Emilie Kouatchou makes ‘Phantom’ history on Broadway
Rising stage star Emilie Kouatchou came close to quitting musical theater during the pandemic shutdown, worried about the future. She stuck with it and has now made Broadway history.
The 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.
“I put so much pressure on myself up until then that that day I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to forget
about it and live my best life up there,’” she says. “That night was like the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”
A beaming Kouatchou at the curtain call on Oct. 27 virtually sprinted back 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.
“I think in New York, on Broadway, at this time in the world, Emilie’s performance just resonates that much more,” says Seth Sklar-Heyn, the show’s production supervisor and an executive producer who helped select her for the role.
Kouatchou was raised outside Chicago in Palatine, Illinois. She started performing at age 9 in community theater, once landing a role as a farm girl in “Oklahoma!”
“I initially started doing theater because I was really shy, and we had just moved to this town, Palatine. My mom wanted to get me out of my shell. And I did it and I loved it,” she says.
Kouatchou’s Christine is the last of the three principal parts in Broadway’s “Phantom” to break the color barrier. In 2014, Norm Lewis became the first African American to slip behind the famous mask and two years later Jordan Donica did it for the role of Raoul.
“I feel bad it’s taken us this long,” says Sklar-Heyn. “At this point, I’m just embracing the fact that we are able to do it and looking forward to continuing to intentionally expand how and who people see on stage within our building.”