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Brrrrrr! It's Christmas time in the city, and Starving Artists (East Village Class of '91) huddle together for body heat in their dingy hovel off First Avenue in Alphabet City — coupling, uncoupling, recoupling — wondering where last year's rent's coming from.

Yes, Rent made an unseasonable comeback to the New York stage Aug. 11 — specifically, Off-Broadway, at one of the New World Stages on West 50th — returning at a reduced rate, but its youthful exuberance remains roof-raising.

"I tried to tell the story in some different ways, make it clearer, and I tried to serve the interior environment more fully than we did before," he said. "This space is fantastic for us. I love the size of the house. I love the physical space [set designer Mark Wendland] has created. I love the opportunities the set affords to us."

When the 14 principals fall into their iconic formation for "Seasons of Love" at the top of the second act, you can't help but notice its costumer, Angela Wendt, has recently raided the Goodwill store, merrily mussing up her own original look.

Even the brain-burning songs of the late Jonathan Larson give off a new vibe, due to the fresh steps and fire-escape swings added by choreographer Larry Keigwin. That dictates a new lighting design (more Christmas lights) from Kevin Adams.

The show has always been a Stars of Tomorrow incubator, and this new production has a long and limbering gangplank packed with incipient talents ready to make the leap into the vat of La Boheme emotionalism where AIDS is the new TB.

You'll find in the cast some who have conspicuously flittered hither and yon on the New York scene as Peter Pan and Glinda and others who've vocally trained for their roles in shows that Rent helped to happen — Spring Awakening, In the Heights, American Idiot, Xanadu, Next to Normal, et al.

View the Entire Photo Gallery Adam Chanler-Berat Photo by Krissie Fullerton

Greif, proven star-marker that he is, would not predict who'd be leaving the starting gate first. "I think they're all wonderful," he said diplomatically, "and I hope that people recognize the enormous talents of this group as well."

Arianda Fernandez, who plays the tragic Mimi (albeit, not as tragic as Puccini had it), was all of seven when the show opened, and 17 when she first saw Rent. "I was very, very moved by it," she admitted, and that turns out to be the literal truth: The next year she went on national tour as Mimi. "Just having five more years of life and experience on top of that makes it more amazing."

The role's Tony-nominated originator, Daphne Rubin-Vega, crossed her path a couple of days into rehearsal, and she didn't blanche. "It was very brief, but I was so happy to meet her. I never knew she was my size. She's a teeny Mimi, like me."

Matt Shingledecker saw the original production toward the end of its 5,123-performance run at the Nederlander Theatre — the seventh longest in Broadway history — and is now playing the part he initially picked for himself, guitar-toting Roger, Mimi's squeeze, and his most cherished moment is their deathbed duet, "Goodbye, Love." "Arianda is amazing in that scene," he said. "It was such a blessing to know Jonathan's friends and family were there tonight and my friends and family were there. It was such a supportive audience — a culmination of two months of hard work, really trying to flesh out the story in a different way."