I had the pleasure of enjoying both Coleen & Andrea while they were together in J&H more than a few times. (I took groups to Bd'w back then and J&H was the "hot" show to see).
Coleen is just knock dead beautiful. Most of the young men in my group needed a drooling bib sitting in the front rows of the Plymouth ( understand that there is no orch. pit, so you are actually 12" from the stage).
Not to stray from this lovely Coleen thread, but please endulge me this one time. Andrea had been doing J&H on tour with Chuck Wagner when the old "jekkies" got wind of her. ( We didn't smell her lol!, but heard about how she was really doing Emma justice out there ). At the time she was longing to return home to NYC for a very "special" reason.
When the right opening came and with a little, no,a lot of "jekkie" press, we finally got Andrea back to NY in Jekyll. Not to discredit Christiane Noll,(OBC Emma) who is one of my favorite sopranos but Andrea brought a totally new shade of emotion, much like Julia Murney is doing with Elphaba, to the role of Emma. And yes! she could easily hit those high notes. Towards the end of run she was very ill and very worried not knowing what was going on. Not everyone understood it. Some could have been more compassionate, but her friends and supporters stuck by her.
Both Coleen & Andrea should be back on Broadway. Incidently, I think Andrea would make a great Fantine for the new revival. I wish she would audition next week.
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BWW regional writer "Philadelphia/South Jersey"
Updated On: 4/22/06 at 08:07 PM