By Andrew Gans
12 Nov 2004

Tracie Thoms, who was part of the cast of Regina Taylor's Drowning Crow, has joined the cast of the "Rent" film.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Thoms will portray lesbian lawyer Joanne Jefferson, the role created on Broadway by Fredi Walker. The industry paper also reports that Adam Pascal is in final negotiations to reprise his role as the HIV-positive guitarist Roger in the upcoming film of Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical.

Thoms and Pascal join the previously announced Rosario Dawson, who has been cast as Mimi Marquez. Negotiations are also underway with several other original Rent cast members, including Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, Taye Diggs and Wicked's Idina Menzel.

The "Rent" film, expected to begin production this spring, is being produced by Michael Barnathan, Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro. Chris Columbus directs.

Tracie Thoms made her Broadway debut in Drowning Crow. Off-Broadway she was seen in The Exonerated and Up Against the Wind, and her regional credits include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, A Raisin in the Sun, The Oedipus Plays and Hair, earning a Helen Hayes nomination for her work in the latter. Thoms' screen credits include "Brother to Brother," “As If,” "Porn ’N Chicken," “The Shield” and the Fox series “Wonderfalls.”

Adam Pascal was part of the final cast of Aida, playing the role he created several years ago, the ill-fated Radames. He also portrayed the Emcee in the now-closed revival of Cabaret. Pascal made his theatrical debut as Roger in the original cast of Jonathan Larson's Rent; for that performance, he received Theatre World and Obie awards as well as Tony and Drama Desk nominations. Pascal was also a co producer of the hit Off-Broadway play Fully Committed and appeared in the Actors' Fund benefit concerts of Chess and Hair.

Rentupdates Puccini's La Boheme to the East Village of the late 1990's, with artists and lovers struggling to connect in a world that is chaotic, shallow and tinged with disease. The late Jonathan Larson wrote Rent's book, music and lyrics. The 1996 Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical continues at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City.