PHOTO EXCLUSIVE: A Two-Show Day With Jennifer Hope Wills, Playing "Mommy" and Dazzling Audiences in WBT's Camelot | Playbill

A TRUSTED THEATRE RESOURCE SINCE 1884
Playbill
0 of

PHOTO EXCLUSIVE: A Two-Show Day With Jennifer Hope Wills, Playing "Mommy" and Dazzling Audiences in WBT's Camelot

Okay..."young" princess ready to go. Show 1 commences! I'm terrible at "selfies" and always look crazy and crooked :)

PHOTO EXCLUSIVE: A Two-Show Day With Jennifer Hope Wills, Playing "Mommy" and Dazzling Audiences in WBT's Camelot

Jennifer Hope Wills, who has starred on Broadway in Wonderful Town and Phantom of the Opera, is currently lending her stunning soprano to the role of Guenevere in Westchester Broadway Theatre's production of Camelot. She shares a recent busy day on the job, which includes balancing her mommy duties with the rigors and glamour of a musical theatre leading lady. Enjoy!
86 PHOTOS
Next Slide  
You may also like
0 of
Hide Captions Show Captions
RELATED:
Okay..."young" princess ready to go. Show 1 commences! I'm terrible at "selfies" and always look crazy and crooked :)
Wow! My son let me sleep in this morning! What a rare treat :)
The best part of a weekend morning. No school and we can snuggle. Grover too.
First of the many daily pee cleanings. You moms of boys know my pain. At least I did't step or sit in it this morning :) I think he's about old enough to start cleaning this himself!
And toothpaste cleanings. How do they get toothpaste in the weirdest places?
Weekend mornings usually include homemade waffles, pancakes or muffins but for some reason my son only wanted cereal and banana! Who is he? So what to do instead? Well, let's make some thank you/Valentine cupcakes for my awesome cast and crew!
Need that breakfast! This has the bacon my son also didn't want. What??! And of course breakfast is not complete without good hot coffee in the Christmas present my son picked out for me at school.
Because of timing of the show, sadly no church for a while so this happened instead. Look closely and mine is complete with a little Lancelot.
And this...
And this... (it's a transformer car/plane/bed)
And this! (I have no idea)
Wait...is that more pee? How did it get up on the window??!!
Steamy showers may not be good for the decor but oh so good for the body, soul and voice on these cold, dry winter mornings.
Yay! Cupcakes ready to go!
Of course we better taste test them first.
Well, now that I've already had a full day, it's time to head to work. This is me standing on about 8 inches of solid snow/ice on my lawn (my azaleas are under there somewhere). Yup 130lbs and not sinking through. This stuff is SOLID!
And more cleaning snow off the car. This seems to be a regular part of the routine this winter. And yes...that's my white picket fence :)
Ready to go! Hmm? Wonder if I should stop and get gas? And thank God for my E-ZPass. Why do people still wait in that crazy cash line anyway?
Off I go! Leaving my cute little neighborhood for the commute. It's only 50 minutes on a Sunday morning. Yeah!
I always love the view over the Throgs Neck Bridge. Best picture I could get...I mean...I AM driving :)
I've arrived. Woohoo!
The oh so glamorous first sight when you enter the stage door.
Oh and then there's this.
The signing in pic of course.
Wait?!! I'm not last?!! Who is this Jordan Wolfe guy anyway? Took me a couple tries to get used to it.
The sad and lonely wig area outside my dressing room. Yup...a "Camelot" with only three ladies in it. Yeah! And 8 hot guys! Now those are some odds :)
My station. This old broad needs a lot of stuff to turn herself into "a radiant young princess never before out of her own castle" for the beginning of the show.
Yup. I'm a little obsessed with my friend Erin Williams' all natural makeup and skin care line. Check her out ya'll. She also sings beautifully too.
8 beautiful costumes, 2 capes, 2 tiarras and an extra curtain call costume all by Janell Berte equal one lucky Queen. Of course that also equals zero down time :)
And of course plenty of flowers and jewels.
A Queen needs her snacks! Especially since she remembered to pack dinner and forgot to pack lunch.
A quick stop in the restroom and wanted to show you the ladies opening night gift from our Lancelot Jeremiah James.
On my way to get more coffee I pass by the wardrobe station. I LOVE bins and organization so I'm a little obsessed with this area.
Especially wondering what could be in here.
And really? Tons of organized yummy snacks? Yes!
Now over to the men's hallway for one of my several daily visits. I always hit their water cooler saying ours is broken. Or is it?
First stop is to this lovable guy none other than King Arthur aka Clark Scott Carmichael himself. Had to get this picture as I'm pretty sure this is why I am in a dark wig. "Wonder Twins Powers Activate!!!" And yes, I know this reference ages us. So be it
And then there is this...hey...Lancelot's gotta keep up those dashing good looks. He's a better man than I.
And dear Martin Van Treuren putting on all of this makeup for his quick appearance as Merlin.
All finished!
In case you are wondering...we can all add singing while stilt walking to the special skills section of our resumes. That's the handsome Dan Fenaughty (Dinadan) ready for fight call.
See...now Dan has his sword. Watch out. And looking on is Damian Shembel, our awesome Swing/Dance Captain/Fight Captain/offstage singing man extrodinaire. It's such a shame this gorgeous mug is hidden backstage right?
Fight call! Yeah! Men with swords!!
"The big guy last"...here comes Lionel (Billy Hepfinger). Big guy is no joke. I think the "shortest" knight is 6'2". Oh yeah! He wasn't there the first day and we had all these crazy tall guys and were intrigued how we could still have "the big guy". But
Time for Heather to slap on my long dark wig. Feels very "Christine" like :)
Gotta pin that baby.
Okay..."young" princess ready to go. Show 1 commences! I'm terrible at "selfies" and always look crazy and crooked :)
Hey...wait...is that sweet Nina Kompanek with beautiful Valentine roses? Our other lady Emily Brockway got opening night flowers. Well...at least some ladies still get flowers:(
First stop...offstage singing time...yes...with only 11 cast memebers, we ALL sing offstage. That's cutie pie Sagramore (Michael Glavan) making sure everything is ready.
The beginning of my long journey to make my first entrance from the back of the house. Take a look at one of the last few remaining dinner theatres. A truly unique experience. I love the intimacy of this theatre. Seriously...those people in the front row
First leg of the very cold and smelly journey...
There's more...
and more...
and yes more...about to meet up with the door that leads to the kitchens...
and yes...this is the end of the line...ah the glamour! Time for this princess to head to Camelot.
What's down there?
Two giant lifts that come up through the stage including one that is a turn table...very appropriate for "Camelot" and the "round table".
And this is what you might find coming out of there...the beautiful and sexy, although here slightly terrifying, Nimue (Emily Brockway).
And maybe a tricky photo bombing Rana :)
Oh wait...is that Martin again in new makeup...this time for King Pellinore?
It's getting into armor time...Colleen would rather not be in a picture :)
There he is...King Pellinore in his full rusted glory and Rana too!
Time for the 30 minute intermission. That's long! Of course that means time to eat again and yes...more coffee!
See...food and coffee!!! And this is the party room at intermission...
and this is the quiet car :)
I usually get some kind of visit from Jeremiah in some form of undress. He likes to keep me guessing :)
This is what I see every night waiting backstage waiting to be rescued in "Guenevere"...I just think it's pretty.
Remember earlier...a costume change just for curtain call.
Can't imagine why they wouldn't want me to take my final bow in this?
Phew! Dinner time!!! Needing to pay the bills means eating whatever you can scrounge together from home but when you get to share the couch with these fellas, whose complaining :)
Nap time. Bedding courtesy of my son. Although he wanted me to mention that this was from when he was 4 and he is now 6 and his choice would be Star Wars.
Almost time for the second show and on my way to take my next picture I couldn't resisit this...???
Now...what's in the big box on the side of the backstage area you may ask? Well, I'll show you...
Yup...this is the poor dear "orchestra box". I find it sad that we have aboslutely no connection with them at all. But hey...here they are minus two of the guys.
And this is Ryan Edward Wise - our awesome super sweet musical director/arranger/orchestrator/keyboardist/conductor who we never get to take a peek at during the show except on the very tiny little moniter.
The tragic trio themselves right after the end of Act I when I have to try to hold myself back from breaking into tears from the beauty of Clark's speech all the while having to stare at the horribly ugly face of Jeremiah. Um...am I one lucky gal or what?
Intermission of show 2 and for some reason the boys were talking about their obsession with my sparkly mumu and this picture was sneekily taken by our PSM Victor Lukas.
Trying to take a cast photo but Emily is very concerned that little Jeremy isn't with us yet and I'm telling them to please wait. The boys are like..."let's do this"...
You can really tell what each person is thinking at this moment by the looks on our faces...
Yay!!! We all made it!! Look at this gorgeously beautiful cast. Inside and out. Come see us!!!
Just for fun :) Plus Emily and Dan just look so gosh darn cute!
Look! Christine and Carlotta together again! Michele McConnell was in the audience! Ya'll, if you haven't seen her in "Phantom of the Opera" on the Broadway...RUN!!!!
All that makeup coming off. Yay! No kiss off lipstick is nasty!
Heading home...hmm...maybe I should have gotten that gas?
Um...yeah...so this is when I'm very happy for the luxury of heated seats in my car. It's the simple things in life.
Had just enough gas and made it home safe and sound. Time to eat (and drink) again!
And the very best part of coming home...ending the day like it began. Thanks for joining us.
PLAYBILL SITES
CONTACT PLAYBILL
FOLLOW PLAYBILL NOW
Copyright 1991-2024 © Playbill Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!