Zachary Noah Piser, Olivia Lux, Leana Rae Concepcion, More Will Star in RENT at Paper Mill Playhouse

Patrons will be asking “how we gonna pay…” the $17 round trip from Penn Station to the Millburn NJTransit stop with the complete casting announced for Paper Mill Playhouse’s upcoming production of Jonathan Larson’s timeless classic RENT. Several recent Broadway and off-Broadway alums - and even a Season 13 RuGirl - are among them. Directed by Zi Alikhan and choreographed by Steph Paul, the show will close Paper Mill’s star-studded season this June.

The cast for Rent will be led by Zachary Noah Piser as Mark Cohen and Matt Rodin as Roger Davis. Joining them are Leana Rae Concepcion as Joanne Jefferson, Terrance Johnson as Tom Collins, Olivia Lux as Angel Schunard, Mackenzie Meadows as Maureen Johnson, Alisa Melendez as Mimi Marquez, and Paper Mill Conservatory alum Jordan Barrow as Benjamin Coffin III. The ensemble features Rickens Anantua, Andrew Faria, Lauryn Alexandria Hobbs, Sami Ma, Adriana Medina Santiago, Liam Pearce, Michael Schimmele, Hannah T. Skokan, and Donté Wilder.

The creative team of RENT includes music direction by Amanda Morton, scenic design by Chika Shimizu, costume design by Rodrigo Muñoz, lighting design by Cha See, sound design by Matt Kraus, projection design by Nicholas Hussong & Jamie Godwin, and fight and intimacy direction by Alex Might. The Production Stage Manager is Gary Mickelson. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting.

The Pulitzer- and Tony-winning RENT opened on Broadway in 1996 after development and early runs at New York Theatre Workshop. It’s gone on to launch six US national tours, two West End runs, and two international tours, not to mention a film adaptation (2005), a national release of a Broadway live capture (2009), and a FOX live rendition on national TV (2019). The narrative is based loosely off La Boheme (Puccini), and follows a year in the life of a group of artists struggling to make it through life in the East Village in the shadow of the AIDS crisis.

Additionally, original Broadway cast member Anthony Rapp can currently be seen in his one-man Without You at New World Stages off-Broadway, which traces his personal experience opening RENT alongside the grief he’s experienced in the intervening years.

Tickets for Paper Mill’s production of RENT begin at $35. The 2022-2023 Paper Mill season thus far has included On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan, starring Bad Cinderella’s Linedy Genao, and continued with The Sound of Music, Hercules, and this month’s Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.

For more information on RENT, click here.