Flashback revs 'Rent'

1996 castmates return for six-week stint

By GORDON COX

Jesse L. Martin with returning 'Rent' stars Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal ruring the show's after-party at 441/2 Restaurant in midtown.

'Gossip Girl' stars Penn Badgley and Blake Lively catch Wednesday's show.

Tamyra Gray with 'Rent's' original cast member Gwen Smith.

Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal couldn't have asked for a better audience of "Rent"-heads on Wednesday when the two thesps, who led the original 1996 cast of the long-running Rialto production of "Rent," returned to show for a six-week stint.

The duo join an ensemble that already featured "American Idol" alum Tamyra Gray.

A crowd of screaming "Rent" fans greeted them. Entrance applause was long and deafening; and at one point when Pascal accidentally began singing the wrong verse, the entire audience laughed right along with him.

"It feels like home," Rapp said of the show during the after-party at 44½ restaurant in midtown.

Still, a few things had changed. Including their costumes: Most of the originals were too tattered to be salvaged.

"I wear the same old coat," Rapp said. "But new everything else."