![]() The Black singers were the ones I admired most. Wilkinson began singing with an Irish showband, belting out Chuck Berry and Little Richard rock tunes when he was a lad. “Well, I’ve been lucky all my life, so maybe it’s true.” That’s supposed to be lucky, if you believe in superstition,” he grins. “I was born on Margetson Road in Dublin, with an umbilical cord wrapped round my neck. Wilkinson soon tucked into a full Irish breakfast, but he waved away coffee. I thought we should order lunch and avoid a contentious comparison. “Well, truth is, ‘Les Mis’ is my favourite, hands down.”Ī leprechaun grin spread across his face and he looked to see what I was thinking. He shrugged when I asked him which show he liked best. Then in 1988, three years later, the same thing happened on Broadway.ĭapper in a black turtleneck sweater and slacks, Wilkinson was not only affable and Irish, he was a star.Īmazingly, in the end, he played both The Phantom and Jean Valjean on Broadway making it a one-two punch. Never mind, his triumph as Jean Valjean in London in “Les Misérables,” had audiences cheering the place down. Very soon, we got around to the way life plays tricks on you. He liked telling stories and the pub we were in was so Irish, it was the perfect place to have lunch with a son of the auld sod. O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Toronto, in December 2015, Wilkinson obviously had kissed the blarney stone. They might just as well have hung a big gold star on his dressing room door. Wilkinson opened in Les Misérables in the Barbican Theatre in London, Oct. I was already committed to ‘Les Misérables.’ Talk about two big shows conflicting.” “Of course, I wanted to play the part in London, but in the end I couldn’t. ![]() It went to comedian Michael Crawford, who surprised everyone with his spectacular singing voice. Wilkinson did not ultimately open in the part. That was where the composer liked to try out all his new material. I sang it opposite his then wife, Sarah Brightman. “I sang that role first, before anybody else ever did, in a Norman church on Webber’s Sydmonton estate in England. ![]() ![]() ![]() When Sir Andrew was mentally casting “The Phantom of the Opera,” his biggest West End London hit, Wilkinson was the first name on his lips. You probably don’t know it, but Colm Wilkinson was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s first choice for the Phantom. ![]()
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