Priscilla Lopez
Priscilla Lopez is an American singer, dancer, and actress. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of Diana Morales in A Chorus Line. She has had the distinction of appearing in two Broadway landmarks: one of its greatest hits, the highly acclaimed, long-running A Chorus Line, and, as a teenager, in one of its biggest flops, the infamous musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, which closed before opening night.
Early life
Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York to Francisco Lopez, a hotel banquet foreman and Laura, who had moved to New York from their native Puerto Rico.Career
Broadway
Lopez graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts, where she majored in drama. Had Tiffany's survived, it would have marked her debut on Broadway, but the production was plagued with so many problems that its creative team deemed it impossible to fix. From there, she moved on to Henry, Sweet Henry, which lasted only two months at the end of 1967, when she was 19 years old. Her luck was no better the following year when Her First Roman lasted two weeks.Nevertheless, Lopez continued to work and earn credits, most notably as a replacement in featured roles in Company, choreographed by Michael Bennett, and Pippin, choreographed by Bob Fosse. When Michael Bennett helped organize the workshops leading to A Chorus Line, he recruited Lopez based on his experience with her. A Chorus Line had Lopez portraying Diana Morales, a character patterned after herself. She introduced the hit song "What I Did for Love", and sang "Nothing", a song about a disastrously unsupportive drama class at the High School of Performing Arts.
In A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine, Lopez stepped out of the ensemble and into the spotlight, displaying her comedic and vocal skills. The show had two acts, first a mini-musical about the early days of movie making, by Dick Vosburgh and Frank Lazarus with additional material by Jerry Herman, and second a send-up of the slapstick Marx Brothers movies, with Lopez playing Harpo. Both she and the show received rave reviews; it ran nearly a year-and-a-half, and she earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 1982, Tommy Tune, with whom she had worked in Hollywood/Ukraine, hired her as his assistant on Nine, the musical version of the Federico Fellini film 8½. Midway through the run, she joined the cast taking over for Tony-winner Liliane Montevecchi in the role of Liliane La Fleur. Lopez also appeared on Broadway in the critically acclaimed play Anna in the Tropics in 2003. From 2008 to 2011, Lopez appeared as Camilla in the Broadway production of In the Heights. She took over the role of Berthe in the revival of Pippin from Annie Potts on July 22, 2014 through August 31 2014.
Off-Broadway
Her off-Broadway credits include Other People's Money, Key Exchange, Extremities, The Oldest Profession, Beauty of the Father and Class Mother '68, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. She was featured in the City Center Encores! production of Babes in Arms.In 2021, Lopez was featured as Mabel in the internet musical Ratatouille: The Tiktok Musical, referencing both "Nothing" and "What I Did For Love" with alternated lyrics for the character and situation. Lopez starred in The Gardens of Anuncia, a musical by Michael John LaChiusa about the life of Graciela Daniele, portraying the older version of Daniele.