Emilie Kouatchou
NEW YORK (AP) — Rising stage star Emilie Kouatchou came close to quitting musical theater during Broadway’s pandemic shutdown. She stuck with it and has made history. The actor and soprano late last month made her Broadway debut as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, becoming the first Black woman in the role in the show’s 33-year history in New York. A beaming Kouatchou at the curtain call on October 27 virtually sprinted onto the stage as the audience and her castmates cheered and hooted, holding her arms in the sky like a marathon runner snapping the finish-line tape. She says “that night was like the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
Mark Kennedy for the Associated Press
