Chilina Kennedy to officially replace Jessie Mueller in Beautiful

[RW3]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 10:28am

Broadway.com

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 10:50am

Jessica Keenan Wynn is also replacing Anika Larsen during her maternity leave. She will be a fantastic Cynthia Weil! Loved her in Heathers.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 11:29am

The rumor was true after all, Chilina Kennedy will be going from I Don't Know How to Love Him to Will You Love Me Tomorrow. Very excited that she's coming back to Broadway!

[macnyc]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 11:36am

Jessica Keenan Wynn was in Bring It On at the St. James, so Beautiful will not be her Broadway debut, as the article says. I also loved her in Heathers.

Edited to add:

CORRECTION: I was mixing up my Heathers, sorry. Elle McLemore was in Bring It On. Sorry!


Updated On: 1/20/15 at 11:36 AM

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 12:08pm

Can someone refresh my memory on Chilina Kennedy? For some reason I remember people (and critics) not really caring for her in that JCS Broadway revival. (For the record, I liked her fine in the show.)

[getatme]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 12:11pm

Jessica Keenan Wynn wasn't in Bring It On. Beautiful certainly will be her Broadway debut and she'll be absolutely fantastic as Cynthia.

Chilina's casting isn't too exciting, she was all right in Jesus Chris Superstar, and she's got huge shoes to fill.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 12:22pm

Chilina did play Phoebe in A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder when it was at the Old Globe in San Diego.


Here's her from a recent production of South Pacific... Updated On: 1/20/15 at 12:22 PM

[macnyc]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 12:41pm

Sorry, I was mixing up my Heathers! I'll amend my post.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 1:39pm

An absolutely lifeless Mary Magdelene (but to be fair that whole revival was awful).

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 1:49pm

I loved her and the whole cast of Jesus Christ Superstar. I think she'll be great in this. It's certainly not a name I would have immediately thought of to replace Jessie but the more I think about it the more I love the idea.

[canmark]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 2:20pm

I vaguely recall Chilina being good as the daft Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I don’t recall her being all that in Jesus Christ Superstar. I do wish her the best of luck. Poor Stratford, losing so many of their young musical stars (Chilina, Josh Young, Paul Nolan) to the Broadway stage.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 2:26pm

I'm not all too familiar with Chilina Kennedy, but she beat out a lot of big Broadway talent to land this job. I'm excited to see her take on the role.

Jessica Keenan Wynn is terrific casting for Cynthia.

Updated On: 1/20/15 at 02:26 PM

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 4:24pm

I've been meaning to return, since I haven't seen this show since previews. I was pulling for Margo Seibert as replacement though.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/20/15 at 6:53pm

I wasn't a fan of Kennedy in JCS, but Jeremy Kushnier was the best part of the production.
I do want to see Beautiful again, so I'll keep an open mind! I'm VERY excited about Wynn. She was fantastic in Heathers (which I didn't really like either).

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 1/21/15 at 12:02am

I want to see Beautiful, but I don't know if I should see it with Jessie, or wait so I can see Jessica Keenan Wynn

[steven22]

Posted: 2/1/15 at 8:53am

Saw the show last night. Wow. Kicking myself for taking this long to see it...and Jessie leaves early March. Will try and see it once more before Jessie leaves.

Curious, as anyone seen any of Jessie's u/s? Sara or Rebecca?

Would like to see the show when Chillina joins too...

[mj21723]

Posted: 2/1/15 at 9:25am

I saw the show yesterday afternoon with Rebecca. She was good, but I really want to see Jessie. Decided to get a ticket for her final performance!

[NJ_BroadwayGirl]

Posted: 2/1/15 at 3:16pm

I also saw the matinee yesterday (Sat) with Rebecca LaChance. I thought she did a really nice job and overall I loved the show - the whole ensemble was great. Certainly I had hoped I would be seeing Jessie Mueller but I wasn't disappointed at all by Rebecca's performance. She's got a great voice and felt natural in the part.

That being said, I just did the same thing as @mj21723 and purchased a ticket to Jessie's final show! I need to see her in this role.