Ma-Anne Dionisio | |
---|---|
Born | |
Occupation(s) | Singer, actress |
Years active | 1992–present |
Children | 3 |
Ma-Anne Dionisio (born 16 July 1973) [1] is a Filipino-Canadian singer and actress.
She is the middle child of five sisters; her parents moved the family from the Philippines to Canada in 1990. [1] [2] [3] [4]
After some encouragement from people who had heard her sing, she won a leading role in Experience Canada, a musical tour that celebrated Canada's 125th anniversary. [1] [3] A TV presentation of the show was seen by someone in the Toronto casting department Miss Saigon who arranged for an audition for the role of Kim in the musical. [1] She won the role and was a celebrated success, earning nominations for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1994 and in 2011. [5] Dionisio has since performed as Kim in British, Australian and American productions of Miss Saigon. [6]
She played the role of Éponine in the U.S. touring company of Les Misérables , joining Lea Salonga as the second Asian to play Éponine in western theater.
She played Bertrande de Rols in Martin Guerre in London, [7] performed in West Side Story as Maria at the Stratford Festival in 1999, [1] and appeared on Broadway as Little Girl in the 2002 revival of Flower Drum Song . [8]
In July 2008, Dionisio reprised her original role as Kim in the seated production of Miss Saigon at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri. [9] In July 2010, she also reprised this role in the second Toronto, Ontario, Canada production. [10] [11] She originally played this role in the original Toronto production in 1993, which also launched her career. [10] [11]
She is a founding artist of Theatre 20, a musical theatre company in Toronto formed by artists in 2009, and performed in Theatre 20's 2011 Concert Series at the Panasonic Theatre. [12]
She has also had occasional film and television roles, including guest appearances in Flashpoint , Remedy and Schitt's Creek and a lead role in the film The Waiting Room .
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. The original French musical premiered in Paris in 1980 with direction by Robert Hossein. Its English-language adaptation, with lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, has been running in London since October 1985, making it the longest-running musical in the West End and the second longest-running musical in the world after the original Off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks.
Miss Saigon is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madame Butterfly's story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl.
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga is a Filipino singer and actress. Primarily known for her work in musical theatre, she has won a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards. She was conferred with the Order of Lakandula in 2009, and was honored as a Disney Legend in 2011.
Colm Wilkinson, also known as C. T. Wilkinson, is an Irish singer and actor who is best known for originating the lead role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and for creating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera (1985) preview at the Sydmonton Festival and the original Canadian production.
Hugh Panaro is an American actor and singer. He is best known for his work in Broadway stage musicals, most well known for his role in The Phantom of the Opera being in over 2,000 performances in the Broadway production.
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Lisa Simone Kelly is an American singer, composer and actress, known for her work on and off Broadway, in Rent, The Lion King, Aida, and Les Miserables. She is the only child of musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone from her marriage to police detective Andrew Stroud and is the executive producer of the Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? Simone's albums include Simone on Simone, All is Well, My World, and Live at the Edge.
Robert Westenberg is an American stage actor and singer, acting teacher, and professor. He received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods.
Martin Guerre is a two-act musical with a book by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, lyrics by Alain Boublil, Edward Hardy and Stephen Clark, and music by Claude-Michel Schönberg.
Sarah Uriarte Berry is an American actress and singer.
Joanna Ampil is a musical theatre and film actress from the Philippines and United Kingdom.
Jacquelyn Piro Donovan is an American actress and singer known for her work in broadway musicals and on the concert stage. She is perhaps best known for the distinction of being the only actress to portray both the young innocent Cosette and the tragic heroine Fantine in the original Broadway production of Les Misérables.
Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway, in the West End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in London's West End.
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Kim Crosby is an American singer and musical theatre actress. She is best known as the original Cinderella in the Sondheim–Lapine musical Into the Woods.
Ashley Spencer is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Spencer was a contestant on the 2007 NBC show Grease: You're the One that I Want! She was the understudy for Barbie in the Barbie in Fairytopia tour, in which she sang and danced ballet.
Stephanie Martin, sometimes credited as Stéphanie Martin, is an American–based Canadian singer and actress having performed in notable musical productions in both French and English. She is best known for her role as Éponine in three productions of the musical Les Misérables and as the Québécoise French singing voice of Pocahontas in the 1995 Disney animated film Pocahontas.
Eva Maria Noblezada is an American actress and singer.
Kerrie Anne Greenland is an Australian actress and singer, known for performances in musical theatre. She won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her portrayal of Éponine in the 2014 Australian version of Les Miserables and Ellen in the 2023 Australian version of Miss Saigon.
Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga has appeared in international theatre productions, television shows, films, and video games. She made her professional debut on stage in the 1978 Repertory Philippines production of The King and I. She went on to appear and star in productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1978), Fiddler on the Roof (1978), Annie (1980), The Sound of Music (1980), The Rose Tattoo (1980), and The Bad Seed (1981) in Manila. In 1981, Salonga made her film debut as Lisa in the Filipino comedy Tropang Bulilit. Salonga continued performing in theatre productions in Manila, including The Goodbye Girl (1982), The Paper Moon (1983), a revival of Annie (1984), and The Fantasticks (1988). From 1983 to 1985, Salonga hosted her own television variety show entitled Love, Lea. In 1986, she also appeared as a Thursday group member on the television series That's Entertainment. Throughout the 1980s, she also appeared in the Filipino films Like Father, Like Son (1985), Ninja Kids (1986), Captain Barbell (1986), Pik Pak Boom (1988), and Dear Diary (1989).
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