Picerno's singing dissolved in tears during the love duet "All I Ask of You." Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber had swung by the studio to deliver a pep talk to the cast before they sang through the familiar score. In the dark days of 2020, living back in North Carolina with her parents and claiming unemployment benefits, she said she "almost felt like a failure." She sang her part every day to keep it fresh in her mind until the singing made her too sad and she stopped.Įmotion again overcame her on the first day reunited with her castmates in late September. Picerno said she was happy to embrace whatever was needed to get back on stage. The entire company was required to be vaccinated and twice a week went to get their noses swabbed at a nearby theater lobby repurposed as a temporary coronavirus testing site. The actor, Emilie Kouatchou, would make her Broadway debut as an alternate for Picerno.įor the returning cast, there were tweaks to lyrics and staging to learn, making it more straightforward to cast non-white actors in principal roles. In August, "Phantom" producers announced they had cast the first-ever Black actor to play Christine since the show opened on Broadway in 1988. streets last year in outrage at the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer, newly unemployed Broadway workers pushed the industry to make overdue changes to increase racial diversity in theater companies. Within a few weeks of the show going dark, COVID-19 had claimed the life of a beloved dresser, Jennifer Arnold, who had been with the show for more than three decades.Īfter protests filled U.S. Reuters watched as the "Phantom" company prepared for its return. Their return this fall is viewed as a test of the city's efforts to restore some new sense of normalcy.
Now, after an unprecedented shutdown, the theaters are among the last workplaces to reopen. Word of the abrupt shuttering came during a "Phantom" matinee at the Majestic Theatre on March 12, 2020, as some cast and crew themselves were falling sick. The crowded Broadway theaters, vital to the city's tourism industry, were the first places closed by the New York government as the coronavirus began to ravage the state. "Hopefully, none of us have it, because if one of us have it, we all have it," she said. Playing the show's heroine Christine required Picerno to kiss two co-stars daily and to sing full-throated love songs with them unmasked and at close range. She knew her job came with risks of exposure. "I'm a full-on monk now," she said during a rushed lunch break between back-to-back run throughs. Outside long days in a chilly mirror-lined rehearsal studio near New York City's Times Square, Picerno had put herself back on what she called lockdown. Photo by Matthew Murphy.NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Meghan Picerno was back at work after 18 months of pandemic limbo, overjoyed to be singing and dancing again with her "Phantom of the Opera" castmates as they rehearsed for the return of Broadway's longest-running show.Īs the musical's late October reopening neared, sometimes all Picerno could think about was making it to the first curtain call unscathed by the breakthrough COVID-19 cases that had sidelined vaccinated actors at other shows. "The Phantom" Derrick Davis as ‘The Phantom’. "Madame Giry" Susan Moniz as ‘Madame Giry’. "Carlotta Giudicelli" Trista Moldovan as ‘Carlotta Giudicelli’. "Meg GIry" SarahGrace Mariani as ‘Meg Giry’. "'Hannibal' Ballet" The Corps de Ballet in “Hannibal” – Choreography by Scott Ambler.
"The Managers" David Benoit as ‘Monsieur Firmin’ and Rob Lindley as ‘Monsieur André’. "Raoul - Rooftop" Jordan Craig as ‘Raoul’. "Hannibal" The Company performs “Hannibal” featuring Phumzile Sojola as ‘Ubaldo Piangi’. "Masquerade" The Company performs “Masquerade.” Original Tour Cast. "Think of Me" Eva Tavares as ‘Christine Daaé’. "Rooftop" Eva Tavares as ‘Christine Daaé’ and Jordan Craig as ‘Raoul’. "The Mirror" Derrick Davis as ‘The Phantom’ and Eva Tavares as ‘Christine Daaé’.
"The Journey" Derrick Davis as ‘The Phantom’ and Eva Tavares as ‘Christine Daaé’. "Music of the Night" Derrick Davis as ‘The Phantom’ and Eva Tavares as ‘Christine Daaé’.
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