Paige O'Hara

As Disney's animated heroine, Belle, in the critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning, animated film Beauty and the Beast, Paige O'Hara added a Disney classic to a career that has spanned Broadway, opera and concert stages as well as recordings. This was followed up in 1997 with the multi-million selling videos Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Belle's Magical World. In fact Paige has been nominated for the prestigious Annie Award for her role in Belle's Magical World. The unprecedented success of Beauty and the Beast, nominated for six Academy Awards including "Best Picture", has earned her a world-wide legion of fans both young and old. In addition to a Platinum Record for selling over 1,000,000 copies of the multi-Grammy nominated original motion picture soundtrack (it has since gone double platinum) Paige had the opportunity to sing before millions of viewers world-wide on the 64th Annual Academy Awards telecast. A veteran of the New York stage, Paige made her Broadway debut playing Ellie May Chipley in the 1983 Broadway revival of Showboat starring Donald O'Connor. She was also featured as Ellie in the Houston Grand Opera's 1989 production allowing her to make her international debut when the production opened the Cairo Opera House in Egypt. In 1989, Ms. O'Hara went on to sing the role of Ellie on what has come to be considered the definitive Grammy-nominated recording of the musical with Jerry Hadley, Frederica Von Stade and Teresa Stratus, conducted by John McGlinn on the Angel EMI label. Ms. O'Hara starred as Fantine in the award-winning Les Miserables on Broadway, and performed the title role in the The Mystery of Edwin Drood both on Broadway and in the national tour with the late George Rose, Clive Revill and Jean Stapleton. Also on national tour, she co-starred as Ado Annie in the classic Oklahoma! directed by William Hammerstein. On the International front she has travelled to Australia to star as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and most recently toured Japan as Special Guest with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In London she has starred as Venus in the BBC's recorded broadcast of the live presentation of Kurt Weill's One Touch of Venus and is featured prominently on the recordings of Mack and Mabel in Concert, also recorded live in London with an all-star cast including Tommy Tune, Georgia Brown and George Hearn. Paige costarred with Maureen McGovern in Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing / Let 'Em Eat Cake, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, which was also Grammy nominated. Her recording of Jerome Kern's Sitting Pretty was released on the New World label, and a new and complete version of South Pacific opposite Justino Diaz was released in 1997. Still in the recording world, Ms. O'Hara saw her debut solo recording released just a few years ago in Europe and the U.S. Entitled Loving You: Paige O'Hara Sings Jerry Herman the CD features such classic Herman tunes as "La Cage Aux Folles", "Loving You" from the film Mame (a duet with husband Michael Piontek) and "It Only Takes A Moment" from Hello Dolly. Paige's latest solo recording, a collection of lullabies entitled Dream With Me includes her singing the title song from "Beauty and the Beast" for the first time, and a duet of "When You Wish Upon A Star" with Jodi Benson best know as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. On the American stage Ms. O'Hara has also starred in the concert stagings of Sitting Pretty, The Cat and the Fiddle, Oh Boy, and Oh Lady! Lady!, all at Carnegie Hall as well as One Touch of Venus at Town Hall. She is a veteran of regional theater including the title role in Evita, starring in Paint Your Wagon opposite Jose Ferrer and achieved great critical acclaim as murderess Winnie Ruth Judd in the drama Tiger Lady.