Original Rent stars Daphne Rubin-Vega & Wilson Jermaine Heredia reunite at tick, tick…BOOM! premiere to honour Jonathan Larson

At Monday night’s Broadway premiere of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s screen adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s uplifting and moving autobiographical musical tick, tick…BOOM!, performers who originated roles in Larson’s Pulitzer and Tony-winning posthumous hit Rent reunited to honour the late composer and writer 25 years after the first performance of that show. Daphne Rubin-Vega, who received her first Tony nomination for the role of Mimi Marquez was joined on the red carpet by Wilson Jermaine Heredia who won a Tony for playing Angel. Both actors make a brief, but memorable appearance in Miranda’s film which is now streaming globally on Netflix.

Daphne Rubin-Vega with Adam Pascal in New York Theatre Workshop’s 1996 production of Rent. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.

“That’s etched in stone. It’s unequaled history”, Daphne Rubin-Vega tells The Queer Review about her experience of being in Rent.

Talking about her reaction to being involved in the film, Rubin-Vega said that she was immediately “all in” with the idea, adding, “what a beautiful homage, what a beautiful tableau, what a beautiful self-reflective, kind of meta experience it is.” For Heredia, Miranda’s tick, tick…BOOM! takes “all the essence of what he was like and presents a clear picture of what he was about. Jonathan was all passion, Jonathan was all love. After watching the film I was reinvigorated all over again. I have no doubt that it will be successful and that it’ll reinvigorate a whole new generation of theater nerds!”

Jesse L. Martin & Wilson Jermaine Heredia in the 1996 original Broadway production of Rent. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Recalling collaborating with Larson while workshopping the musical Rubin-Vega says, “it kind of became like a funny soundbite, the level of confidence and clarity he had. He knew how he wanted stuff. This guy was so talented, he was such an expert at what he loved and it wasn’t because of a certain pedigree, it was because of his passion and it’s really nice to know that I actually knew him.”

Watch the full interviews with Daphne Rubin-Vega and Wilson Jermaine Heredia below:

“It’s unequalled history” Tony-nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega on her memories of Jonathan Larson and RENT
Tony-winning RENT star Wilson Jermaine Heredia on his memories of Jonathan Larson
Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Daphne Rubin-Vega were also joined on the red carpet at the premiere of Netflix’s tick, tick…BOOM! by fellow original RENT cast member Anthony Rapp. Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images.

tick, tick…BOOM! is streaming globally on Netflix now.

tick, tick…BOOM! | Official Trailer | Netflix

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