Past POTO actors, what are they doing now?

Jennifer Hope Wills will be starring in Aspects of Love at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre. Rehearsals begin next week.

http://www.walnutstreettheatre.org/

Gina Beck's going up in the world and has been cast as the new Glinda in London's Wicked. Thrilled for her, even though I don't care for Wicked. Should give her some much deserved publicity. Still gutted she won't be the Christine at the RAH.

Scorp wrote:Gina Beck's going up in the world and has been cast as the new Glinda in London's Wicked. Thrilled for her, even though I don't care for Wicked. Should give her some much deserved publicity. Still gutted she won't be the Christine at the RAH.

Oh yes that´s a reason to see Wicked again. The only reason.

As some of you might know, Mia Karlsson is SOOO my favourite Christine. Apart from soon giving birth to twins, she's soon to publish an app for smart phones. Not on her own career specifically, but a Christmas calendar app presenting a piece of traditional Swedish Christmas celebration every day. There's also a DVD to be released.

Whether you're interested in this or not, listen to the lovely clips of her "Silent night, holy night" on YouTube. I love her voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ljjJ5QcJk

Just read this in an interview Lisa Vroman gave last month here in CA:

Hal Prince asked Vroman to come back and do a show -- "the first time I ever said, no, to him."

"I've been asked to come back (to 'Phantom') as Carlotta (the opera diva), but I feel like I've been there and done that," she says. "My voice still feels great and I'm able to do things on my own terms. I can sing. I'm home now. I got married; I still feel very lucky, we met at the right time. I'm pretty content."

While I think she would have made a great comedic Carlotta (she can do comedy quite well), I can understand her reluctance to return to the show.

http://www.mercurynews.com/theater-dance/ci_18796544

TAFKaR

Ramin Karimloo will be taking over the role of Jean Valjean from Alfie Boe from November 29th. I did wonder if this was going to happen when Alfie left.

Mia Karlsson, ex-Christine in Copenhagen, is launching a mobile app these days, which will feed you with a piece of Swedish christmas every day. A christmas calendar for you mobile phone, in other words... I'm mentioning it because her angelic voice is featured in all (or at least most) of the songs.

http://www.traditionalsweden.com/swedish-christmas-app
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1012&artikel=4778756

operafantomet wrote:Mia Karlsson, ex-Christine in Copenhagen, is launching a mobile app these days, which will feed you with a piece of Swedish christmas every day. A christmas calendar for you mobile phone, in other words... I'm mentioning it because her angelic voice is featured in all (or at least most) of the songs.

http://www.traditionalsweden.com/swedish-christmas-app
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1012&artikel=4778756

I like this idea, it's really fun, and even better when you get to hear Mia's wonderful voice. I'm going to buy her Christmas CD as an early Christmas gift.

A Dancer in Wartime, Gillian Lynne's biography, was released earlier this week. Looking forward to read this.

Link

Link2

OoOoooh, me too! Finally something I can ask Santa for.

A nice interview with MC here: http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/video/?uuid=b55486a7-d817-4f39-9929-05a8371086ec

Scorp wrote:A nice interview with MC here: http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/video/?uuid=b55486a7-d817-4f39-9929-05a8371086ec

Doesn't work for me.

SenorSwanky wrote:

Scorp wrote:A nice interview with MC here: http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/video/?uuid=b55486a7-d817-4f39-9929-05a8371086ec

Doesn't work for me.

Worked fine when I tried it just now. Thanks for posting this Scorp. It really is a lovely interview.

Worked now. Sad he's getting up there. Wish he stayed in his late 40s/early 50s forever.

This isn't about an actor, but wasn't sure where to put this. Gillian Lynne has a book out that I wasn't aware of -- her memoirs basically. It came out not so long ago and is called A Dancer in Wartime. The info I've found says it's about her childhood, so I doubt there's anything specifically Phantom-related in it, but here are links for anyone interested:

Preview of the book: http://rhwidget.randomhouse.co.uk/flash-widget/widget_lg.do?mode=1&menu=0&cf=FFFFFF&cb=000000&isbn=9780701185992

Link to buy it on Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0701185996/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=08YA76ZGFS9R8B75H2FB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294

Some endorsements:

A charming and moving portrait of a wartime childhood and an extraordinary account of what it takes to make it on stage ... I couldn't put it down.
Elaine Paige

Gillian Lynne has seen it all and her accomplishments are legendary. In A Dancer in Wartime she shares her early life and tells of her burgeoning career as a dancer. Elegantly written, warm and wide-eyed. A lovely book.
Hal Prince, legendary Broadway producer and director

Dave Willetts is leaving the UK tour of Legally Blonde in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if he is fed up with being decades older than the rest of the cast . Should be getting info on what he's doing next soon I think.

tiawhitecat wrote:Dave Willetts is leaving the UK tour of Legally Blonde in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if he is fed up with being decades older than the rest of the cast . Should be getting info on what he's doing next soon I think.

Aaaaw, bless him. It'll be interesting to hear what he's up to next.

Interesting about Gillian Lynne too, Scorp.

Didn't want to start an entire thread for this one article, but this is a Hollywood Reporter piece about the rash of vocal surgeries in rock/pop singers lately, and Paul Stanley is heavily quoted about his recent surgery, and mentions his time in Phantom:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/adele-keith-urban-john-mayer-259505

Very random, but Cindy Sadler, who was in the LA production in the early '90s (as the Lion Woman, apparently), now blogs about weight loss and fitness here and was featured in the NY Times a couple years ago in connection with the blog. She just recommended DC Anderson's albums as holiday gifts! Her performing and teaching website is here.

I recently found out that Brad Little is playing Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" at The Media Theatre near Philadelphia, PA, now through January 15. Here's the Philadelphia Inquirer's review (and a picture of Brad): http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillystage/134609616.html

While searching for information on past international Phantom casts to figure out who's featured in which souvenir programs, I found out that Glenda Balkan-Champagne, a former Canadian Christine, is teaching voice at Canadian College of Performing Arts and the Victoria Conservatory of Music: http://www.ccpacanada.com/index.php?pageid=4#Glenda%20Balkan-Champagne

*edited to add*

phantomgirl110 wrote:How about current POTO actors?

Kim Stengel will be appearing in Steven Spielberg's big-screen version of Tintin. It won't be released for a couple of years but she's playing Bianca Castafiore, a melodramatic Italian opera diva with the tendency to sing the jewel song from Faust at deafening volume. That's based on what Wikipedia says about the comic character, anyway; she may or may not be toned down in a live-action verion. Either way, it sounds like a pretty epic fit to me! ^_^

I thought I'd quote this as a reminder, since Tintin is coming out this December and I've been seeing ads for it on TV. Kim Stengel mentioned that at Phans Weekend this year... but if I remember correctly, she said they decided to have Renee Fleming do the character's singing voice because they decided they wanted a bigger name. Kim commented that it's odd that they specifically looked for an opera diva to do the character's voice, only to have her singing dubbed!

I also just remembered that some former Phantom cast members are performing in Neil Berg's Broadway Holiday and 100 Years of Broadway concerts. The casts for the concerts vary depending on which performers are available and you don't always know ahead of time who will be on. Last year Tamra Haydn was supposed to be in "100 Years of Broadway" at a local theater but Rita Harvey was in instead, along with Robert Du Sold (I'm not sure I remember his name correctly - where and when did he play the Phantom? Was he an understudy or swing?) Ron Bohmer and Sandra Joseph have been in some of his concerts, too - they're in some of the pictures here: http://www.neilberg.com/gallery.php?id=5&page=1 You can find out where Ron Bohmer will be performing here: http://www.ronbohmer.com/news.html

Perdita X. Nitt wrote:I thought I'd quote this as a reminder, since Tintin is coming out this December and I've been seeing ads for it on TV. Kim Stengel mentioned that at Phans Weekend this year... but if I remember correctly, she said they decided to have Renee Fleming do the character's singing voice because they decided they wanted a bigger name. Kim commented that it's odd that they specifically looked for an opera diva to do the character's voice, only to have her singing dubbed!

That's Hollywood for ya

TAFKaR

I can't quite believe that yesterday was MC's 70th birthday

Man, time flies. I remember when he turned 50. Then again, I was 7, and I'm almost 27.

Scorp wrote:A nice interview with MC here: http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/video/?uuid=b55486a7-d817-4f39-9929-05a8371086ec

Thank you, very nice to hear!

Sergei Polunin, the golden boy of the Royal Ballet whom Cameron cast as the Slavemaster as a featured role at the RAH event, has randomly walked out on the company without even saying why or giving advanced warning:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/jan/25/royal-ballet-sergei-polunin-quits?newsfeed=true

Seems a bit unprofessional to me to leave in this way. He may only be 21 and he may have had a lot of pressure on him, but he apparently didn't even express any unhappiness prior to this shock departure.

Guess I'll be seeing someone else in his place in Romeo and Juliet later this spring.

On a more bizarre (and more painful) note, Paul Daniels, who advised on the magic tricks for the original production, unfortunately managed to saw off his finger earlier this month (OUCH!). Luckily, he managed to get it reattached the same day in hospital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16664742

Scorp wrote:On a more bizarre (and more painful) note, Paul Daniels, who advised on the magic tricks for the original production, unfortunately managed to saw off his finger earlier this month (OUCH!). Luckily, he managed to get it reattached the same day in hospital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16664742

OUCH, indeed! Good that they could reattach it, hope everything turns out alright when it comes to movement and such things. I lost a finger when I was a child and thanks to an amazing surgeon it turned out fine.

Colm Wilkinson will be playing the role of The Bishop in the Les Mis movie!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2092428/Stars-original-Les-Miserables-encore-join-cast-new-big-screen-remake.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

starryeyed wrote:Colm Wilkinson will be playing the role of The Bishop in the Les Mis movie!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2092428/Stars-original-Les-Miserables-encore-join-cast-new-big-screen-remake.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

My prayers have been answered! (Nitpick, CamMac: Valjean steals the bishop's silverware; the bishop gives him the candlesticks afterward as a sign of forgiveness.)

~LCD

starryeyed wrote:Colm Wilkinson will be playing the role of The Bishop in the Les Mis movie!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2092428/Stars-original-Les-Miserables-encore-join-cast-new-big-screen-remake.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Awww, that's so sweet. Makes me smile
If only the majority of the rest of the cast didn't remind me of why humanity is doomed