Career
In her album I'm Not Waiting liner notes, Andrew Lippa says that he first met her in June 1996. He said
I was the music director for a Stephen Schwartz compendium called Snapshots, auditions were going well, if uninspiring, until a certain Julia Murney (with whom I was, at the time, unacquainted) strutted into the room. She sang a song, a forever favorite ever since, called Imagine My Surprise. Heartbreaking. Seeing as I was about to do the reading of The Wild Party in August, I wrote on my notes "Is she Queenie?!?!?" followed by several stars and excited doodles. Then, the director asked for another song, preferably something by Stephen Schwartz.
la Murney: I know Meadowlark
la director: That'd be great
I didn't bring the music
la pianist: (panic)
la Lippa: (heroically) I know it, what key? (oh, the swagger, the cock-suredness. I did want to impress her, after all)
Murney's Off-Broadway theatrical credits include originating the role of 'Queenie' in Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (2000) at the Manhattan Theatre Club, opposite Brian d'Arcy James, Idina Menzel, and Taye Diggs, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. She was also seen in The Vagina Monologues, Crimes of the Heart (2001), A Class Act (2000), Time and Again (2001), and First Lady Suite. She appeared in a musical version of the film Saved! at the Playwrights Horizons Theatre, which had previews starting from May 9, and an opening on June 3, 2008. In August 2008, Murney portrayed the title role of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita at Wells Fargo Pavilion in Sacramento.
Murney made her debut on Broadway in 2005, in the short-lived musical Lennon. She was also seen in the Actors' Fund benefit concerts of Funny Girl, Chess, Hair, and the World AIDS Day Benefit Concert Pippin. She has also been featured on television in Sex and the City, Ed, NYPD Blue, and various episodes of Law & Order.
Murney succeeded Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba in the 1st national touring company of the musical Wicked on March 6, 2006. In that role, she won an Acclaim Award from the Cincinnati Enquirer for leading performer in a musical. She departed the tour on September 3, 2006, after six months, and was replaced by Shoshana Bean. She then transferred to the Broadway production, reprising the role of Elphaba for a nine month engagement, beginning January 9, 2007, replacing Ana Gasteyer. She played her final performance on October 7, 2007 and was replaced by Stephanie J. Block. Both on tour and on Broadway, she starred opposite Kendra Kassebaum as Glinda.
Her debut solo album, I'm Not Waiting, was released in May 2006 on the Sh-K-Boom Records label. The album's title song was written especially for her by Andrew Lippa, with whom she has a strong artistic relationship. Murney also sings a jazz acoustic version of the song "I'm Not That Girl" from Wicked. Also on the album is "Perfect", which was written with Tom Kitt. She can also be heard on the original cast albums of The Wild Party and A Class Act, and the Actors' Fund recordings of Hair and Chess.
She played Mrs. Walker in The Who's Tommy in Oklahoma City from February 5–21, 2009. In September 2009, she appeared in the Signature Theatre's production of First You Dream - The Songs of Kander and Ebb in Arlington, VA, with Norm Lewis, Matthew Scott, Heidi Blickenstaff, Eleasha Gamble, and James Clow.
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