Kim Criswell appreciation

She has an amazing voice - it surprised me years ago when I was listening to one of the recordings she was on. 

I never got to see her perform live  (yet) 

 

Updated On: 2/18/26 at 06:12 PM

Love KC!  First saw her back in 1985 here in Los Angeles in "Cats."  She was Grizabella, and stopped the show nightly.  "Cats" ran for 22 months at The Shubert Theatre, and she did the show for the first 18 months.  Saw the show multiple times, just to see her.  Have all of her cds, including the many, many studio recordings of cast albums that she did.  Kim appeared on "The Merv Griffin Show" and the MDA Telethon during her run on "Cats," and sang "Memory."  I recorded those performances, and have them on vhs.  I need to get them converted to dvd.  

She has come so close to headlining some of the biggest musicals of the 80's.  In "Into The Woods," it got narrowed down to her and Bernadette Peters for the Witch.  For "Anything Goes," it was between her and Patti LuPone.  For "Cats," she was one of the last 4 for Grizabella, which went to Betty Buckley.  She's an incredible talent.  

Updated On: 2/19/26 at 07:05 PM

As much as an anonymous post on a message board can be worth…

Ms Criswell was auditioning for a Sondheim show at the Kennedy Center and when Sondheim said something about “we’re trying to fix Merrily”, Kim replied with “Well I should hope so”.

Hard to believe offending one person can lead to a road block on your career, but who knows. 

Ensemble17591322022 said: "As much as an anonymous post on a message board can be worth…

Ms Criswell was auditioning for a Sondheim showat the Kennedy Center and when Sondheim said something about “we’re trying to fix Merrily”, Kim replied with “Well I should hope so”.

Hard to believe offending one person can lead to a road block on your career, but who knows."

KC has had a very successful career.  Even if she did say that, that's not a road block, or anything close to it.  She's agreeing with him.  

 

Updated On: 2/22/26 at 10:27 PM