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The Trill Is Gone, But Phantom Was Just an Overture for Sandra Joseph
By Kenneth Jones
14 Apr 2006
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Sandra Joseph in The Phantom of the Opera.
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| photo by Joan Marcus | Sandra Joseph, Broadway's longest-running Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, leaves more than 1,300 performances behind April 15, but she's looking ahead to a new project.
Joseph's final performance will be the Saturday evening show at the Majestic.
Joseph told Playbill.com after Phantom she will concentrate on a new literary project
that she is co-authoring with New York Times best-selling author and O (the
Oprah Magazine) columnist Martha Beck. The as-yet untitled work is described as a "hilarious and enlightening narrative non-fiction featuring
incidents and ideas" from her life, "including her many years of experiences with the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical."
The memoir will be packaged with a CD of original music written and performed by Joseph. The book-and-CD combo will be release later this year, and will also be the basis for a future one-woman show.
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Rebecca Pitcher, a company member in Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera, will move into the role of suggestible ingénue Christine Daae beginning April 17.
Pitcher originally starred as Christine on the national tour and is currently the New York company's Christine alternate (playing several performances a week), a role that she took over in July 2005 as part of the record-breaking company. She had the honor of playing the role during the record-tying performance (when Phantom tied Cats' record) on Saturday evening Jan. 7. She is the eleventh actress to be cast as Christine in the Broadway production, directed by Harold Prince.
Broadway performer Jennifer Hope Wills will make her Phantom debut when she joins the cast as the Christine alternate with her first performance Thursday April 20. Wills earned rave reviews playing Eileen opposite Brooke Shields in the Broadway revival of Wonderful Town and can be heard on the new Broadway cast recording with Shields. She most recently appeared in the original Broadway cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White (covering the role of Laura) and was also featured in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast (covering the role of Belle) and the Encores! production of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Wills succeeds Pitcher as the Alternate.
The ladies join two other recent principal cast changes: Michael Shawn Lewis returned as Raoul on April 3 and Roland Rusinek took over the role of Piangi on March 31.
Also continuing in their roles are Howard McGillin (The Phantom), George Lee Andrews (Monsieur Firmin), David Cryer (Monsieur André), Anne Runolfsson (Carlotta), Marilyn Caskey (Madame Giry) and Heather McFadden (Meg Giry).
Produced by Cameron Mackintosh/Really Useful Group, Inc., Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera became the longest-running show in Broadway history on Jan. 9, 2006, when it played performance No. 7,486.
The performance schedule is Monday and Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 PM and Tuesday evenings at 7 PM with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM. For tickets, call Tele-charge at (212) 239-6200, visit www.telecharge.com or visit The Majestic Theatre box office (247 West 44th Street).
For more information, visit www.thephantomoftheopera.com.
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