Louise Dearman is a British actress and singer, perhaps best known for playing Glinda and Elphaba in the West End production of the musical Wicked. Notably, she is the only actress to have played both witches in any production of Wicked full-time. She has a number of other professional stage and television credits, such as Eva Perón in Evita, Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Daisy Hilton in Side Show. She released her solo albums, You and I, Here Comes the Sun and It's Time, in 2005, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Dearman was born in Bletchley and grew up in Linslade, Bedfordshire, attending Linslade Middle School and Cedars Upper School. She first began dance lessons at the age of three, and started to consider a stage career after appearing as part of a children's choir in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium when she was thirteen. She then went on to train at Laine Theatre Arts for three years from leaving school, where she won their Musical Theatre Award and Opera Award, and was a contemporary of fellow West End performer Kerry Ellis.Immediately after graduating from Laine in 1998, Dearman joined the touring cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as the Narrator. Then, after performing in the ensemble of Whistle Down the Wind in Bromley, she portrayed Jan in the Grease UK tour in 2000, which she later returned to in 2003 at the Victoria Palace Theatre. Other roles Dearman has portrayed have been Lucy Harris in the national tour of Jekyll & Hyde, Mimi and understudy to Miss Adelaide and Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly Theatre (she then took over the role of Sarah Brown a year later in the touring production of the show), Debbie in Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival, Eva Perón in the tour of Evita, and Grizabella in Cats in Cyprus.
Other stage credits include Kiss Me, Kate at the Victoria Palace Theatre, Christmas Cat and The Pudding Pirates (Highbarn, Great Bardfield), the Willian Finn revue Make Me a Song at the New Players Theatre, Belle in the workshops of new musical Only the Brave, and the workshop production of Brick by Brick. In addition to this, she has featured in a number of concerts; as a guest vocalist with Michael Ball in his Michael Ball: Past and Present tour, and in her one-woman concert You and I in multiple venues. Dearman has appeared in pantomime versions of Cinderella three times; as Cinderella in Stoke-On-Trent in 2007 and in Milton Keynes in 2009, and as the Fairy Godmother in Wimbledon in 2008.
On 29 March 2010, she replaced Dianne Pilkington as Glinda the Good Witch in the London production of Wicked. She starred alongside Rachel Tucker as Elphaba. The two had previously spoofed their roles a year earlier in So Jest End, a show parodying the West End. Dearman played her final performance in the production on 10 December 2011 and was succeeded by Gina Beck.
On 26 September 2010, Dearman joined composer Scott Alan at his concert Simply the Music of Scott Alan in London's New Players Theatre. The concert also featured Patina Miller, Shoshana Bean, Ashleigh Gray, Sierra Boggess, Jodie Jacobs, Alex Gaumond and Hadley Fraser.
On 13 May 2012, Dearman held a launch party for her new album Here Comes the Sun at Bush Hall in London. On 28 June 2012, Dearman participated in a workshop for a new musical comedy version of JM Barrie's Peter Pan, playing the role of Tinker Bell. The workshop took place at Lyric Theatre, London, alongside actors Tim Driesen, Gerard Carey and Lucy Sinclair.
Date of Birth | 13th March 1979 |
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Age | 46 Years |
Zodiac Sign | Pisces |
Country | United Kingdom |
Current City | Linslade |
Language | English |
Reference | IMDB |