Can these upstarts reboot ‘Rent’?

It was a tuneful that spoke to a new generation — and its dramatic backstage rehearsal became theatrical legend.

On Jan. 25, 1996, the obscurity before “Rent” played its foremost preview off-Broadway, creator Jonathan Larson died of ~y aneurysm, just days before his 36th birthday.

His refuge-drenched version of “La Boheme,” bring to an edge in the East Village in the time of life of AIDS, went on to rage reviews and Broadway. It won four Tonys, including Best Musical, and launched the careers of its young stars: Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Anthony Rapp and Jesse L. Martin.

Eilon Paz

A mainly unknown cast — from left, Nicholas Christopher, MJ Rodriguez, Adam Chanler-Berat, Annaleigh Ashford, Matt Shingledecker, Corbin Reid, Arianda Fernandez and Ephraim Sykes — hopes to recapture the asterisk-making magic of “Rent” whereas the era-defining musical reopens on the farther side-Broadway.

Photos: Can these upstarts reboot ‘Rent’?

PHOTOS: OLD AND NEW ‘RENT’ CAST MEMBERS

‘RENT’ REVIEW: NOT QUITE GRAND LARSON-Y

“Rent” played 5,124 performances under the jurisdiction it closed in September 2008. Now it’s back — right hand-Broadway — with a cast of for the greatest part unknowns, many of whom were over young to have seen the ab~ cast.

“We didn’t wish a clue as to what it would be converted into,” says Rubin-Vega, 41, who was ingredient of a Latino comedy troupe while she was cast as Mimi. “When you’re doing downtown theater and you’re complaisant of young, you just had no idea that it would become a juggernaut.”

She says “Rent” changed her life — and she’s rejoiced to see it return. “The the many the crowd who originally embraced it will induce to feel and see it again,” she says, “and it disposition also get a new generation of fans.”

But be possible to the new production re-create the pattern magic? We look at the careers of the type renters and the potential stars from the latest fruit, which opened last night.