“Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show on Broadway, celebrated 34 years last month by debuting its first Black Christine on Broadway, played by Emilie Kouatchou. - NBCBLK
Kouatchou still remembers the first time she hit the stage playing Christine as an understudy in October 2021. She felt pressure to live up to the role, yet also taken care of at the same time.
Christine is a beloved character in the iconic musical, known for her sweeping ballads “Think of Me,” “All I Ask of You” and “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.” No longer an understudy, Kouatchou stepped into the role full-time for the show’s anniversary on Jan 26, 2022. She said it can be difficult to assume a historic role people are familiar with, while still making it feel like it’s hers.
“It really took me being in the show and learning the music and seeing other people do all these other songs to realize how genius it is,” she said. “Webber does an amazing job of creating these specific characters, who, as an actor, you can also just embody them differently. Every ‘Phantom’ is different, every Christine is different. You’re not going to get the same cookie-cutter character and I think that’s the exciting part of ‘Phantom,’ too.
“There’s probably a number of reasons that I’m not privy to and some things just are not meant to be at that time and that’s OK,” shew said. “I’m learning to take things as they come and realize that my journey is going to happen when it needs to happen. Honestly, this was the perfect time for something like this to happen, even though it had been quite a long time. There have been so many different Black women thathave played Christine.
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