Espinosa made her Broadway debut as a member of the original Broadway cast of Stephen Schwartz's musical Wicked, which opened on October 30, 2003.[5] She started the production as standby for Idina Menzel in the role of Elphaba.[5] She was also an understudy for the role of Nessarose. Espinosa performed the role of Elphaba for a month continuously during the summer of 2004, while Menzel was filming Ask the Dust. Espinosa left Wicked on September 5, 2004, to originate the lead for the Broadway debut of Brooklyn.
Following the closing of Brooklyn the Musical, Espinosa performed the lead role of Elphaba for the Wicked First National tour during the entire San Francisco run, from August 5 to September 11, 2005. She replaced Stephanie J. Block while Block recovered from an injury.[6]
On January 10, 2006, Espinosa returned to perform in the lead role of Elphaba for the Broadway production of Wicked, taking over the role from Shoshana Bean.[7] Espinosa performed for the Wicked celebration of its 1,000th performance on Broadway, on March 21, 2006. She left the Broadway production on October 8, 2006, and was replaced by Ana Gasteyer.[8]
Espinosa received the 2006 Broadway.com Audience Award for "Favorite Female Replacement", in recognition of her performances as Elphaba during her Broadway run as lead.[9]
Espinosa originated the role of Elphaba for the third U.S. production of Wicked in Los Angeles, which opened on February 21, 2007, playing the role until December 30, 2007.[10] She received broad critical acclaim for the role.[11] She returned on October 31, 2008 and stayed with the production until its closing night on January 11, 2009.[12] On March 2, 2010 until June 26, 2010, Espinosa played Elphaba in the San Francisco production of Wicked.[13] This was the last time Espinosa ever played Elphaba.[14]
Brooklyn the Musical
Espinosa originated and workshopped the title role in Brooklyn the Musical over the course of two years. Its world premiere was on April 30, 2003 (previews),[15] and it ran until June 15, 2003, at the Denver Civic Center.[16]
Espinosa opened in Brooklyn on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on October 21, 2004, and stayed with the musical until it closed on June 26, 2005.[17] It played 27 previews and 284 regular performances.
Espinosa was nominated for a 2005 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance.[18] She was featured on the original Broadway cast recording of Brooklyn the Musical.[citation needed]
Rent
On May 30, 2008, joined the Broadway cast of Rent at the Nederlander Theatre[19] and stayed with the production until it closed on September 7, 2008. Espinosa made appearances on Good Morning America and at the 2008 Tony Awards (which featured the original and closing Broadway casts). She also featured in the filmed final Broadway performance.[20]
Additional theatre
Espinosa starred in a production of Flora the Red Menace which ran at UCLA's Freud Playhouse from May 6–18, 2008.[21] After its closing, on September 21, 2008, Espinosa made her West End debut in "Never Neverland", a benefit concert that raised money for British charities Ovarian Cancer Action and NCH. The concert took place at the Duchess Theatre in London.
Espinosa performed as Miranda in the one-night staging of Howard Ashman's previously unproduced musical Dreamstuff on June 23, 2008, at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Michael Urie.[22]
On October 22, 2005, Espinosa made her solo concert debut with a co-headlining show with Tony Award nominee Euan Morton at Town Hall in New York City part of the venue's Cabaret Festival.[30]
In March 2009, Espinosa performed her solo show entitled "Me" at Joe's Pub in New York City, directed by Billy Porter.[31] She returned to Southern California with her show on Friday, July 24, 2009, at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.
In December 2009, she performed a 2nd solo show entitled "From Eden With Love" at the Razz Room at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA.
In September 2012, Espinosa became one of the first few major lineup acts opening Feinstein's/54 Below with a themed show paying tribute to the acclaimed singer-songwriter Eva Cassidy.[32]
She was featured as a soloist for Disneyland's new firework spectacular "Magical" premiering in the summer of 2009, where she sang Magical's theme song as well as Disney songs such as "Baby Mine".[33]
In February 2020, Espinosa launched a new acoustic solo show at The Green Room 42 entitled Unplugged & Unplanned.[34] Every concert, the show's setlist would be all new. The February shows were sold out; it included an extension that led into March 2020. However, the final two shows were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When live performances started to resume during the spring of 2021, Espinosa returned and completed the last two shows of the residency.
Today, many of the Espinosa's concerts are done in the style inspired by her Unplugged & Unplanned show rotating the setlist of tunes from her Broadway career, both her solo albums, pop/rock covers, and a Musical Theater fan request section. On August 8, 2021, she headlined her first solo concert on the Las Vegas Strip at The Space Las Vegas. For fans who weren't able to make it, the concert was also livestreamed. On November 13, 2021, Espinosa performed a one night only concert in Holmdel, NJ at the Holmdel Theatre Company (part of the Broadway at the Barn series).
Espinosa brought her concert overseas to London at Cadogan Hall on April 8, 2022.
Solo albums
In August 2012, Espinosa announced she was in the process of recording her debut solo album, featuring modern Broadway hits with a pop sensibility, entitled Look Around.[35] The album was released on December 18, 2012, debuting at #41 on the iTunes Pop Charts.[36] The album also went on to win multiple awards for independent artists including the Independent Music Awards for Pop Album of the Year, Female Pop Vocalist of the Year, and Producer of the Year (which went to Espinosa's producer, Joseph Abate).[37]
On July 25, 2015, Espinosa announced she was in the early development process of her sophomore studio album. Just like with Look Around, she started a Kickstarter fundraiser to raise money for the album.[38] The album recordings and release were delayed due to Espinosa's schedule with various theater projects, voiceover work, concerts, and personal situations that ended up inspiring the album of original songs.[citation needed] The sophomore album, entitled "Revelation", was officially released on January 23, 2019.[39] It debuted at #15 on the Pop iTunes charts.
In 2007, the ABC series Ugly Betty included performances of "I'm Not That Girl" and "Defying Gravity" in the episode "Something Wicked This Way Comes", featuring Espinosa and other members of Los Angeles Wicked cast.[41]
In 2011, she appeared on the animated sketch comedy series Mad episode "Force Code / Flammable" as Katy Putty, a Katy Perry parody made out of Play-Doh who sings about flammability, and performed "Flammable", a spoof on Perry's song "Firework".
In 2016, she voiced Orizaba the moth fairy in the tenth episode of Elena of Avalor, "The Sceptre of Light",[43] and again in 2018 for season two episode 18, "Finding Zuzo".[44]
She sang vocals in the musical number titled "TRUCKS" in the episode of the same name of Cars on the Road.
Game Night
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Espinosa along with real life best friend vocalist and Rent alumna Kamilah Marshall collaborated with California based Regional house Musical Theatre West creating a weekly web series on Instagram Live entitled Game Night with Eden & Kamilah. The series featured the duo in a friendly competition playing a series of Musical Theatre themed trivia games. The series would go Live every Thursday night on Instagram. However, the plug got pulled from them doing the lives due to the change of restrictions of use of music on the lives on social media. They later moved it to being an interactive show on Zoom featuring fans playing along. Most recently, Game Night was then changed to a real live studio game show featuring both Espinosa and Marshall hosting with special Broadway guests. It was released on Broadstream on November 3, 2021.
Personal life
Eden married managing producer Joseph Abate on October 16, 2010. They divorced in 2019.
Brooklyn the Musical is a musical with a book, lyrics, and music by Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson. It was acquired for licensing by Broadway Licensing
Shoshana E. Bean is a Tony-nominated American singer, songwriter, and stage actress. She has appeared in numerous musicals, performing in major Off-Broadway and Broadway theatres, including in the original production of Hairspray.
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is a loose adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is in turn based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. The musical is told from the perspective of two witches, Elphaba and Galinda, before and after Dorothy's arrival in Oz. The story explores the complex friendship between Elphaba and Galinda. Their relationship is tested by their contrasting personalities, conflicting viewpoints, shared love interest, reactions to the corrupt rule of the Wonderful Wizard, and ultimately, Elphaba's tragic fall.
Megan Kathleen Hilty is an American actress and singer. She rose to prominence for her roles in Broadway musicals, including her performance as Glinda in Wicked, Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5: The Musical, and her Tony Award–nominated role as Brooke Ashton in Noises Off. She also starred as Ivy Lynn on the musical-drama series Smash, on which she sang the Grammy Award-nominated "Let Me Be Your Star", and portrayed Liz on the sitcom Sean Saves the World.
Stephanie Janette Block is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on the Broadway stage.
Kendra Kassebaum is an American theatre actress, who has performed in many different musicals, and is perhaps best remembered for playing the role of Glinda in the first national tour, Broadway, and San Francisco casts of the blockbuster musical Wicked.
Jenna Leigh Green is an American actress and singer best known for her performances as Libby Chessler on the television show Sabrina the Teenage Witch, as well as for roles on tour in the musical Wicked and later in the Broadway production.
Julia Kathleen Murney is an American actress and singer, also known for television commercial voice-overs. Until 2005, she was commonly known as the Broadway actress who had technically never appeared on Broadway. This was because her fame came mostly from her performances on the Broadway charity circuit, and not traditional Broadway productions. She played the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked, both on the US national tour (2006) and on Broadway (2007). She is also a two-time Drama Desk Award nominee, for The Wild Party (2000) and Falling (2013).
Kate Reinders is an American actress and singer, who has performed as lead and understudy in several Broadway shows.
Dee Roscioli is an American singer and actress, who is known for her performances as Elphaba in the Broadway, Chicago, San Francisco, and national touring productions of the musical Wicked.
Lisa Brescia is an American musical theatre actress who has performed as lead and understudy in several Broadway shows. Raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she went on to pursue acting and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She taught Acting I and IV at Missouri State University and is now set to be the head of the Musical Theatre department at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.
Caissie Levy is a Canadian-American actress and singer, mainly known for her work in musical theatre on Broadway and in the West End. Her early Broadway credits included Penny Pingleton in Hairspray and Sheila in Hair, a role she also played in the West End. She originated the role of Molly Jensen in the West End and Broadway productions of Ghost: the Musical, and played Fantine in the 2014 Broadway revival of Les Misérables. Levy also originated the role of Elsa in Frozen on Broadway. For her performance on the cast recording of Caroline, or Change, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2023. Levy originated the role of Diana Goodman in the London production of Next to Normal and received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
Rachel Kelly Tucker is a Northern Irish stage actress, best known for her portrayal of Elphaba in the musical Wicked. She also starred in Come from Away on Broadway, having originated the role on the West End. Rachel has starred in various other musicals and plays, including one alongside Sting.
Willemijn Verkaik is a Dutch singer and actress. She is best known for her stage roles in Wicked and Elisabeth, and for providing the singing voice for Elsa in both the German and Dutch versions of Disney's Frozen. She was the longest running Elphaba in the musical Wicked, having played the role over 2,000 times, and is the only person to have played the role in three languages. Her first performance as Elphaba was on 31 October 2007, in Stuttgart, Germany, and her final performance was on 22 July 2017 in the West End of London.
Marcie Dodd is an American musical theatre actress, who is best known for playing Elphaba and Nessarose in various U.S. companies of the smash-hit musical Wicked.
Erin Ashley Mackey is an American stage actress and singer, known for playing the role of Glinda in the Chicago, Los Angeles, Broadway, and Second National Tour productions of the musical Wicked. She was also a double in 1998's The Parent Trap.
Teal Wicks is an American singer and stage actress, who is best known for her performances as Elphaba in the Broadway, San Francisco, and Los Angeles productions of the musical Wicked and as Mary Barrie in the musical Finding Neverland.
Louise Dearman is a British actress and singer, perhaps best known for playing Glinda and Elphaba in the West End production of the musical Wicked. Notably, she is the only actress to have played both witches in any production of Wicked full-time. She has a number of other professional stage and television credits, such as Eva Perón in Evita, Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Daisy Hilton in Side Show. She released her solo albums, You and I, Here Comes the Sun and It's Time, in 2005, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Jackie Burns is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theatre.
Jessica Vosk is an American singer and actress, known for her work in musical theater.
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