Thirty years after they first stood together with Jonathan Larson’s songs in their hands, the original cast of Rent walked onto a stage in Kingston, New York, and began singing them again.

The faces had changed with time. So had the audience.

But on Aug. 15, thousands of fans at The Festival heard the performers who helped introduce Rent in 1996 return to the music Larson never got to watch become a Broadway phenomenon.

Thirteen of the original Broadway company’s 15 members took part, including Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Taye Diggs, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Fredi Walker-Browne and Wilson Jermaine Heredia. They came together to mark the musical’s 30th anniversary and remember the 35-year-old writer who died the night before its first Off-Broadway preview.

They Were Back Where the Story Began

The reunion brought together performers whose names became tied to characters Larson had spent years creating.

Pascal returned as Roger Davis. Rapp, who originated Mark Cohen, was beside him. Diggs, Rubin-Vega, Walker-Browne and Heredia were there too, along with Byron Utley, Aiko Nakasone, Gilles Chiasson, Gwen Stewart, Kristen Lee Kelly, Rodney Hicks and Timothy Britten Parker.

Only two members of the original Broadway cast were absent. Idina Menzel, the first Maureen Johnson, was attending Disney’s D23 events, while Jesse L. Martin, who originated Tom Collins, had a scheduling conflict.

Their parts still found a place in the afternoon. Lauren Patten joined Walker-Browne for “Take Me or Leave Me,” while Hicks stepped into Collins’ role for the reunion performance.

The cast didn’t try to pretend three decades hadn’t gone by.

At one point, Diggs admitted he was “very ill-prepared” and used his phone to help with lyrics he hadn’t sung in years. Others needed reminders too, and those missed words became part of the laughter shared between the stage and the crowd.

Then the songs kept coming.

The Man Missing From the Celebration

The company performed music that had followed them for most of their adult lives: “Rent,” “La Vie Bohème,” “Out Tonight,” “I’ll Cover You,” “Another Day,” “Finale B” and more.

Behind every song was the absence that has been part of Rent since its beginning.

Jonathan Larson died unexpectedly on Jan. 25, 1996, at age 35. The next night, Rent was scheduled to give its first preview at New York Theatre Workshop. He never saw that performance.

He never saw the show transfer to Broadway.

He never saw it win four Tony Awards, including best musical, or receive the Pulitzer Prize for drama. He never watched it remain on Broadway for more than 12 years, or saw new generations find the characters and songs long after the original cast had moved on.

Loosely inspired by Puccini’s La Bohème, Larson’s musical followed young artists in New York’s East Village during the HIV/AIDS crisis. The story dealt openly with sexuality, addiction, poverty, illness, friendship and the fear of losing time.

Three decades later, the people who first helped him tell that story were together again.

The Audience Knew the Words Too

Thousands packed the Broadway Direct Stage at The Festival, a three-day musical theater gathering at Hutton Brickyards Riverfront Hotel + Venue.

Some arrived wearing Rent shirts and memorabilia. One fan dressed in a Santa-inspired outfit associated with Heredia’s character, Angel.

The crowd wasn’t made up only of people who had seen the original company.

Some fans had discovered the musical through later Broadway casts. Others knew it from touring productions, the 2005 film or revivals staged long after Larson’s death.

They stood together anyway.

Fans recognized the opening notes, laughed as the performers told stories and sang along to songs that had long since moved beyond the Broadway theater where the original production once played.

For the cast, the afternoon became less about awards than about the people who had carried Larson’s work forward.

Again and again, the performers returned to phrases connected with Rent, including “No day but today,” while thanking the fans who had kept coming back to the show for 30 years.

Festival co-founder David Schwartz understood that pull personally. Before creating the event, he had seen the original company somewhere between 15 and 20 times and had even slept on a sidewalk while trying to get lottery tickets.

“Rent really redefined Broadway,” Schwartz told PEOPLE. “It reinvigorated the industry and introduced so many people to musical theater.”

One Song Was Left for the End

There was only one choice for the reunion’s final number.

The cast came together for “Seasons of Love,” the song that asks how a year, and a life, should be measured.

Thirty years earlier, these performers had helped introduce it to audiences while carrying the loss of the man who wrote it only months before. Now they were singing it in front of people who had spent decades carrying the song themselves.

Some in the crowd had been there near the beginning. Others had been born years after Larson died.

When the familiar music began, those generations sang together.

Onstage were the people who had first given Larson’s characters their Broadway voices. In front of them were thousands who already knew the words.

And once more, 30 years later, Jonathan Larson’s cast sang his song.