After closing on Broadway in 2008, “RENT” was due for at least one more run. This week, the edgy and inspiring musical will hit the stage at the Overture Center, showing us that there’s “no day but today” to celebrate life, love and friendship.

And luckily for Madison audiences, “RENT: The Broadway Tour” features original cast members Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, as well as “Seasons of Love” soloist Gwen Stewart.

“RENT” tells the story of an eccentric group of friends living in New York City’s avant garde East Village. Anthony Rapp plays Mark Cohen, the show’s narrator and an aspiring filmmaker who decides that instead of creating a film based on fiction, he’s going to take a different route.

“He’s going to instead document the lives of himself and his friends, whose stories, he’s beginning to realize, need to be told,” Rapp said.

Some of Mark’s best friends, including Adam Pascal’s character Roger Davis, are HIV-positive.

“So there’s an urgency to the idea of capturing their lives on film before they might be gone,” Rapp explained.

“RENT” debuted off-Broadway in 1996, a day after the premature death of the show’s young author and composer, Jonathan Larson. At the time, the cast knew they were telling an important story, but there’s no way they could have anticipated that “RENT” would become such a phenomenon.

“Looking back on it, it makes sense because it filled a void,” Rapp explained. “It was talking about subjects and telling the stories of people whose stories hadn’t been told on this scale. It struck a nerve.”

The show tackles issues including homelessness, poverty, addiction and HIV/AIDS, but according to Rapp, it’s ultimately about friendship, love and respect.

“It deals with the trials and tribulations of this group of friends as they struggle with life and love and loss,” he said. “It’s a rare glimpse of real life on a musical theater stage.”

More than a decade after its debut, “RENT” continues to resonate with audiences. Part of the show’s appeal is that it challenges traditional notions of what a musical should be. “RENT” is gritty, sexy, funny and occasionally vulgar.

“For people who might have some conceptions about musical theater being twinkle toes and dancing cats,” Rapp mused, “‘RENT’ is this incredible attempt to bring the real world onto a musical theater stage and use music to communicate themes and ideas and characters that feel alive and contemporary.”

You’ve probably heard “Seasons of Love,” but the rest of “RENT’s” score is a catchy collection of blues, salsa, rock-n-roll and soulful ballads — these are not your average showtunes. Rapp said that he especially enjoys performing “La Vie Boheme” and “What You Own.”

The celebratory, eight-minute-long “La Vie Boheme,” takes place while the cast is standing on top of a table in a restaurant.

“Every night, we just have a real blast,” Rapp said of performing the scene. “Especially with this cast, we have such a good time in that song.”

Rapp performs the more serious “What You Own,” opposite original cast member Adam Pascal.

“It’s like the culmination, the catharsis and to get to sing that with Adam, it’s like riding a wave with him,” Rapp said.

Because “RENT” is such a powerful story of friendship, Rapp explained, it requires an intense chemistry between cast members.

Luckily, he added, “This particular cast is brilliant on and off stage.”

In 1996, “RENT” received four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and numerous other awards. However, its profound, lasting impact can truly be felt in the stories of people whose lives have been touched by the show. Rapp described one experience when two fans, each unaware of the other, recounted to him the same story about their experience with “RENT.”

“They said that they both were cancer survivors, and that while they were in treatment–literally getting the chemotherapy into their bodies–they would listen to “RENT” because it’s what helped them through that experience,” Rapp said.

For Rapp, who was working at Starbucks when he first completed the Workshop for “RENT” in the early ’90s, the experience has been life-altering as well.

“It’s changed my life in every possible way,” he explained. “To be a part of something that’s successful and that makes a difference, that has an impact in the world beyond entertainment, is an incredible honor.”

“RENT’s” unexpected storyline, vibrant cast and eclectic score make it unlike any other musical — it’s simultaneously raucous and raunchy, intimate and emotional.

“It’s incredibly powerful, and it inspires people,” Rapp said.

“RENT: The Broadway Tour” is playing at the Overture Center from January 26 to January 31. Student tickets are $25 when purchased two hours before curtain on the day of each show. For showtimes, tickets and more information, visit www.overturecenter.com.