From left: Mario, Vanessa Hudgens, Tinashe and Jordan Fisher join the cast of Fox’s Rent Live. (Photos: Courtesy Fox; Theo Wargo/Getty; Matt Sayles/Invision/AP; Andrew Rose)

Fox has landed Vanessa Hudgens and Brandon Victor Dixon in the lineup for the live musical version of Rent, airing Sunday, Jan. 27. Hudgens will croon as performance artist Maureen Johnson while Dixon portrays Tom Collins, a techie who returns to New York in the re-imagining of Puccini’s La Bohème as the story of seven struggling creatives who strive to follow their dreams  in New York’s gritty East Village.

Both actors have had some experience in the live musical format.  Dixon was Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, NBC’s Easter Sunday ratings winner, drawing 9.4 million million viewers this year. Hudgens played Betty Rizzo in Fox’s 2016 telecast of Grease Live. The TV remake of the 1978 film was a ratings hit for the network, seen by 12.2 million viewers. Fellow Grease Live alum Jordan Fisher (Hamilton) is Mark Cohen, the filmmaker who serves as narrator.

Singer Tinashe, Kiersey Clemons (Flatliners, Angie Tribeca), Brennin Hunt (Walking With Herb), Grammy winner Mario (Empire) and Valentina (RuPaul’s Drag Race) also star. Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman) will perform the famed track “Seasons of Love.”

The project is producer Marc Platt’s follow-up to NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Platt also produced the Broadway’s Wicked and the 2016 film La La Land. As is typical in live-to-television musicals, the directing chores are being split: Alex Rudzinski (Grease Live) will concentrate on the cameras while Dear Evan Hansen’s Michael Greif (who directed Rent’s original New York Theatre Workshop) will handle the stage work.

Rent was workshopped in 1993, and moved to Broadway’s Nederlander Theater in 1996. It closed in 2008 after 5, 123 performances (Broadway’s eleventh longest-running show).  The show was created by writer-composer Jonathan Larson, who tragically died of an aortic dissection (basically, his heart burst) on the eve of the play’s 1993 debut, never seeing his creation go on to success that included a Pulitzer Prize and three Tony Awards.

Rent will air Jan. 27, 7:00-10:00 PM ET live (with a PT tape-delayed repeat) on Fox.  Rent will be executive-produced by Platt along with Adam Siegel, Julie Larson, Al Larson and Revolution Studios’ Vince Totino, Scott Hemming and Marla Levine. The show will be produced by 20th Century Fox Television.