Emily Skinner - Biography

Biography

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Skinner attended college at Carnegie Mellon University. She moved to New York in 1992 and took part in a workshop of Jekyll and Hyde. A few years later, she created the role of "Emily" (young Scrooge's love interest) in the 1994 musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol at the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden.

In 1997, Skinner joined the original Broadway cast of Jekyll and Hyde as an ensemble member and understudy for the leads of Emma and Lucy. During previews, Linda Eder, who played Lucy, developed laryngitis, and Skinner sang some of Lucy's songs from backstage, while Eder acted and sang some songs onstage. Other Broadway credits include "Side Show" (1997), James Joyce's The Dead (1999; with Christopher Walken), The Full Monty (2001), Dinner at Eight, the Encores! stagings of the Gershwin musical Pardon My English, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and "No Strings", all at New York City Center, and Broadway Actor's Fund benefit concert performances of Dreamgirls and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Skinner has appeared Off-Broadway in numerous productions at The WPA Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, and the York Theatre. She has also directed several concerts in the "Broadway By the Year" series at Town Hall, New York City, including "Musicals of 1979" on June 16, 2008. She was also in the American premiere at Carnegie Hall of Jerry Springer: The Opera (with Harvey Keitel) in 2008.

Skinner's role as one half of a pair of Siamese twins in Side Show earned her critical acclaim and a Tony Award nomination shared with co-star Alice Ripley. It was the first time in Tony history that two performers were co-nominated as a team for the Best Actress award. Variety noted that "If Ripley and Skinner should win, it would be the first time since 1975 that a pair of actors shared a single Tony. That year John Kani and Winston Ntshona, two South African actors, won a nod for the Athol Fugard double bill "Sizwe Banzi Is Dead" and "The Island." (Other joint nominations for the Tony include John Kani and Winston Ntshona who won for best dramatic actor, Sizwe Banzi is Dead in 1975; Donal Donnelly and Patrick Bedford for Philadelphia, Here I Come! in 1966; the children playing the seven Von Trapp children were nominated for best featured actress in a musical in 1960.)

Skinner played the role of "Mrs. Wilkinson" in Billy Elliot in Chicago, starting in March 2010, and since October 2010 has played the role in the Broadway production.

Recordings and concerts

Skinner and Ripley have collaborated on three recordings: Duets, Unsuspecting Hearts, and Raw at Town Hall, taped live during their October 21, 2006 concert. Skinner also recorded a self-titled solo album, which was released in 2001. She toured the U.S. in 2004 and 2005 in the Disney revue On the Record. She has also sung with orchestras around the world, including the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, The Virginia Symphony, and The Sydney Pops and was the original Ursula in The Little Mermaid;s demo recording, though she was replaced by Sherie Renee Scott.

Regional theatre

At the Kennedy Center she appeared in Merrily We Roll Along and Company during the 2002 Sondheim Celebration, played Agnes Gooch in Mame (2006), and was in their production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2004) as well. She has also appeared in leading roles at The Long Wharf Theatre, The Old Globe in San Diego, The Ford's Theatre, TheaterVirginia, The White River Theater Festival, and Theatre IV.

Skinner has appeared at the Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, in the U.S. premiere of The Witches of Eastwick in 2007, and in the new musical Ace in 2008. She played the title role in Dirty Blonde at the Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, New York, in June 2009, and was in the same play at Signature Theatre later that year. She then went on to play Mrs. Lovett in a well-received production of Sweeney Todd at the Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma.