Daphne Rubin-Vega
Encyclopedia
Daphne Rubin-Vega is a dancer, singer, and actress. She is best known for originating the role of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical Rent
, and the role of Lucy, in the Off-Broadway
play Jack Goes Boating
.
group Pajama Party, placing three songs on the Hot 100 in 1989 and 1990. As a solo artist her biggest success is on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where in 1996 she hit #1 with the song "I Found It." She returned to the top of the dance/club play charts in 2003 with a dance version of Elton John
's "Rocketman". In 2001 she recorded her debut full-length rock album of original songs ("Souvenirs") but it fell through the cracks when her record company Mercury merged.
Rubin-Vega performed in the Broadway musical Rent
, starring as Mimi Marquez, heroin-addicted nineteen-year-old with HIV who works at the Cat Scratch Club as an exotic dancer
. One of her castmates was Wilson Jermaine Heredia
, with whom she also starred in the 1999 film Flawless. She left the cast on April 5, 1997, and was replaced by Marcy Harriell
. Rubin-Vega did not participate in the film adaptation of Rent
, as she was pregnant at the time of the movie's casting and filming. The role was subsequently given to Rosario Dawson
.
Rubin-Vega has two Tony Award
nominations to her credit: one for her role in Rent as Best Actress in a Musical, and the other for her performance as Conchita in Anna in the Tropics
(2003), as Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. She won the Theatre World Award
in 1996 for Rent. She was also awarded the Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Suspense Thriller for her role in the film Wild Things
with Kevin Bacon
and Neve Campbell
.
She appeared in the 2000 Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show
in the role of Magenta.
Rubin-Vega also released her second full-length album of original songs titled Redemption Songs released on October 2006 on Sh-K Boom Records. Her rock band
DRV is currently performing live shows in New York
. She starred with Phylicia Rashad
in a musical version of Federico García Lorca
's The House of Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center in March 2006. She played the role of Fantine in the 2006 Broadway revival of the popular musical Les Misérables
beginning November 9. On March 2, 2007, she was replaced by Filipino
Tony Award
winning actress Lea Salonga
.
In February 2007, Daphne Rubin-Vega performed alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman
in the play Jack Goes Boating off-Broadway at The Public Theater and also appeared in the film version. Rubin-Vega appeared in a cameo role in Sex and the City: The Movie
, which premiered in May 2008.
In November 2010, she received the Independent Spirit Awards
nomination for 2011, for her role in Jack Goes Boating. The award ceremony was held in Santa Monica, California
in February 2011.
She is currently starring Off-Broadway as Yvette in Tommy Nohilly's world premier of Blood From A Stone at The New Group's Acorn Theater until February 19, 2011. She is scheduled to appear in the Off-Broadway cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore from March 23 to April 24, 2011.
In 2011, the feature film Union Square, co-written and directed by the Sundance Film Festival
's Grand Jury Award Winner, Nancy Savoca
, is being premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In it, Daphne co-stars with Mira Sorvino
, Patti Lupone
, Tammy Blanchard
, Mike Doyle
, and Michael Rispoli
.
In spring 2012, Rubin-Vega will return to Broadway
in a new revival of Tennessee Williams
' A Streetcar Named Desire
, in which she will play the role of Stella Kowalski opposite Blair Underwood
as Stanley. This revival will be directed by Emily Mann and features an all-African-American cast.
Solo-work:
Rubin-Vega also appears on the original cast recording of Rent
and the revival recording of The Rocky Horror Show
.
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
, and the role of Lucy, in the Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
play Jack Goes Boating
Jack Goes Boating
Jack Goes Boating is a 2007 play by Robert Glaudini. An unconventional romantic comedy set in the midst of working-class New York City life, Jack Goes Boatings original production was directed by Peter Dubois and starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Jack, John Ortiz as Clyde, Daphne Rubin-Vega as...
.
Biography
Rubin-Vega was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Daphine Vega, a nurse, and Jose Mercedes Vega, a carpenter. Her stepfather, Leonard Rubin, was a writer. She began her musical career as the lead singer for the Latin freestyleFreestyle music
Freestyle or Latin freestyle, sometimes referred to as Latin hip hop, is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1980s. Mostly popular during the mid 80s to the early 90s...
group Pajama Party, placing three songs on the Hot 100 in 1989 and 1990. As a solo artist her biggest success is on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where in 1996 she hit #1 with the song "I Found It." She returned to the top of the dance/club play charts in 2003 with a dance version of Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
's "Rocketman". In 2001 she recorded her debut full-length rock album of original songs ("Souvenirs") but it fell through the cracks when her record company Mercury merged.
Rubin-Vega performed in the Broadway musical Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
, starring as Mimi Marquez, heroin-addicted nineteen-year-old with HIV who works at the Cat Scratch Club as an exotic dancer
Exotic dancer
The terms exotic dancer and exotic dance can have different meanings in different parts of the world and depending on context. In the erotic sense, "exotic dance" is a often used to refer to practitioners of striptease...
. One of her castmates was Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Wilson Jermaine Heredia is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Angel Dumott Schunard in the Broadway musical Rent, for which he won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical...
, with whom she also starred in the 1999 film Flawless. She left the cast on April 5, 1997, and was replaced by Marcy Harriell
Marcy Harriell
Marcy Harriell is an American musical theater and television actress.Harriell starred as Maria in a 1996 tour of the Broadway musical West Side Story and replaced Daphne Rubin-Vega as Mimi in the Broadway production of Rent. She made her Broadway debut on April 4, 1997...
. Rubin-Vega did not participate in the film adaptation of Rent
Rent (film)
Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...
, as she was pregnant at the time of the movie's casting and filming. The role was subsequently given to Rosario Dawson
Rosario Dawson
Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress, singer, and writer. She has appeared in films such as Kids, Men in Black II, 25th Hour, Sin City, Clerks II, Rent, Death Proof, The Rundown, Eagle Eye, Alexander, Seven Pounds, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Unstoppable.-Early...
.
Rubin-Vega has two Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations to her credit: one for her role in Rent as Best Actress in a Musical, and the other for her performance as Conchita in Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics
Anna in the Tropics is a play by Nilo Cruz.When Cuban immigrants brought the cigar-making industry to Florida in the 19th Century, they carried with them another tradition. As the workers toiled away in the factory hand rolling each cigar, the lector, , would read to them...
(2003), as Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. She won the Theatre World Award
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
in 1996 for Rent. She was also awarded the Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Suspense Thriller for her role in the film Wild Things
Wild Things
Wild Things is a 1998 erotic thriller film starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell and Bill Murray. It was directed by John McNaughton. In some countries the film was released as Sex Crimes...
with Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
and Neve Campbell
Neve Campbell
Neve Adrianne Campbell is a Canadian actress. After beginning her career on stage, and on numerous commercials, she starred on the Canadian television series Catwalk. She then rose to international fame on the Golden Globe-winning 1990s television series Party of Five, playing the role of teenager...
.
She appeared in the 2000 Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
in the role of Magenta.
Rubin-Vega also released her second full-length album of original songs titled Redemption Songs released on October 2006 on Sh-K Boom Records. Her rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
DRV is currently performing live shows in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She starred with Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashād is an American Tony Award winning actress and singer, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show....
in a musical version of Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
's The House of Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center in March 2006. She played the role of Fantine in the 2006 Broadway revival of the popular musical Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
beginning November 9. On March 2, 2007, she was replaced by Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
winning actress Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...
.
In February 2007, Daphne Rubin-Vega performed alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...
in the play Jack Goes Boating off-Broadway at The Public Theater and also appeared in the film version. Rubin-Vega appeared in a cameo role in Sex and the City: The Movie
Sex and the City: The Movie
Sex and the City is a 2008 American blue romantic comedy film adaptation of the HBO comedy series of the same name about four female friends: Carrie Bradshaw , Samantha Jones , Charlotte York Goldenblatt , and Miranda Hobbes , dealing with their lives as...
, which premiered in May 2008.
In November 2010, she received the Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
nomination for 2011, for her role in Jack Goes Boating. The award ceremony was held in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
in February 2011.
She is currently starring Off-Broadway as Yvette in Tommy Nohilly's world premier of Blood From A Stone at The New Group's Acorn Theater until February 19, 2011. She is scheduled to appear in the Off-Broadway cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore from March 23 to April 24, 2011.
In 2011, the feature film Union Square, co-written and directed by the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
's Grand Jury Award Winner, Nancy Savoca
Nancy Savoca
Nancy Savoca is an American film screenwriter, director, and producer. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, she is the daughter of Sicilian and Argentine immigrants Calogero Savoca and Maria Elvira Savoca...
, is being premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In it, Daphne co-stars with Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
, Patti Lupone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
, Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
, Mike Doyle
Mike Doyle (actor)
Mike Doyle is an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is best known for his recurring roles in the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing Forensics Tech Ryan O'Halloran, and Oz, playing Adam Guenzel....
, and Michael Rispoli
Michael Rispoli
Michael Rispoli is an American character actor. He was formerly part of the HBO television series The Sopranos as Jackie Aprile, Sr...
.
In spring 2012, Rubin-Vega will return to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in a new revival of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
, in which she will play the role of Stella Kowalski opposite Blair Underwood
Blair Underwood
Blair Underwood is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known as headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins from the NBC legal drama L.A. Law, a role he portrayed for seven years. He has gained critical acclaim throughout his career, receiving numerous Golden Globe Award...
as Stanley. This revival will be directed by Emily Mann and features an all-African-American cast.
Discography
With Pajama Party:- 1989 - Up All NightUp All Night (Pajama Party album)Up All Night is the first full-length album by Pajama Party, an American R&B/Dance/Pop female vocal trio from Brooklyn, New York.-Track listing:CD Edition-Charts:Singles - Billboard -External links:...
- 1991 - Can't Live Without It
Solo-work:
- 1994 - When You Love Someone (Single)
- 1995 - Change (Single)
- 1995 - I Found It (Single)
- 2001 - Souvenirs
- 2003 - Rocket Man (EP)
- 2006 - Redemption Songs
Rubin-Vega also appears on the original cast recording of Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
and the revival recording of The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
.