As live television productions of classic Broadway musicals turn to more contemporary fare, some original creators have the chance to get involved. So it will be with “Rent,” which airs on Jan. 27 on Fox and is co-directed by Michael Greif, who oversaw the pathbreaking show’s premiere at New York Theater Workshop, then on Broadway.

Jonathan Larson’s 1996 musical, about Lower East Side artists living in the shadow of AIDS, was immortalized when its creator died of an aortic aneurysm just before its opening night Off Broadway.

Sara Krulwich, the theater photographer for The New York Times, had unusual access to the cast and creators in the wake of that tragedy, as well as in subsequent triumphs, following “Rent” to Broadway, a Pulitzer Prize and a national tour.

In anticipation of the television version (which stars Tinashe, Vanessa Hudgens and Brandon Victor Dixon), The Times reached out to the subjects featured in Ms. Krulwich’s early photographs. Most of the images haven’t been published, and depicted in many of them are behind-the-scenes players, now-acclaimed Broadway stars and aspiring performers who never made it into the show.