Gina Beck
| Gina Beck | |
|---|---|
| Origin | High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | Musical Theatre |
| Occupations | Actress, singer, voice actress |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Website | http://www.ginabeck.co.uk/ |
Gina Beck is an English actress and singer known primarily for playing major roles in leading West End theatre productions. She is currently appearing as Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, and has previously starred as Christine Daaé in Cameron Mackintosh's production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, for which she was nominated for a Theatre Fans Choice Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, 2010.[1]
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[edit] Background
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 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[2] 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 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 and based on Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.[3] 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.[4][5] 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.[6] Her last role with the NYMT was as Guinevere in their Arthurian legend show Pendragon.[7] Performances of this show included two tours to Japan.
[edit] Career
After A-levels, Gina Beck successfully auditioned for an acting degree at The 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.
She performed in opera and operetta during 2005 at 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, Gina toured South Africa in The Merry Widow and in June of that year she 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.[8] At Christmas time that year Gina appeared as Wendy Darling in the Rachel Kavanaugh production of Peter Pan, the Musical at the Birmingham Rep.[9]
Gina Beck took over the principal role of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre in September 2008.[10] Since that time she has also 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.
Recently, she has been instrumental in supporting the music of the 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.[13]
In June 2011, she made her debut in the leading role of Maria von Trapp in a new production of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music at the 3,000 seater Plenary Hall Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[14] She followed this in September of that year with a critically acclaimed performance as Letitia Hardy in Hannah Cowley's restoration comedy The Belle's Stratagem at Southwark Playhouse.[15][16] This was the first time in over 100 years that this play had been produced in London.
In December 2011, Gina took over the role of Glinda the Good Witch, in the West End production of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.[17]
[edit] Filmography
| 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 |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | The Crust | Lydia D. Hemmingway | Episode: "Pizza Panther" |
| 2008 | Doctors | Carrie Harkness | Episode: "Heston C in Da House" |
[edit] References
- ^ Broadway World West End Awards 2010
- ^ College Days – Gina Beck; The Guardian, 15 May 2007
- ^ Kissing-Dance original cast details, text and reviews; Howard Goodall
- ^ Youth on the Hoof; The Times, 12 February 1999
- ^ The Kissing Dance; Evening Standard, 10 February 1999
- ^ The Kissing Dance; The Guardian 28 March 2011
- ^ Gina to emerge as lady of the lake; Evening Standard, 24 October 2000
- ^ Imagine This Review; Plymouth Advertiser/Post, 13 July 2007
- ^ Peter Pan; The Guardian, 7 December 2007
- ^ Bailey and Beck join UK's ‘Phantom’ Cast ; Broadway World, 20 August 2008
- ^ Really Useful Group; ALW 60th Birthday in the Park, 14 September 2008
- ^ Historic ‘Phantom’ performance; CBS News, 31 October 2008
- ^ Public Reviews: The Songs of Steven Luke Walker
- ^ TimeOutKL Review: The Sound of Music
- ^ The Belle's Stratagem: The Guardian
- ^ The Belle's Stratagem: The Independant
- ^ Gina Beck and Matt Willis to Join London Cast of Wicked; Desmond Barrit to Return as Wizard
