Rebecca Pitcher is an American musical theatre actress. She is primarily known for her role as Christine Daaé in the Broadway adaptation of "The Phantom of the Opera".
Pitcher graduated from Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio and later attended the Peabody Institute. She was part of the Pittsburgh Opera Center at Duquesne, playing roles such as Papagena in "The Magic Flute".
From 1999 to 2004, Pitcher played the role of Christine Daaé in "The Phantom of the Opera" on the third national tour. A year later, she joined the Broadway cast as an alternate for Christine Daaé, and on April 17, 2006, she became the main performer of the role, replacing Sandra Joseph.
In February 2018, Pitcher joined the cast of "Carousel" on Broadway.
On June 11, 2018, as part of the "Broadway at The Pierre" cabaret series in association with Broadway Sings for Pride, a concert was held at Two E Bar/Lounge — the sophisticated saloon located inside the New York City luxury hotel, The Pierre. The concert (titled "Encore") featured a performance by Pitcher, backed by pianist and musical director Charles Santoro. The concert was scheduled on the day after the 72nd Annual Tony Awards, further celebrating the talent and legacy of the Great White Way.
Pitcher performed the song "Home" during the concert, where Shefik served as Videographer. "Home" is a song from the musical "Phantom", with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Arthur Kopit. Based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel "The Phantom of the Opera", the musical was first presented in Houston, Texas in 1991.
Although it has never appeared on Broadway and has been overshadowed by the success of the 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Yeston and Kopit's "Phantom" has received over 1,000 productions.
Yeston and Kopit had just finished the musical "Nine", winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1982, when in 1983 they were approached by actor and director Geoffrey Holder to write a musical based on Leroux's novel. Holder had obtained the rights to musicalize the novel in America from the Leroux estate, making "Phantom" the only "Phantom of the Opera" musical to do so.
After "The Phantom of the Opera" became a smash hit in London in 1986, Lloyd Webber announced a Broadway production, and Yeston's Broadway investors backed out. Yeston, Kopit, and Holder reluctantly shelved their plans for "Phantom" and went their separate ways for a time. When Kopit saw the Lloyd Webber version of "The Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway, he realized that the approach he and Yeston had taken was fundamentally different and that it could still work on the musical stage.
Yeston refers to "Phantom" as "the greatest hit never to be produced on Broadway".
Credits
- Videographer: Shefik
Last Updated: April 29, 2023
