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Damien Sargue (Romeo)
Damien started singing at the age of 8 years old. At
the age of 10, he recorded his first CD single "Emme-Moi".Even though his parents wanted him to devote his time to his studies,
Damien still sung and took part in compitions in the south of France during his school holidays.
At 16, Damien
decided to leave school. In 1996, he sent in demo tapes of him singing to different casting agency's. When luck finally
appeared, he was asked to go to Paris and try out for the musical very popular musical "Notre Dame de Paris"; he got
the understudy parts of Gringoire and Phoebus. At 18, it was when the future producers of R&J, as well as Gerard Presgurvic, saw
Damien as the ideal Romeo that his success really took off.
In 2003, after months out of the spotlight, Damien came
back with a whole new look and single, "Merci". The next single that is planned to be released is "Elle vient quand elle vient".
A release date for the album is still to be determined.
In
2004, the French distributors for Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" were unhappy with the outcome of the first
French dubbing with Fabian Richard as Raoul. Damien was given the task of re-dubbing Raoul for the release in France.
Vincent Nicolet (Romeo)
Vincent was born on January 6th in Paris to a family of artists. His first role in
theatre was "Renaître à Bogota". He then appeared in several television films and series such as "Sous le soleil", "Extreme
limite", "Nestor Burma" as well as a role in a motion picture "Place Vendôme". He then got the role of Jim Farrel in the musical
"Titanic", and later on got the role of Tristan in "Tristan et Yseult". After Damien left the cast of R&J, he
became the principal Romeo.
Most recently, Vincent took on the role of Rhett Butler in Gérard Presgurvic's latest
musical, "Autant en Emporte le Vent" (Gone with the Wind), based on the classic novel by Margaret Mitchell.
Cécilia Cara (Juliette)
Cécilia was born on June 5th 1984 in Cannes, on the Riviera.
Before performing in Roméo & Juliette,
she was still a 15-year-old attending secondary school. She started learning ballet at the age of 3, and at the age of 5 was
when she began singing in the school choir and soon proved to be very gifted and talented. Thanks to different shows and singing
contests, she improved her voice and progressively gained self-confidence.
For two years in a row, she won first prize in a contest in Nice. She became very popular in her region and she soon
gain popularity all over France with a
TV show launching young artists. She finally came 4th out of 500 candidates. The shows presenter immediately contacted Roméo & Juliette’s producers to introduce
her. Almost at once, they new they had found their Juliette.
During her time in Roméo & Juliette,
she recorded duets with French recording artist Florent Pagny (L’air du Temps) as well as former Boyzone
member Ronan Keating (Je T’aime Plus Que Tout).
Cécilia has also recorded a duet with fellow
Roméo & Juliette star, Grégori Baquet
for his album (On se Mesure). She can also be heard doing back-up vocals on Grégori's first single "Donne-moi".
In
2003, Cécilia released “Le Dernier
Reflet”; the first single off her up-coming album. The next single that is planned to be released is “Dites Lui”.
The album release date is still to be determined.
Cécilia
is also pursuing her acting career in films. Her first feature role was Alice in the French movie "Le Carton".
She recenlty finished a movie-short called "Droit au coeur", in which she played the lead role of a love angel named Jasmine
who falls in love with a young man on earth. Cécilia was also given the tast in 2004 of vocally dubbing the role of Christine
Daae for the French release of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "The Phantom of the Opera."
Grégori Baquet (Benvolio)
Grégori comes from a family of artists - his father is a French musician & comedian
while his mother is a Russian choreographer. When he was 6 years old, he began to take courses in piano. He went on to play
the clarinet & saxophone as well as take singing courses. Since he was little, he had wanted to be an actor and finally
had his chance in college. Grégori is a divorcee with a son named Theophile.
Before joining the cast of R&J, he was in a film musical "Paradisco" starring along side Jerome
Pradon and Anthony Rapp. Grégori has been featured in countless television program's, as well as a few French movies. His
latest one, "Grande Ecole", was released into cinema's on Feburary 4th, 2003. He also
continues to do live theatre.
Grégori released a solo single in 2003 (Donne-Moi). The release date
of his second single, "A l'envers", has been postponed. His solo album release date is to be determined.
Philippe D'Avilla (Mercutio)
Philippe
has always wanted to be an actor and has been performing on stage ever since he was five years old. At 12, he signed his first
contract which bound him to several different shows. When he turned 18, he crossed the Atlantic to live in Quebec
to see what work he could get.
After
he turned 21, he decided to go back to France
and began to take music lessons. 4 years later at 25, Philippe took part in various television shows. Herve Mellion, a television
producer, told him that a new musical was underway and he should audition. He did, and the role of Mercutio was his.
Tom Ross (Tybalt)
Tom was born in 1972. He first fell in love with singing when he would participate
in and win karaoke contests. At 22, he made his choice: he wanted to have a career in music.
Just after arriving in Paris, he started to sing in a bar and one on lucky day, the producers
from R&J heard him and asked him to audition for the musical, and he got the role of Tybalt.
Eléonore Beaulieu (Lady Montague)
Eléonore began singing in the early 80’s. She started modeling at 18 to when
she was 25. And because her mother was a choreographer, she proved to be a good dancer. She decided that fashion modeling
wasn’t for her, so she took to acting. She performed in several short films, movies, and on the stage. She also released
a few music singles.
Roméo et Juliette was still under-way and the auditions were going on. Even
though she arrived late to audition for Lady Montague, it didn’t stop her from auditioning for it, and ended up getting
the role.
Isabelle Ferron (Lady
Capulet)
Isabelle was 7 years old
when she began dancing, even though she didn’t want to. For seven years she attended the Conservatoire de Poitiers for dance and also
learning to play piano. After leaving school, she moved to Paris to perform on stage. She continued to
train with Niels Arestrup, Maurice Benichou, and John Strasberg.
In 1992, she joined the French cast of “Les
Misérables”. And in 1993, she performed in "La Java des Mémoires" and "Les Années Twist". Soon after,
she moved onto films such as “Pédale Douce", "Le Pari", and a few others. Because of her humor, dynamism and
professionalism, the producers of Roméo et Juliette proposed to her the role of Lady Capulet. She signs on without
a thought, certain to have an amazing time singing such beautiful songs.
In 2002, she left the cast to continue her film work.
Karoline Blandin (Lady Capulet)
Karoline was born in Nice on the French Riviera. When she was four, she started taking ballet lessons and continued
to train from the ages 9 to 12 at the Opera in Nice. She also learned how to ice-skate at the age of 13.
After her time in the United States in the early 80’s, she went to Paris
where she continued to sing and began acting. She also became a back-up singer for many popular French singers at the time.
In 1997, she took part in a musical called “La vie en bleu” with Eléonore Beaulieu. And it was Eléonore
who referred Karoline to the casting office for Roméo et Juliette after Isabelle left the cast. After two auditions
for the role, Karoline got the job.
Réjane Perry (The Nurse)
Réjane was
17 when she performed on stage for the first time at the Lyons Opera under Serge Baudos direction. After major problems with
her voice, Réjane gave up on music and went onto other jobs. After many years, she decided go back to her first love: music.
Réjane
met the famous Luc Plamendon and asked to perform in the new production of “Starmania”, and sing "le monde est
stone". In 1996, Réjane met Carolin Petit, a co-writer for Roméo et Juliette, and that’s how she got the role
of The Nurse in the musical.
Sadly,
Réjane passed away September 9th, 2003 after battling Cancer.
Sebastian Chato (Lord Capulet)
At the age of 5, Sebastian was already in love with singing. When his father brought him into the music world, he won
lots of contests. He quickly he became a star in Spain. From the 80s to the 90s he appeared
in several TV shows. After he went to the casting offices of Romeo et Juliette, he was hired immediately
to play the role of Lord Capulet.
Jean Claude-Hadida (Friar Laurent)
Influenced by James Brown, Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett and others, Jean Claude decided to sing
for a living. He lives for the music. At 20, he started a hard-rock band called "Dark Sides".
After long years of doubting himself, Jean Claude met Gérard Presgurvic. Just after they
had talked about Roméo et Juliette, Jean Claude has decided to audition, and got the part of the Friar.
Frederic Charter (The Prince)
Frederic used to be a socio-cultural-animator. He likes groove, funk and house music.
Frederic loves to speak about popular French singers he likes: Brel, and Aznavour. He worked his voice very hard and
he became a gospel singer professor. At the beginning, Gérard Presgurvic made him do a series of auditions, until he finally got
the role.
Essaï (Paris)
Essaï has always been admired. At 10 pounds, was born in Paris 26 years ago and his
parents who were very keen on soul music made him listen to Quincy Jones and Donny Hattaway very early.
His father
who played the drums and his mother and sister who played the piano, taught him to play on a keyboard. He spent his teenage
years both composing music and playing basketball; his other passion.
Today, he loves wandering around between the
stage and the recording studio of the Palais des Congrès (where, by the way, he used to sell programs). Even if he’s
only 26, he's already composed titles for French, Foreign artists and TV soundtracks. One of his future goals is to compose
a musical.
Serge Le Borgne (The Poet)
It's because he was influenced by his three elder sisters that Serge, of Breton origin, joined a jazz dancing course at
the age of 9 whereas he was actually fond of basketball; he became a dancer under the conduct of his teacher Marie Coquil.
He was 16 when he left for Cannes on the French Riviera where he got his O' level ,with a special "dance-music" option.
He's been interested in music and more particularly rock since his youth, that's why he decided to write his own songs; today,
he's written more than fifty of them and he hopes they'll be published one day...
At the age of 20 , he took part
in the opening of the Olympic Games under Philippe Découflé's direction. After a summer spent in Bayreuth, he went to Belgium
and worked for 5 years at the Royal Opera in Liege. If he was a ballet-dancer there, it's with the musicians he created a
band called "that's the way it is..." which was also the title of one of his songs.
In 1998, he came back to Paris,
where he successively got into Gigi Caciuleanu's and Blanca Li's dancing companies. Then, he decides to take singing lessons
with Guy Fletcher and left for six months for Canada, with the company performing the musical "Notre Dame De Paris" there.
Coming back from Canada, he performed on the stage of the Palais des Congrès; a place where he found with great pleasure
when he is engaged as a dancer by Redha for Romèo & Juliette. As he was also able to sing, he was given the role
of the Poet; and that's the way it is.
Anne Mano (Death)
No biography at this time.
Understudies: Hugo, Frederique
Sorel, Pino Santoro, Nuno Resende, Rachel Pignot, Phillippe Candelon
Montague Dancers: Chirstine Hassid, Antonietta Campolo,
Esther Giacalone, Sabrina Secchi. Belinda Nuser, Emilie Capel, Stéphanie Lutenbacher, Sabrina Oukkal, Candice Thomas, Guillaume Jauffret, Cyril
Journet, Esteban Olives, Lilian Guyen, Frederic Jean-baptiste, and Remi
Lailavoix
Capulet Dancers: Laurence Filippi, Constanza Garrone, Bérénice Faure, Geraldine Couf, Beatrice Warrand, Stéphane Corcel, Tiphanie Doucet, Elodie
Tuquet-Bores, Julie Richer, Mehdi Has-Arkoub, Franck Desplanches, and Jérome Piel
FRENCH PRODUCTION TEAM:
Produced by: Gerard Louvin
Muisc & Lyrics by: Gerard Presgurvic
Choreography by: Redha
Directed by: Daniel Moyne
Costumes by: Dominique Borg
Coordination: Evelyne Presgurvic
Lights: Antonio De Carvalho
Sound: Thierry Rogen & Philippe Parmentier
Director of Production: Alain Giffard
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