Daphne Rubin-Vega & Halley Feiffer Join New Group's Women Behind Bars Reading

A Streetcar Named Desire star Daphne Rubin-Vega and stage and screen alum Halley Feiffer join the New Group's previously announced one-night-only benefit reading of Women Behind Bars by Tom Eyen. Rubin-Vega and Feiffer will replace previously announced stars Rosie Perez and Chloe Sevigny, respectively, who withdrew due to scheduling conflicts. Helmed by New Group artistic director Scott Elliott, the benefit reading will take place May 7 at off-Broadway’s Acorn Theatre on Theatre Row. 

In addition to Rubin-Vega as Guadalupe and Feiffer as Mary-Eleanor, Women Behind Bars will star Cynthia Nixon as Blanche, Charles Busch as the Matron, Rosie O’Donnell as Gloria, Nancy Giles as Jo-Jo, Josh Hamilton as the men, Rhea Perlman as Granny and the Warden, Jennifer Tilly as Ada, Rosie Perez as Guadalupe, Janeane Garofalo as Louise and Natasha Lyonne as Cheri.

Set on New Year’s Eve in 1952, Women Behind Bars is an outrageous send-up of the classic genre of 1950s movies set in women's prisons. When the innocent and lovely Mary-Eleanor is framed by her husband and sent to the Women’s House of Detention in Greenwich Village, her arrival sparks rivalries that build to increasingly dangerous (and hilarious) conflicts among her fellow prisoners.

Rubin-Vega made her Broadway debut in Rent, earning a Tony nod. She also earned a Tony nomination for Anna in the Tropics, and has appeared on Broadway in Les Misérables and The Rocky Horror Show. Feiffer made her Broadway debut in The House of Blue Leaves. Her film and TV credits include You Can Count on Me, The Squid and the Whale and The Messenger.