Susan Watson

Susan Watson (born December 17, 1938) is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in musical theatre.

Watson's first professional role was Velma in the original West End production of West Side Story in 1958. She created the role of Luisa in The Fantasticks and then played Kim on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie, beginning in 1960. Among many other roles in musicals, she was nominated for a Tony Award for the role of Jenny in A Joyful Noise (1966). She starred in the title role of the Broadway revival of No, No Nanette in 1971. Watson also appeared in several television series and specials.

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Watson was one of five children of a geologist/geophysicist and a dance instructor. From an early age her life was filled with the music of Gilbert and Sullivan and Rodgers and Hammerstein. As a teenager she performed in before being accepted at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. Her studies there were interrupted when she accepted a role as Velma and understudy for Maria in the original West End production of West Side Story in 1958.

Stopping in Paris after the show's run, Watson met her future sister-in-law, who was dating Tom Jones and urged Watson to contact him when she arrived in New York City. Jones and partner Harvey Schmidt cast her in the lead role of Louisa, "The Girl", in their one-act musical The Fantasticks, which ran for one week in 1959, at Barnard College's Minor Latham Playhouse, while the creative team tried to raise financing for an off-Broadway production. While biding her time, Watson appeared in a revue entitled Follies of 1910. Gower Champion, who was in the process of casting Bye Bye Birdie, noticed Watson in Follies and offered her a role. She played the role of Kim throughout the entire Broadway run (April 1960 - October 1961). She finally returned to The Fantasticks when it was televised by the Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1964.

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