Bebe Moss ’26 To Play Christine in International Tour of “The Phantom Of The Opera”

Work ethic. Those are the two words that best describe Bebe, says Professor Victoria Bussert, director of Oberlin Conservatory’s music theater program. “Who never missed a dance class the entire year? Never missed a class ever. It’s literally that simple. There’s no magic. Had she not had the preparation, they wouldn’t have cast her.” 

Bussert is well-known throughout the industry for the rigor of that preparation. She and her Oberlin music theater faculty colleagues—all working professional theater artists—teach singing, dancing, and acting to produce triple threats. But they also build Teflon talents who understand how to show up to an audition on time, lyrics memorized and dressed to be taken seriously (no slouchy, holey anything). If they aren’t cast, they don’t take it personally; they move on to the next audition. It’s a priceless skill that leads to longevity in a tough profession. 

At first, Moss wasn’t sure she was cut out for that kind of training. Like so many kids who dream of Broadway success, she was a shining star in her Dallas high school until she got to college and realized her talent wasn’t enough. After a period of soul-searching following her freshman year, she concluded she wasn’t as good as she thought she was.

“Vicky was actually one of the first people in my life to make me feel like I wasn't already a phenomenal performer,” says Moss. “And I'm actually very grateful for that, because I wasn't. I had a lot of work to do. I truly believe that if I hadn't met her or been in her program, I wouldn't be the person I am today.”

Today, Moss is confident, with an uncannily assured sense of who she is and what she’s capable of, able to take criticism and use it as fuel to get better—so different from the uncertain girl she was when she started. 

“Vicky really helped shape me into a person who can mentally and physically pursue this [craft] for a very long time.”

The program tested her resilience and fortitude every day. Rolling out of bed for classes that started at 8 a.m., going all day, then showing up energized for rehearsals for performances on and off campus that went late into the night. And doing it all again when the sun rose.

But there was still room for fun. She and her classmates found time to take part in a time-honored Oberlin tradition: the Presidential Tire Flip Challenge. This is exactly what it sounds like: Students try to turn over more massive tractor tires in one minute than the reigning champion, Oberlin’s Carmen Twillie Ambar. When Moss took her turn, Bussert and the rest of the music theater crew shouted encouragement from the sidelines. “Go Bebe gooooooo!” “

The final score: Moss, 14. Ambar, 19. 

Much like a football coach, “we set a culture of excellence for the most passionate students and then cheer them on to become the best versions of themselves,” Bussert says. 

So, yes, Moss was ready when the opportunity came. “And Oberlin,” says Bussert, “is what provided that opportunity.”

The email arrived in the inboxes of Bussert and her husband Dale Rieling, a veteran Broadway conductor (Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Sunset Boulevard, and Phantom) and Music Theater Ensemble Director at Oberlin, toward the end of spring semester. It was from Kristen Blodgette, music supervisor for the Phantom of the Opera International Tour.

Blodgette, a native Clevelander whose love of musicals was shaped by catching touring productions with her parents in downtown theaters, has worked on Lloyd Webber’s productions for most of her career, starting with Cats as a pianist in 1984. She spent 35 years as the associate musical supervisor/conductor of Broadway’s Phantom before it ended its reign as the longest-running show in Broadway history, and has supervised more than a dozen productions of Phantom worldwide. Blodgette knows, as much as anyone can, what the famously mercurial composer likes—and what he doesn’t like.

As music supervisor, it’s up to Blodgette to champion the wishes of the composer in all aspects of a production, working with musicians, weighing in on casting decisions, conducting the show or relinquishing the baton to others. That’s what she did with Rieling when she tapped him to conduct the 2018 U.S. tour of Love Never Dies, Lloyd Webber's long-awaited sequel to Phantom that was improbably and deliciously set at Coney Island.

Blodgette emailed her old friends that she was in search of a new Christine for the world tour in celebration of Phantom’s 40th year. The musical premiered at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End on October 9, 1986, with Sarah Brightman, the composer's then second wife and muse, originating the role of Christine. Incredibly, Phantom is still running in the West End.

Christine is a notoriously demanding role requiring an operatic voice that can soar to a glass-shattering high E—and then roller coaster drop to almost alto range in “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.” Hitting that stratospheric E in Phantom is widely considered a soprano’s vocal Everest, one of the most difficult notes in musical theater. Christine is onstage in every scene but one—far more than the show's namesake—navigating heavy beaded costumes and bustles as she sings.

While the casting net had been thrown worldwide, Blodgette and team had yet to find the right young woman to fill Christine’s ball gown. Where, she wanted to know, were all the young, legit sopranos?

Bussert hit reply before Rieling did: “We have one.”

All spring semester, Moss and Rieling met once a week for an hour-long coaching session. It was her idea. He’d music directed a touring production of Phantom and was intimately familiar with the challenging material for Christine; her senior recital number and “Think of Me,” a pivotal song in Act I where Christine Daaé transforms from chorus girl to leading lady of the Opéra Populaire, attracting the attention of both Raoul and the Phantom.

So when Rieling told her the international tour was looking for a Christine, she had plenty of material to record and send to Blodgette, along with her headshot and resume. 

“This is what you need to know about Bebe,” says Rieling, currently in Tokyo music directing  Brightman as murderous has-been movie queen Nora Desmond in Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard. “When I give her notes about anything, she goes to the practice room and comes back and says, ‘How was that? Is that better?’ . . . She has a discipline at her age that's really remarkable. I had coached her at the beginning of February on the Christine stuff…So she just put everything on tape and sent it off. I had nothing to do with it.” 

And there’s still more to know: The conductor hears a big voice for a soprano—a full, round sound paired with a surprising agility when she reaches the higher range. “But the other thing is she's just full of life,” says Rieling, “a vitality that she brings to the room.” That’s something you can’t teach.

After what felt like a year to Moss—but was actually only about a week and a half—her phone rang as she was packing up her campus apartment. Like all of Oberlin's music theater seniors, she’d landed representation—the management company Bohemia Group and the talent agency The Talent House, both prestigious boutique firms—and planned to move to New York City after her May 25 graduation. A British-accented voice asked if she could come to the city on May 11 to audition for Blodgette in person. 

Moss crashed on friend Jessi Kirtley’s couch, warming up in the shower with a towel over her mouth so she didn’t disturb her pal. Kirtley, another product of Bussert's teaching, needed her sleep after performing in Broadway’s Operation Mincemeat the night before. Moss arrived at her first-ever New York City audition 45 minutes early with a head cold. Andrew Lloyd Webber whisperer Kristen Blodgette was friendly and kind. They chatted first, which calmed Moss down, then Blodgette recorded as she sang “Think of Me,” “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,” and read a quick little scene. 

“And then she asked me if I had the high E,” Moss says. 

And Moss, without hesitation, delivered, head cold and all. 

Back at her friend’s apartment the next morning, Moss was packing for her flight home. She remembers the time: It was 10:30 am, not 24 hours after she’d met with Blodgette, when the email hit her inbox. "Hi Bebe, thank you so much for auditioning. We would love. . ." And that was all the notification said. She rushed to open the message to read the rest: ".. .to offer you the role of Christine." 

“And I just lost it,” Moss says. “I was on the phone with my boyfriend, and he took pictures of me that no one can ever see. I was bawling.”

It is well known in theater lore that Lloyd Webber still approves the casting of all major roles in Phantom. It still blows Moss’ mind to think he watched her sing.

Back at Oberlin, she was met with balloons and a cake that said "Congrats Christine!" spelled out in white frosting.

Oberlin Conservatory Dean William Quillen attended her homecoming surprise party at the Conservatory East Studios, the new purpose-built home for the music theater program, beaming like a proud parent. Bussert provided the decorations—silver streamers, creepy candelabras the Phantom would love and a tira for Moss. 

“We are thrilled beyond words for Bebe,” says Quillen, “and it's a joy to see her hard work pay off. This news is a wonderful way to cap off a successful first year of the Oberlin music theater program. We greatly look forward to following Bebe's success—and the success of all of our alumni and students—for years to come.”

Moss will take the stage in Shanghai beginning September 29. She’d never been that far from home and planned to spend the long flight to learn some basic Mandarin. 

And her Phantom? None other than Ramin Karimloo. “I grew up watching Ramin, and now we're going to be doing the show together, which is just incredible, and a lot to wrap my head around,” Moss says. Bussert recorded the moment Moss shared this news with her classmates—she’d barely uttered his name when the room erupted into Beatlemania-like screams. If 10-year-old Bebe could have known Karimloo was her future leading man, Moss thinks the kid would have been rendered speechless. 

As her name is announced as the next Christine, her life as an unknown college grad will end. She’s bracing for it, and excited too.

But there’s one other thing: She says the song she can’t wait to perform is “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” and not just because it helped her land the part. When Christine sings the song at her father’s grave, she’s pleading for guidance as she tries to navigate her dizzying rise to fame.

“My grandfather passed away about three weeks ago now,” Moss says. “He was a really large part of my life—almost like a father figure to me. Every single time I've been practicing the song, I think about him and everything that he did for me.” Her voice catches, but she recovers. “I get a little emotional talking about it, but I cannot wait to get to sing that to him every night.

“All I can really say is I'm grateful, and I just feel humbled,” Moss continues. “And I know that that's what everyone says whenever these things happen, but it truly is what I feel right now. And there just aren't really many words to describe how excited I am. I cannot wait to put those costumes on—I just can't wait.”