The "Rent" anthem "Seasons of Love" asks how you measure a year in the life of a man or a woman and answers its own question: Love. How do you measure the life of a musical after 13 years, from Broadway to the national tour now at the Benedum Center? Same answer.

There was a whole lot of love being directed toward the stage from the opening-night audience Tuesday, love for the achievements of the millennium-approaches rock musical, crafted from Puccini's opera "La Boheme" by the late Jonathan Larson. And for the performances onstage.

If Larson is the heavenly angel inspiring the players in "Rent," then Justin Johnston is this show's earthbound Angel, the kindhearted drag queen who is the heart and soul of the show.

Lucky us to get to see Johnston in the role of Angel, strutting his stuff in outlandish outfits and outrageously good cheer, with a voice, attitude and legs to die for. He's a scene-stealer, and that's saying something, with the show's original stars, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, reprising their roles as if no time had passed since April 1996 when, in their mid-20s, they burst onto the New York theater scene.

Some of the "Rent" story seems like an exercise in '90s nostalgia: Starving artists and outcasts, people with AIDS, drug addicts and yuppies looking for something money can't buy, all being pulled and tugged by the realities of disease and gentrification -- and hanging onto each other for dear life. They live in a world of "heavy drugs and group hugs," where hope can come in the form of an organized protest or a kind word.

What feels most in the moment is the idea of squatters who can't pay last year's -- no less this year's -- rent and a tent city in a Manhattan lot that's under siege from developers.

What are the chances of forming a family and finding lasting love in such dire circumstances? This is a show that brings people together through a mugging -- followed by an act of kindness that introduces Angel to Tom Collins (Michael McElroy, whose smooth voice is another standout).

The show begins with the lights up, shining on the brick tenement backdrop, twisted metal objets d'art to one side and live band nestled under a platform to the other. Pascal walks out first and straps on his guitar, Rapp follows, and the longtime co-stars get the applause meant just for them.

What follows is an experience as much like a concert as musical theater.

Fittingly, one of the finest instruments onstage is Pascal's voice, a range rover that can shift from a power rock ballad like "One Song Glory" to Roger's push-and-pull duet of attraction with Mimi, "Will You Light My Candle." "Rent" may have aged a bit, but Pascal and Rapp seem frozen in time as the struggling roommates Roger, a love-starved AIDS-afflicted songwriter, and Mark, a filmmaker who pines for Maureen, who has left him for a woman. It's obviously a blast for fans who've seen them only on screen, in the 2005 film of "Rent," to watch this talented pair in person.

As Maureen, a role that demands attention be paid, understudy Caren Tackett was a crowd-pleaser, particularly in the performance-art tour de force "Over the Moon." Among the wonders of the show are the black latex pants Tackett wears for Act Two -- but nothing compares to the blue ones worn earlier by Mimi (Lexi Lawson, a recent "American Idol" contestant) for her sexy solo, "Out Tonight." The poured-on leggings are a marvel of shine and stretch as Mimi works her way into Roger's broken heart.

It turns out there's more than one way to measure the life of a musical -- a lasting image, a song that you can't get out of your head, and a prophetic line, such as Mark's declaration at the end of Act One:

"Viva la vie boheme!"

After the show on Tuesday, the cast stayed onstage as Anthony Rapp auctioned a backstage pass for the next night's show to benefit Broadway Cares: Actors Equity Fights AIDS. There were two winning bidders at $700 each.