Daphne Rubin-Vega

The contemporary musical juggernaut, which followed a group of impoverished musicians and artists battling the coming wave of gentrification in New York City's bleak Lower East Side, reenergized the Great White Way, attracting a new generation of theatergoers, and grossed more than $280 million since its Broadway debut. It also paved the way for a then-relatively unknown actress like Rubin-Vega to make her mark on and off the stage, as well as …