By Harry Haun
10 Jun 2009

Opel came from Kansas to Juilliard in 1976 and, from that, three years later, stepped straight into Evita as a second cover for the title role. "Paul Gemignani kept saying, 'She may be 22, but she can sing it.' I was there for a year and never went on in the role — I had my own part in the show — and after a year I took over the matinees and did the show for four years. I took a leave of absence to do the Sunday in the Park with George workshop, and I was in that original production. It was the experience of a lifetime — the first time I'd ever experienced the creation of a show from the ground up — and it had a profound effect on me. I was aware that miraculous things can happen at any moment within a show and that, no matter how the chips may fall, it's just a play. You have to work hard and give it everything, but you can't let all the crazy stuff that happens, with lots of changes and whatever, injure you."

It was during Sunday in the Park that Opel recognized her character-comedienne destiny. "I realized, 'I'm playing a role that could be played by somebody easily ten years older than I am.' And, with the exception of my one ingenue role where I did Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes, I don't think I did one ingenue. Somehow I knew when I was a youngster, if I was going to make it in show business at all, I felt like my time was going to be later. I think I practically heard it, like in my head, saying, 'I just have to hang in because it's going to be more interesting in my middle age.'"