Rebecca Naomi Jones
Rebecca Naomi Jones (born March 31, 1981) is an American actress and singer best known for her performances in the Broadway rock musicals Passing Strange, American Idiot, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch as well as being the first woman of color to play Laurey in Oklahoma! on Broadway. She also starred more recently in New York City's Shakespeare in the Park adaptation of As You Like It.
For persons of a similar name, see Rebecca Jones (disambiguation).
Rebecca Naomi Jones
March 31, 1981
- Actress
- singer
Life and career[edit]
Jones was born in New York City, to a musician father and photographer mother. Her mother is Jewish and her father is African-American.[1] Jones performed in the children's chorus of the Metropolitan Opera as a child and graduated from the Berkeley Carroll School in 1999. "I did theatre all throughout middle school and high school and was really into it, the same with singing", she said.[2] Jones received her BFA in drama from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and appeared in the national tours of Rent and Caroline, or Change.
In 2007 Jones made her Off-Broadway debut in Passing Strange, which transferred to Broadway on February 28, 2008. She originated the role of Whatsername in the Green Day rock opera American Idiot, which opened on Broadway on April 20, 2010.[1] Paper magazine said of Jones, "She's carved out a nice niche for herself as the girl to call when there's a cooler-than-thou musical in town."[3]
In 2012 Jones played the Narrator in Manhattan Theatre Club's Off-Broadway musical Murder Ballad, for which she received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress. Jones returned for the show's engagement at the Union Square Theatre, which ran from May 22, 2013, to July 21, 2013.[4] Later that summer, Jones appeared as Jaquenetta in a new musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost at Central Park's Delacorte Theater.[5]
On June 2, 2014, Jones received a Lilly Award, a prize honoring women in the theater.[6]
On April 14, 2015, Jones replaced Lena Hall as Yitzhak in the Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.[7] Jones played the role through the production's end on September 13.
In 2017 she starred as Vanessa in Significant Other on Broadway.[8]
In 2018 Jones starred as Laurey Williams in Daniel Fish's production of Oklahoma! at St. Ann's Warehouse.[9] The production transferred to Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre in March 2019.