Heidi Blickenstaff

Heidi Blickenstaff
Born December 28, 1971
Fresno, California, U.S.
Occupation Actress/Singer

Heidi Blickenstaff (born December 28, 1971) is an actress based in New York City best known for playing a version of herself in the musical [title of show] during its Off-Broadway and Broadway runs. She is currently performing on Broadway in the musical Something Rotten!

Personal life

Heidi grew up in Fresno, California, and got her start in musical theater at the Good Company Players, where her roles included "Annie" in the musical of the same name.[1] She is a graduate of Roosevelt High School in Fresno, Calif., and Duke University.[2]

Her father, Dale Blickenstaff, is the former District Attorney of Fresno County.[1] In 2015, she married Nicholas Rohlfing. [3]

Career

[title of show]

Blickenstaff is a Broadway performer who gained widespread notice for her work in [title of show] after some years of working in understudy, supporting and ensemble roles.[4] The musical documents its own creation by two Broadway fans, who want to enter the New York Musical Theatre Festival and struggle to complete the show in three and a half weeks, and their two actress friends. The actors are also the writers and characters of the musical. Blickenstaff has said her character in [title of show], a struggling actor also named "Heidi," is a "concentrated version" of her actual personality.[5]

She also has credited her experience in [title of show] with easing her chronic stage fright, a form of self-doubt immortalized in one of the show's songs, "Die Vampire Die." "I also have a stage fright vampire," she told TheaterMania.com in 2006, during [title of show]'s extended off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre. "Certainly, [title of show] has been great medicine, because we talk about that stuff."[6]

Other work

Blickenstaff's other Broadway credits include The Full Monty on Broadway (as Susan Hershey) and The Little Mermaid (as Carlotta/Ensemble and u/s for Ursula).

In 2006, she starred in the musical Meet John Doe at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., winning a Helen Hayes Award for her performance.[7]

Of Blickenstaff's performance in the musical—an adaptation of the 1941 Frank Capra film of the same name—Peter Marks wrote in the Washington Post: "She's a dynamite successor to the movie's Barbara Stanwyck: It's a star performance, in fact. There's an effortless kind of kick to Blickenstaff's readings of Ann's sharp-elbowed lines. And she can sing, to boot."[8]

Blickenstaff's other regional credits include roles in The Girl in the Frame at the Goodspeed Opera House, Bat Boy: The Musical at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, Calif., and Prairie at New York Stage and Film.

She has also worked in touring productions of The Full Monty, Jekyll & Hyde (as the understudy for the role of Lucy Harris), Steel Pier, Dreamgirls and The Who's Tommy.[2] It was during the Tommy tour that Blickenstaff met her future [title of show] co-star (and the musical's co-creator/composer) Jeff Bowen.[5]

She has appeared in a television commercials for Nationwide Insurance[9] and Foster Grant.[10]

She replaced Sherie Rene Scott as Ursula in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid on January 27, 2009 and stayed with the show till April 5, 2009.[11] She was succeeded by Faith Prince.

She replaced Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke in The Addams Family on March 8, 2011.[12]

Blickenstaff was a member of the original cast of the review First You Dream: The Music of Kander and Ebb, which premiered at the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) in 2009,[13] and then again in the revival that played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in June 2012.[14]

In July 2013, Blickenstaff played the role of Diana in Next to Normal at the Weston Playhouse in Weston, Vermont.[15] See review in The Chester Telegraph.[16]

In April 2014 she played Cleo in the City Center Encores! staging of The Most Happy Fella with Laura Benanti and Cheyenne Jackson.[17]

Blickenstaff played the role of Jane/Bonnie in the world premiere of Dog and Pony at The Old Globe Theatre from May–July, 2014 with Nicole Parker, Beth Leavel, Jon Patrick Walker, and Eric William Morris. Dog and Pony has a book by Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Michael Patrick Walker, and was directed by Roger Rees.[18]

From November 2014-January 2015, Blickenstaff played the role of Emily Hobbs in Paper Mill Playhouse's production of Elf: The Musical.[19]

Blickenstaff will be returning to Broadway in March 2015, playing the role of Bea in Something Rotten, alongside Christian Borle and Brian d'Arcy James [20]

Blickenstaff can be heard on the cast recordings of [title of show], Now. Here. This., Meet John Doe, and The Little Mermaid. She can also be heard on "Sweet Bye and Bye," featuring the music of Vernon Duke; "Jerome Kern: The Land Where the Good Songs Go"; Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond's "Out of Our Heads"; "Keys: The Music of Scott Alan"; and Georgia Stitt's "My Lifelong Love."[21]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Munro, Donald. Best of show: Theater veteran and Fresno native stars in a musical about a musical, The Fresno Bee, 10 April 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 title of show: The Players, titleofshow.com. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  3. ↑ She found her right hand man accessed 4/27/2015
  4. ↑ Isherwood, Charles. Puttin’ on the Put-On, With Tunes, 18 July 2008. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Gans, Andrews. DIVA TALK: Chatting with title of show's Heidi Blickenstaff Plus Heights and Pacific on CD, Playbill, 11 July 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  6. ↑ Portantiere, Michael. Show Girls, TheaterMania.com, 19 July 2006. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
  7. ↑ Lipton, Brian Scott. Blickenstaff, Irwin, Jones, Kudisch, Ruhl, et al. Win Helen Hayes Awards, TheaterMania.com, 29 April 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  8. ↑ Marks, Peter. 'John Doe' Makes for Some Names to Remember, The Washington Post, 27 March 2007. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  9. ↑ Nationwide Insurance commercial on YouTube
  10. ↑ http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7gvf/foster-grant-readers-menu-featuring-brooke-shields
  11. ↑ http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Heidi_Blickenstaff_to_Replace_Scott_as_Ursula_in_THE_LITTLE_MERMAID_in_2009_20010101 Heidi Blickenstaff to Replace Scott as 'Ursula' in THE LITTLE MERMAID in 2009
  12. ↑ Healy, Patrick.Roger Rees to Replace Nathan Lane in ‘The Addams Family’"New York Times, October 28, 2010
  13. ↑ http://washingtondc.showbizradio.net/2009/09/15/review-st-first-you-dream/
  14. ↑ http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=TMTSG
  15. ↑ http://vermont.broadwayworld.com/article/Weston-Playhouses-NEXT-TO-NORMAL-with-Heidi-Blickenstaff-to-Open-711-20130703
  16. ↑ http://chestertelegraph.org/2013/07/16/next-to-normal-a-next-to-perfect-production-that-should-not-be-missed
  17. ↑ http://www.nycitycenter.org/content/misc/PressRelease-HappyFellaCasting.pdf
  18. ↑ https://www.theoldglobe.org/pressphotos/Dog_and_Pony.html
  19. ↑ http://papermill.org/press-releases/current-season/363-elf-cast-announced.html
  20. ↑ http://www.broadway.com/buzz/179159/john-cariani-brad-oscar-heidi-blickenstaff-more-tapped-for-something-rotten-on-broadway/
  21. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=heidi+blickenstaff

External links