Jill Paice
Encyclopedia
Jill Paice is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 actress. Paice attended Beavercreek High School
Beavercreek High School
Beavercreek High School is a public high school for grades 9-12 located in Beavercreek, Ohio. The principal is Marian West. It is a member of the Beavercreek City School District and is the only high school in the district. Beavercreek High School is located in a suburban setting...

 in Beavercreek, Ohio
Beavercreek, Ohio
Beavercreek is the largest city in Greene County, Ohio, United States, and is the second largest suburb of Dayton behind Kettering. The population was 45,193 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, graduating in 1998. She then attended Baldwin-Wallace College
Baldwin-Wallace College
Baldwin–Wallace College is a liberal arts college in Berea, Ohio, founded in 1845. It is home to the Riemenschneider-Bach Institute and the Baldwin–Wallace Conservatory of Music, an internationally renowned music school. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Students receive a...

, graduating with a bachelor of music in 2002. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of Laura Fairlie in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White
The Woman in White (musical)
The Woman in White is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the novel The Woman in White written by Wilkie Collins...

.

Musical theatre

In 2001, Paice earned her Equity card by appearing in a production of Gypsy at Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Also in this time period, she starred as Maria in West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...

and as Mabel in Pirates of Penzance at Baldwin-Wallace. She also starred as Violet, the title character of a new musical. After college, Paice's career began with the national tour of Les Misérables. She then went on to create the role of Sophie in Mamma Mia in Las Vegas in 2003.

In 2004, she was persuaded by her agent to audition for Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical The Woman in White
The Woman in White (musical)
The Woman in White is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Zippel with a book by Charlotte Jones, based on the novel The Woman in White written by Wilkie Collins...

, in which he was required to hire two "unknown American actors" in order to sustain future Actors Equity Union rules in America (for the transfer to include the British actors Michael Crawford and star Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman
Maria Friedman is an English actress working in television, musical theatre, and concerts. She has won three Olivier Awards for her stage work.-Early years:...

). She created the role of Laura Fairle for the West End world premiere at the Palace Theatre and then reprised her role in the Broadway production in 2005 at the Marriott Marquis Theater. She received many good notices, especially since she had not even been on Broadway when she originated the role in the West End. However, the show flopped on Broadway, and closed, with less than 100 performances (out of about 150) having the complete original cast.

In 2006 she originated the role of Nikki Harris in Curtains
Curtains (musical)
Curtains is a musical with a book by Rupert Holmes, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander, with additional lyrics by Kander and Holmes....

in Los Angeles and, in 2007, on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theater, opposite David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...

, in which she was the object of his character's affection. Her final performance with the Broadway company was on February 2, 2008.

Immediately following her run in Curtains, she returned to London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 to originate the role of Scarlett in Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...

's musical adaption of Gone With The Wind
Gone With The Wind (musical)
Gone with the Wind is a musical based on the Margaret Mitchell's novel of the same name and its 1939 film adaptation, with music and lyrics by Margaret Martin, and a book by Martin, adapted by Sir Trevor Nunn....

. Nunn had been working on the project while Paice was still working on Woman in White, in which she was able to do several readings and workshops for it. Nunn had her officially audition once more in 2007, and the part was hers. The show, which was most noted for running over three hours long, starred Paice and Darius Danesh
Darius Danesh
Darius Campbell , also known as Darius Danesh or simply Darius, is a British Iranian platinum-selling singer-songwriter, a West End stage actor, operatic baritone, Sunday Times best-selling author, and an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust.He established himself as a popular West End leading...

, but flopped. The show closed on June 14, 2008, after opening just two months before.

In September–October 2008, she appeared as Elizabeth Lucas in Ace
Ace (musical)
ACE is a musical with a book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker, and music by Oberacker. The story is about a boy, separated from his mother, who discovers his past and himself through a series of dreams about a flying ace...

at the Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia. Paice appeared as Betty Haynes in White Christmas in Detroit from November through December 23, 2008.

Starting June 2, 2009, Paice began appearing in her first Broadway play, The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (play)
The 39 Steps is a farce adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Patrick Barlow wrote the adaptation, based on the original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon of a two-actor version of the play...

, at the Helen Hayes Theatre. She portrays several roles in the show.

She starred as Florence in Chess the Musical
Chess (musical)
Chess is a musical with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, formerly of ABBA, and with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other;...

at Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia.

Most Recently, she originated the role of Grazia in Maury Yeston's Death Takes A Holiday opposite Julien Ovenden and later Kevin Earley (Ovenden left because of a throat infection) as Prince Nikolai Sirki/Death. The production opened June 10, 2011 for a limited run through September 4 at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold & Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre in a production by Roundabout Theatre Company.

Awards

  • 2009: Helen Hayes Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical - Elizabeth in Ace (Nominated)

Recordings

  • The Woman in White: A New Musical - Original London Cast Recording
  • Curtains - Original Broadway Cast Recording
  • The Gig - Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber on Broadway (Released with Jay Records)
  • Death Takes A Holiday - Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording

External links

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