Heidi Blickenstaff

Heidi Blickenstaff is an American actress and singer born on December 28, 1971, in Fresno, California, whose Broadway career has spanned from 1997 to 2022. She grew up in Fresno, where she began her musical theater training at Good Company Players, performing roles that included Annie in the musical of the same name. Blickenstaff attended Roosevelt High School in Fresno before going on to earn a degree from Duke University's Department of Theater Studies. Her father, Dale Blickenstaff, served as the District Attorney of Fresno County. In 2015, she married Nicholas Rohlfing and has two stepsons, Jonah and Malcolm Rohlfing.

Blickenstaff built her early Broadway career through ensemble, understudy, and supporting roles, including a stint in The Full Monty as Susan Hershey and work in Jekyll & Hyde as an understudy for the role of Lucy Harris during its touring production. It was on the tour of The Who's Tommy that she first met Jeff Bowen, who would later become her co-star and the co-creator and composer of [title of show]. Her touring credits also encompass Steel Pier, Dreamgirls, and additional runs of The Full Monty and Jekyll & Hyde.

The musical [title of show] marked a turning point in Blickenstaff's career and brought her widespread recognition. The show, created by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, documents its own creation as two Broadway fans race to complete a musical in three and a half weeks with their two actress friends; the actors themselves serve as both the writers and the characters. Blickenstaff played a version of herself named Heidi, a role she has described as a concentrated version of her actual personality. The production ran Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre before transferring to Broadway, and Blickenstaff appeared in both runs. She has spoken openly about how the show helped her manage chronic stage fright, a theme addressed directly in the song "Die Vampire Die." In a 2006 interview with TheaterMania during the Off-Broadway run, she noted that the show had served as great medicine for confronting that self-doubt.

Her Broadway credits extend across a wide range of productions. In The Little Mermaid, she initially appeared as Carlotta and as an understudy for Ursula before replacing Sherie Rene Scott in the role of Ursula on January 27, 2009, remaining with the production until April 5, 2009, when she was succeeded by Faith Prince. She replaced Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke in The Addams Family on March 8, 2011. Blickenstaff returned to Broadway in March 2015 to originate the role of Bea in Something Rotten!, appearing alongside Christian Borle and Brian d'Arcy James. She subsequently appeared on Broadway in Jagged Little Pill as MJ, and recorded a standalone track for the original Broadway cast recording of that show, released in the fall of 2022. Her Broadway history also includes a credit in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Beyond Broadway, Blickenstaff has accumulated a substantial record of regional and Off-Broadway work. In 2006, she starred in Meet John Doe at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., an adaptation of the 1941 Frank Capra film, winning a Helen Hayes Award for her performance. Washington Post critic Peter Marks described her portrayal as a star performance, comparing her favorably to Barbara Stanwyck's role in the original film and praising both her delivery of the character's sharp dialogue and her vocal ability. She was a founding cast member of First You Dream: The Music of Kander and Ebb, which premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, in 2009, and returned for a revival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in June 2012. In July 2013, she played Diana in Next to Normal at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont. In April 2014, she appeared as Cleo in the City Center Encores! staging of The Most Happy Fella alongside Laura Benanti and Cheyenne Jackson. That same year, from May through July, she originated the role of Jane/Bonnie in the world premiere of Dog and Pony at The Old Globe Theatre, a production with a book by Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Michael Patrick Walker, and direction by Roger Rees, featuring Nicole Parker, Beth Leavel, Jon Patrick Walker, and Eric William Morris. From November 2014 to January 2015, she played Emily Hobbs in Elf: The Musical at Paper Mill Playhouse. Her other regional credits include The Girl in the Frame at the Goodspeed Opera House, Bat Boy at Theatreworks in Palo Alto, California, and Prairie at New York Stage and Film.

In the fall of 2017, Blickenstaff filmed the Disney Channel musical version of Freaky Friday, playing the mother whose personality swaps with her daughter, portrayed by Cozi Zuehlsdorff. The film was broadcast on Disney Channel on August 10, 2018. She has also appeared in television commercials for Nationwide Insurance and Foster Grant. Blickenstaff's discography includes cast recordings of [title of show], Now. Here. This., Meet John Doe, The Little Mermaid, and Something Rotten!, as well as contributions to recordings featuring the music of Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern, Scott Alan, Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, and Georgia Stitt.