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Looking back: Judas to Phantom
CanWest News Service
The Province
Jesus Christ Superstar
(Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice)
Role: Judas in the West End production in 1972.
Colm Wilkinson: "My mother was horrified when I accepted the role. She was a devout Catholic and when I told her I was going to play Judas she said, 'Colm, do you know what that man did to my Lord?' She didn't speak to me for six months."
Evita
(Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice)
Role: Che Guevara on the original white album, released in 1976.
Wilkinson: "I was rehearsing for the very lucrative Eurovision contest at the same time [the stage version of Evita was to debut in London's West End in 1978]. David Essex took on the role. After he was done, they asked me to take over the role for the Broadway version, but it meant relocating the children and doing eight shows a week, so I refused. I somewhat regret doing that."
Les Miserables
(Claude-Michel Schonberg/Alain Boublil/Herbert Kretzmer)
Role: Jean Valjean in the original West End production, which debuted in 1985 and the Broadway version, which opened in 1987.
Wilkinson: "They were looking for someone who looked like a convict, could carry a guy on his back and sung like an angel. Broadway director told Les Mis director Trevor Nunn 'That's Colm. He's Irish and living in Dublin.'"
Phantom of the Opera
(Andrew Lloyd Webber/Charles Hart/Richard Stilgoe)
Role: Wilkinson developed the role of the Phantom in the workshop stage, but was committed to Les Miserables when the show opened in London in 1986.
Wilkinson: "In 1988 I was home in Dublin and [Canadian producer] Garth Drabinsky called to ask me to come to Toronto for [the Canadian production] of the Phantom. I decided to do it for six months. I ended up performing it for 41/2 years and becoming a Canadian citizen. I have been very fortunate in this business."
© The Vancouver Province 2007
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