TV Guide
January 1, 1995
She's Loving it on Broadway

This week, in a spectacular career reinvention, Loving’s Catherine Hickland (Tess) will take over the female lead in the smash Broadway Musical Les Misérables. The actress (who has starred almost exclusively on daytime soaps since 1980) has never before been paid to even stand on a stage, much less sing. But after moving to New York City in late ‘92, and winning her role on Loving, Hickland got badly bitten by Broadway’s bug. I’m not frustrated by daytime. I’m not one of those who think soaps are the illegitimate children of show biz, but the flame had gone out of my creative heart, says the actress, who doggedly determined to get into a Great White Way musical enrolled herself in five-day-a-week lessons with Tad Motyka, one of the preeminent opera coaches in Manhattan.

By a fluke, Richard Jay-Alexander, executive producer of Les Misérables, read about Hickland’s lofty goal in a magazine article and called her in for a look-see. Two callbacks later, she was cast as the tragic heroine Fantine a role originated by the great Patti LuPone. The character’s big showstopper? It’s called I Dreamed a Dream. And it couldn’t be more appropriate.