Christine shares her thoughts on her career, family, favorite roles, memorable experiences, future plans, and those who have guided and influenced her throughout her career.  

Q:   When did you know that you wanted to be a Broadway performer, actress, and singer?

A:  It wasn't really a question of "when"...it was a very natural progression.  I grew up in a household filled with music.  Music would be playing on the radio - the popular music of the day, the "standards" that my mother listened to like Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Barbra Streisand (who was an up and coming singer when I was a kid).  Also, my mother loved the theatre, so there was a lot of Merman, Martin, Andrews, all the theatre greats played on the record player.  But beyond just hearing the music, my mother would sing all day long.  She would sing making the beds, doing the dishes, washing the clothes.  There was always her voice and the music in the house so singing was very natural for me, and, as a result, I was never self-conscious about it.  It was a very deep love of hers and mine.

I feel that I was given a gift - there is this voice in my throat that's a gift and a talent and I just developed it.  I just HAD to sing.  As I grew up, I was encouraged to sing by all my teachers, who also urged my parents to give me voice lessons.  In fact, one teacher threatened my mother, "give her lessons or you'll go to hell"...so I started with Edna Wood in my hometown of Camden, New Jersey.  She terrified me, but a guy named Bob Tartaglia who played piano for her was just wonderful.  When I would listen to him play and listen to his fingers, he would just make things come out of my throat.  Just hearing the rhythms and the tonality and his expressions really made me sing.  So I probably initially really learned how to sing with him.  I was in 6th grade at the time, 12 years old.

One thing seemed to lead to another.   When I was around 13, we moved about 30 minutes from Manhattan to Suffern, NY.   Through my church, I worked with a director named Hugh McPhillips, who directed the soap opera, "The Doctors", in New York City at the time.  He fell in love with my talent and said, "When you get out of school, you let me know and I'm going to introduce you to some people" - meaning managers and agents.  And he did just that.  As soon as I was out of high school, I was in New York City like a shot.  I was somewhat terrified, but I was in love with the theatre and singing...there was no choice about it, I just always had to do it.   I met agents and jobs started to come.  I don't know that it's that simple anymore.  I often get the question from aspiring performers, "How do I do it?" and the "how" you do it is completely personal.  You just have to trust your intuition and deep love of and passion for something.  There's just you and your love of something that gives you the "how" and you find your way.   Everyone pioneers their own career.

Q:   What was the first show you performed in?

A: I was in 3rd grade when I performed in my first show.  It was for Sister Violet in grade school, who always filled the classroom with music.  I remember singing the "Hawaiian Wedding Song" and I wore an official silk Hawaiian wedding dress.  I remember Robert Patterson kissed me (it quite grossed me out at the time) and immediately afterwards I wrestled him on the convent lawn.

Q:   What would you consider your "big break" in the musical theatre world?

A: My big break came when I played Eliza Doolittle in the 20th Anniversary Production of "My Fair Lady" on Broadway.  There were 300 girls who auditioned for the role in London and the UK, and another 400 who auditioned throughout the United States.  It's funny that, with all those girls auditioning, I just somehow intuitively knew that I was going to do that role.  I can't explain it except that it was a deep knowing...so I actually wasn't that nervous while auditioning - after I got the job...then I was nervous.  There is so much craft involved in creating and sustaining a role of this size, 8 shows a week, week after week.   This role is daunting for a seasoned vet, let alone a talented newcomer.  I had a lot to learn.

Q:   So it was difficult to follow Julie Andrews in the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway?

Q:   I am personally thankful for your recording of "My Fair Lady".  It holds a special place in my heart.

A:  That recording is so great because it has all the live energy of the actual performance.  It makes you feel like you're in the theatre when you're listening to it, and that's what a good recording should do.  "Oklahoma" and "On Your Toes" do the same thing.

Q: What about your experience in the musical "Rags"?

A: This is a pretty wild story...Charles Strauss originally wrote the role of "Rebecca" in "Rags" for an operatic soprano.  I don't have an operatic background, though I have studied classically.  I was hired as an alternate for the role of "Rebecca", someone who could go on in a moment's notice if necessary.  I had absolutely no rehearsal because it was a brand new show and the role is like a female Tevye - a huge acting and vocal part dealing with the turn of the century suffrage and labor movements.   Terry Mann played a young revolutionary union leader.

One night in Boston, before the show went to Broadway, I was told to go on half-way through the first act.  I had never stepped on the stage, had never said a line to anyone in the show, and maybe only tried on a costume.  I had no idea what was going to happen, but it was the kind of part that I just understood, I had a deep connection to it.  So I took a deep breath and it turned out to be the most magnificent night of my life on stage because I performed on total faith.  I just trusted that I would have what I needed to get through scene by scene, moment by moment.  It became completely exciting, not frightening.  The audience was on their feet after my first song.  It was quite thrilling.  The star of the show leaves, the replacement comes on, and I actually knew what I was doing.   I remember Terry Mann - everyone - looking at me on stage because they had never spoken to me, acted with me, and they had no idea what I was going to do.  And they were looking at me like, "Wow!  This is OK, this is good...this is working".  I ended up opening the show in Boston and got wonderful notices.  I performed it for a week there, but never went on in New York.  They got a new director, but the show never came together.  Terry Mann has always remarked about that as being one of the most unusual experiences ever on the stage.

Q: How do you balance your career and family?

A: I just try to be led by my love for my children.  I know it's not about how much time I spend with them, but the quality of the time I spend with them - it's about my regard for them, paying attention to them.   You know, you get into habits with your kids and sometimes you don't see what's right in front of your face...Leo Buscaglia said, "You have to look in your kids' eyes every day and see what's going on"; you have to hear the sound of their voice - if it's shrill or tight.  There are cues that tell you if something in their psyche is a little off.  The time I have with my children is high quality time and I pay really good attention to them and try to clear the time we have together so I have all of it with them.  Of course when I'm doing a show like "The Scarlet Pimpernel", it's very hard.  "Pimpernel" was demanding and it drained my physical energy a lot.  It was also a challenge for me because it was the first time I had to balance a Broadway show with the kids.  I tried to have them with me as much as they wanted, as much as I could, even at the theatre.  Because my son has special needs, it's a bigger challenge.  But I find that every "demand" my family has made of me has been necessary.  The extra time and attention I have to take in an effort to understand my boy is the time I need for myself as well.  We grow together. 

It's not really family vs. career, it's life.  It's just balancing life.  I don't want one without the other.  I need my family and I need my career, and I'm proud of both.  I try to have an inner alarm system to tell me when the balance is off with one or the other.  It's really about trusting your intuitions and about loving and believing you deserve a good life with your family and with your career.  Sometimes I have doubts about how I'm balancing it, and that's good - and this little alarm rings to make me aware, conscious, and self-examining.  You get competitive and ambitious and sometimes you lose sight.  I also pray a lot.  It keeps my concern close and conscious...it kicks in my intuition.  When I don't know what to do, I just hang in there...Don't you hate not knowing? - I hate that so much, but I just pray for patience and clarity and wait.

A:  Performing at the White House.  I performed there when George Bush was president, and I performed for him, Barbara Bush, Colin Powell, and all those people trying to keep our country in some kind of order at the time.  It was an honor on many different levels.  First, I was able to perform all the music I had collected over the years that I had wanted to sing, and the first place I got to sing it was at the White House.  Also, I sang it with the man I was in love with (Martin Silvestri) who inspired a lot of this music to take shape.  It was very personal.  Much of what I sang I subsequently recorded on "Love is Good": "Fly me to the Moon", "Song of Bernadette", "On a Clear Day", "Love is Good", "And So it Goes".  It was an intimate affair in private living quarters of White House and quite a big honor not many people get.

I loved working with Ian Richardson in "My Fair Lady".  He was an incredible gentleman, a brilliant actor, and very kind to me when I was new to the business.  He was very patient with me and guided me, depending on me to balance his performance.  Everyone in that show was a guiding force for me.  George Rose, who played Alfie Doolittle, introduced me to British music hall recordings and cockney slang.  Brenda Forbes, who played Mrs. Higgins, took me under her wing, letting me into her elegant world full of theater history, having worked with Katherine Cornell, Guthrie McClintock, Mildred Dunnock...the great stars of the 30s and 40s, a whole other era of theater.

One of the people I've had the most pleasure performing with and knowing is Dina Merrill, a beautiful actress and wonderful woman.  Before "My Fair Lady", we did a straight play together called "Angel Street".  Because it was a straight play, she never heard me warble a note till I dragged her one night to some piano bar in Atlanta during pre-Broadway tryouts.  I hadn't sung a note in weeks and I was going crazy, so she watched with amusement as I went up to the pianist and asked if he'd play "Sleepin' Bee" by Harold Arlen and Truman Capote - he looked at me suspiciously and said, "Yes" and I unleashed in song.  From that moment on, Dina has supported me and many of dreams in the most loyal and caring way - she's a second mother.

Q:  How do you keep your performances fresh each night for the audience and for yourself?

A:  You really have to pay attention, and that's not easy.  If you really love the show, then it can be effortless to pay attention because you love being there.  You focus on the fact that there are always people in the audience who have never seen the show before and you know you are unfolding an experience for them - like giving someone a surprise gift.   You have that excitement in you.  You may have given the same gift to a lot of people but you know it's a great gift and you can't wait to see what this particular person's reaction is going to be.  Every performance is different, but you always have to keep your energy up.  You need that energy to pay attention and it's best if you can get it from others on stage.  If you're tired, and someone else is energized, you can hook right into that energy and thrive on it.  It's really a pretty simple thing, but not easy to do sometimes. 

As a performer, it only gets boring if you're tired.  If you're tired, your concentration is lagging and then it's boring.   Even the greatest show that you love performing can be boring if you're physically tired.  Pretty quickly you learn how much energy you need for a new show.  The body naturally knows what it has to put out and you give yourself the message that this is how much energy you need.  Then you have to program yourself to have this much energy to deliver.  As a professional, it is your responsibility to deliver.  It's really like an athletic event.  You just go into whatever training you have to do to deliver the performance - yoga, eat well, sleep well, whatever the situation demands.   You talk to your body and make sure it's balanced.  A vacation helps sometimes though!

Q: What are some favorite Broadway musicals you've seen as an audience member?

A:  I loved "Sunday in the Park with George" and "Sweeney Todd".  I saw the original Broadway casts of both of them.  The performances and music were wonderful, along with Hal Prince's staging.  I wish Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince would do something together again.  I was very moved by their works.  I don't have any current favorites.

Q:   Are you going to record another album?

A:  Yes, definitely.  It is in the works now.  Specific details to come... :-)

Q:   What are you immediate future plans?

A: In the meantime, if things don't come along that I really want to do on stage, then I love doing concert work.   I love it because it's an extension of myself in a personal way.  It's not a huge collaborative effort like a show, but doing concerts keeps you "oiled", keeps your musicality sharp and fluid, and keeps you in shape.  You have the freedom to invent what kind of a show you want to do.  The live performing is really nice.   I was a little uncomfortable with it initially because I'm shy and doing a concert is pretty heavy exposure.  But now I know myself a little better.  I can't adopt a persona when I perform in concert - I'm just myself.  So if I'm comfortable with myself, then all goes well in concert.  I'm finding that I like it more and more now so I want to do more concerts.  And I think there's room for me in the creative concert "milieu".  And when you hear something live rather than on recording, you get the energy of the person.  If concert work is going to "juice me up" like that, I'd rather do that for a while. 

Q: What is the best piece of advice you can give to an aspiring performer?

A: Know thyself.  To thine own self be true.  Then you have an ability to balance yourself, something you can hang onto.  Maybe even have other interests besides the theatre - something else you love.  I find my family is great balance for my work.   My love of my children deepens my perceptions and balance.  Don't get obsessed.  Keep it fun.  Keep getting back to knowing yourself.  And love yourself.  Stanislavsky said "You love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art".  That is the key.  You love truth because that's the art in yourself.  You develop your sense of truth and compassion for the human condition.   You make personal growth the most important thing, not just the "next gig".  You observe yourself in relationships, in your work, with members of your family, and you try to stay sensitive to your own inner balance.  You have to take care of yourself first, understand what motivates you, what makes you tick, when you're depleted, when you're fearful, depressed, but also when it's working well and what picks you up.  It's a deep inner knowing and connection to yourself that's important to uncover.  You have to work for it.  It can be difficult and scary, but you end up with yourself.  Find yourself...and it isn't so scary after a while.