, will then open nationwide on Nov. 23.

The "Rent" film boasts many of the stars of the original Broadway production. Those reprising their roles for the film, which features a screenplay by director Columbus and Stephen Chbosky, include Taye Diggs (as Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (as Angel Schunard), Jesse L. Martin (as Thomas B. "Thom" Collins), Idina Menzel (as Maureen Johnson), Adam Pascal (as Roger Davis) and Anthony Rapp (as Mark Cohen). Newcomers include Rosario Dawson as Mimi with Tracie Thoms as Joanne Jefferson. The roles of Mimi and Joanne were created on Broadway by, respectively, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker.

Rent updates Puccini's La Boheme to the East Village of the late 1990's, with artists and lovers struggling to connect in a world that is chaotic, shallow and tinged with disease. The late Jonathan Larson wrote Rent's book, music and lyrics. The 1996 Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical continues at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City.

[liotte]

Posted: 10/26/05 at 10:58am

I wish I could go to this!

[I'm not that GURL]

Posted: 10/26/05 at 11:14am

I just realized I am going to be randomly in NYC for work on the 17th - oh my gosh! It would be amazing to actually be able to get in and see it of course but I am will be content just gawking at the red carpet with my fellow Rent-heads.