The Christines for the China leg of the world tour have been announced. Grace Roberts is joining as the Principal Christine, Caitlin Finnie is continuing (from the previous tour) as Alternate Christine and Kayleigh Marven is joining as the understudy Christine and Swing after covering the role in the Australian tour.
I always assumed - or hoped - she would return to the role. She was so so SO good. My first impression of her was through a door due to a ticket muckup in Istanbul. Several audience members were not let into the auditorium in time, so we had to listen to the Overture from outside. And then Think of Me. And hearing that beautiful bell voice through the door... that was special. The day after I got to SEE Think of Me as well... And my impression of her only improved. Such a pure, passionate, kind, nuanced Christine.
She started out as alternate Christine in the second World Tour, opening in Manila in 2012 with Jonathan Roxmouth as the Phantom, Claire Lyon as principal Christine and Anthony Downing as Raoul. Brad Little took over as the Phantom after Manila. Emilie Lynn would eventually take over as principal, and stayed with the tour until it closed. Her tour schedule look like this:
2012: Manila (alternate)
2012-2013: Seoul (alternate)
(out for the 2013 Bangkok and Singapore stops)
2014: Daegu (alternate)
(out for the 2014-2015 Taipei and Hong Kong stops)
2015: Istanbul (principal)
2015: Guangzhou (principal
2015-2016: Beijing (principal)
Kristi Holden was the alternate in the stops Emilie Lynn did not do. The latter was also Emilie's alternate in Istanbul, being replaced by Sara Sarres for the two final stops in China.