by Randy Gener
Broadway Now
October 20, 1999

Rent's Daphen Rubin-Vega will discover the aphrodisiacal effects of Juicy Fruit in the New York City premiere of Gum, a new play by Karen Hartman, which opens the Women's Project & Productions 1999-2000 season Oct. 17. Previews began Oct. 6.

Rubin-Vega, who slinked her way down to Broadway fame as Mimi in Rent, will play "a veiled woman in a walled garden who discovers the forbidden and deadly pleasures of gum and pays the price in an unforgiving culture," according to the release.

In an interview, Hartman said that the play was inspired by a 1996 New York Times news item about teenage girls involved in risky sexual behavior as a result of chewing gum. "There were rumors of young women going wild and having sex in the backs of cars," Hartman said. "The authorities thought it was caused by chewing gum.They figured there was something in it. So many of God's gifts appeal to more than one orifice."

Gum will be directed by Loretta Greco, with sets by Myung Hee Cho (Wit), lights by Frances Aronson, and costumes by Elizabeth Hope Clancy (Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk). The cast include Angel Desair, Lizan Mitchell, and Juan Rivera-Lebron.