Gina Beck | |
---|---|
Origin | High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England |
Genres | Musical Theatre |
Occupation(s) | Actress, singer, voice actress |
Years active | 2004–present |
Website | www |
Gina Beck (born on 30th December 1981 in Buckinghamshire) is a British stage actress and singer, mainly known for playing major roles in various West End musicals. She played the characters of Miss Honey in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Matilda the Musical , Magnolia Hawks in Daniel Evans production of the 1927 musical Show Boat , Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked , both in the London production and the 1st national tour, Christine Daaé in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera , Sarah Brown in the 2025 London revival of Guys and Dolls , and Cosette in Les Misérables .
Gina Beck was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, but moved to Hampshire with her parents at an early age. She attended local schools and was introduced to the stage through school and amateur groups. She passed her Grade 8 singing examination at the age of fifteen and gained experience in both solo and ensemble singing as a founder member of the Hampshire Children's Choir and subsequently, the Hampshire County Youth Choir.
In her teens, she had many acting and singing roles at Perins School and Peter Symonds College in Winchester [1] and was also engaged professionally to play leading roles in productions at Winchester College (Gianetta in L’élisir d’Amoré, 1999; Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing , 2000 and Emily Tallentire in The Hired Man , 2001). Her first break into musical theatre occurred when she auditioned successfully at the age of 14 for the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) of Great Britain. She performed in their production of Warchild in various English cathedrals during 1997. The following year she played the leading role of Kate Hardcastle in The Kissing Dance, a new musical written for the NYMT by Charles Hart and Howard Goodall based on Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer . [2] The show was performed to great critical acclaim at the Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals, The Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, and The Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden amongst other venues. [3] [4] She reprised this role in the first professional production of The Kissing Dance in March 2011 at the Jermyn Street Theatre, off the West End. [5] Her last role with the NYMT was as Guinevere in their Arthurian legend show Pendragon . [6] Performances of this show included two tours to Japan.
After A-level exams, she successfully auditioned for an acting degree at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, from where she graduated with a BA in Acting in 2004. After graduation, she had a number of small cameo roles on TV ( Doctors , Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking , among others) and commenced a long-standing relationship with Pearson Education doing both voice-over and video recordings for English Language teaching media.
Beck performed in opera and operetta with Holland Park Opera ( Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Donizetti's L'élisir d'Amoré ) and the Buxton Opera House (Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore and The Sorcerer ).
In 2006 she toured South Africa in The Merry Widow and in June of that year made her West End debut as Cosette in Les Misérables at Queen's Theatre. She performed the role in the 21st anniversary celebration concert of Les Misérables which was broadcast on BBC Radio 2. After a year, she left the show to create the lead role of Rebecca Warshowsky for the world première of the new musical Imagine This at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth in July 2007. [7] At Christmas 2007 Beck appeared as Wendy Darling in the Rachel Kavanaugh production of Peter Pan, the Musical at the Birmingham Rep. [8]
She took over the principal role of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in September 2008, [9] for which she was nominated for a Theatre Fans Choice Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, 2010. [10] She subsequently performed The Phantom duet with Ramin Karimloo at Andrew Lloyd Webber's 60th birthday concert in Hyde Park, London. [11] She has sung the duet "All I Ask of You" with co-star Simon Bailey on the Grand Staircase of the actual Opera Garnier in Paris (where Phantom is set) for CBS television [12] and the same song on the Alan Titchmarsh show on ITV1. On 3 October 2010 she appeared as part of the Alumni Ensemble in the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Les Misérables at London's O2 Arena and also appeared in the Les Misérables sequences in the 2010 Royal Variety Performance at The London Palladium. Later that year, Beck returned to The Phantom of the Opera as an emergency cover for Christine on 23 December, co-starring with John Owen-Jones. Beck also played Cosette as a voice role in the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre production of Les Miserables. [13]
She has supported the music of young musical-theatre composer Steven Luke Walker. She has taken part in several workshops of his compositions for the musical based on the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and, together with many stars from the West End, has performed in and helped promote a concert of his songs. [14]
In June 2011, she made her debut in the leading role of Maria von Trapp in a new production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music at the 3,000 seat Plenary Hall Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [15] In September 2011 she played Letitia Hardy in Hannah Cowley's restoration comedy The Belle's Stratagem at Southwark Playhouse. [16] [17] This was the first time in over 100 years that this play had been produced in London.
In December 2011, Beck took over the lead role of Glinda the Good Witch in the West End production of the musical Wicked , at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. [18] She starred alongside Rachel Tucker and, later, Louise Dearman as Elphaba. She completed two years in the role at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in November 2013.
She also appeared as an extra/solo singer (turning woman 3) in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables . [19]
On 26 November 2013, it was announced that Gina Beck would be returning to the role of Glinda, this time in the United States, joining the cast of the first national tour of Wicked , alongside Alison Luff as Elphaba and Curt Hansen as Fiyero. She began performances on 16 December 2013 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. [20] This marks the first ever international transfer to join an American production for an actress playing Glinda. On 14 July 2014, it was announced that she would be leaving the First National Tour on 27 July 2014. She was replaced, as Glinda, by Chandra Lee Schwartz.
In November 2014 she performed in an Off-West End 5-week run of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Charing Cross Theatre
In April and May 2015 she played the role of Bathsheba Everdene in The Watermill Theatre's production of Far From the Madding Crowd
In 2015, Gina Beck played the leading role of Magnolia Hawks in Daniel Evans' acclaimed production of Kern and Hammerstein's classic and ground-breaking musical Show Boat at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The production subsequently transferred to the West End at the New London Theatre in April 2016 for a limited run until August 2016. [21]
In 2017 she recorded two songs for the album Wit & Whimsy – Songs by Alexander S. Bermange (one solo and one featuring all of the album's 23 artists), which reached No. 1 in the iTunes comedy album chart.
Gina Beck then joined the West End production of Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, playing the role of Miss Honey, in September 2017. After an extremely successful run, she finally left the show in March 2020, just before the West End went dark because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She was next scheduled to star as Ensign Nellie Forbush opposite Julian Ovenden in the Chichester Festival Theatre production of South Pacific but, due to COVID-19, the show was postponed to summer 2021. In the meantime, Gina appeared in the all-star outdoor Summer 2020 concerts at Chichester Festival Theatre.
Due to becoming pregnant, Beck shared her lead role in South Pacific with Alex Young during the summer of 2021. [22] Beck returned to the role with fellow stars in the transfer to Sadler's Wells in July 2022, preceding a UK and Ireland tour. [23]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking | Maid | TV movie |
2010 | Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary | Female Worker 3 / Turning Woman 1 | |
2012 | Les Misérables | Turning Woman #3 | |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | The Crust | Lydia D. Hemmingway | Episode: "Pizza Panther" |
2008 | Doctors | Carrie Harkness | Episode: "Heston C in Da House" |
Year | Song | Album | Label |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | "Turning" | Les Misérables: The Motion Picture Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition) | Polydor Group |
2013 | "Once More" (with Steven Luke Walker) | Once More – Single | Eastern Star Music |
Les Misérables, colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz, is a sung-through musical with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, and a book by Schönberg and Boublil, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. Set in early 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption. After stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child, Valjean is imprisoned for 19 years and released in 1815. When a bishop inspires him with a tremendous act of mercy, Valjean breaks his parole and starts his life anew and in disguise. He becomes wealthy and adopts an orphan, Cosette. A police inspector named Javert pursues Valjean over the decades in a single-minded quest for "justice". The characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists attempts to overthrow the government at a street barricade in Paris.
John Owen-Jones is a Welsh musical theatre actor and singer, best known for his portrayals of Jean Valjean in Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables and The Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.
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 in turn is 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 Glinda, 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 Wizard of Oz, and ultimately, Elphaba's tragic fate at the accidental hands of Dorothy Gale.
Ramin Karimloo is a Canadian actor, singer, and songwriter recognized for his work in London's West End and New York's Broadway theatre.
David Burt is a British actor, known primarily for his many and wide-ranging West End performances.
Ali Ewoldt is a Filipino-American theatre actress, who made her Broadway debut in the Les Misérables revival in 2006, playing Cosette. She has also performed on national and international tours and in U.S. regional theatre. She became well known as the first Asian-American actress to star as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
Dianne Lesley Pilkington is an English theatre actress and singer.
Alexia Khadime is a British actress and mezzo-soprano, known for her roles in musical theatre and television.
Holly-Anne Smith is a British singer and stage actress best known for playing Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera in the West End, London. She also won the Disney Channel UK talent search My Camp Rock in April 2009 and is one third of British Country trio Remember Monday who featured on ITV's The Voice UK.
Sabrina Aloueche is an English musical theatre actress.
David Thaxton is a Welsh singer, actor and musical theatre and opera performer. He starred in the Donmar Warehouse's Passion, for which he won the 2011 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
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.
The Wizard of Oz is a 2011 musical based on the 1939 film of the same name in turn based on L. Frank Baum's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with a book adapted by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeremy Sams. The musical uses the Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg songs from the film and includes some new songs and additional music by Lloyd Webber and additional lyrics by Tim Rice. It is the third stage musical adaptation of the film following the 1942 version for the St. Louis Municipal Opera and the 1987 version for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Killian Donnelly is an Irish tenor singer and stage actor. He has appeared in musicals such as Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, and Kinky Boots.
Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary was performed and filmed at The O2 Arena in North Greenwich, London, England, on 3 October 2010 at 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm. It marked the 25th anniversary of the original West End production of Les Misérables, which was based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, and has been running since October 1985.
The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) is an arts organisation in the United Kingdom providing pre-professional education and musical theatre stage experience for young people. Based in London, it is constituted as a private limited company and as a registered charity. NYMT was founded in 1976 by director and playwright Jeremy James Taylor. Since its inception, it has produced more than fifty productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, premièred thirty new musical theatre works, toured several times outside the United Kingdom, and had runs in the West End and on Broadway.
Samantha Hill is a Canadian singer and actress who is most known for having starred in the Broadway shows Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera.
Katie Pycroft or Katie Hall is an English actress and soprano. She is known for her work in musical theatre.
Alison Nicole Luff is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her extensive work in musical theatre, notably for her roles as Elphaba in the First National Tour of Wicked and Jenna in the Broadway production of Waitress. From 2021 to 2023, she has appeared in a lead role in the Starz drama series Heels.
Lucy St. Louis is an English actress and singer. From 2021 to 2023, she played Christine Daaé in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera, making her the first black performer to do so. She was then cast as Glinda in Wicked, also in the West End.