Kristy Cates

Kristen "Kristy" Cates, born March 14, 1977, in California, is an American actress and singer whose Broadway career spanned from 2003 to 2017, encompassing credits in Wicked, Finding Neverland, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Cates began performing at age three, staging self-written musicals at home. Her formal recognition came in elementary school when the director of her grammar school musical heard her imitating roosters on the playground and cast her as the singing rooster in the Christmas pageant. She attended Justin-Siena High School in Napa, California, and spent seven years with the Pinole Young Actors group performing in community theater throughout Northern California. At 17, she appeared in her first professional production and committed to a theater career. She was accepted to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she earned a BFA in Musical Theater in 1999. Among her classmates was Shoshana Bean, with whom she was roommates. Following graduation, Cates was cast in two productions at the St. Louis Muny before relocating to New York City.

In New York, Cates was cast in the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players production of Princess Ida. She also performed cabaret work at Don't Tell Mama, presenting material by emerging writers and composers. Her regional theater work included engagements at the Lucille Lortel White Barn Theatre, North Bay Opera, the Playhouse on the Green, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Conference. As a singer, she performed at New York venues including the Duplex, Joe's Pub, the Triad, and Therapy. In 2003, she appeared in the off-Broadway production Boobs! The Musical, a show celebrating the songs of 1950s and 1960s singer Ruth Wallis, in which she played Wallis alongside several other characters.

Cates joined the Broadway production of Wicked as an ensemble member and understudy for the role of Elphaba, originated by Idina Menzel. The show began previews on October 8, 2003, and opened officially on October 30, 2003. She is featured on the Original Broadway Cast recording and performed with the company on the 2004 Tony Awards, the Late Show with David Letterman, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In March 2005, when Stephanie J. Block sustained an injury during rehearsals for the first U.S. national tour, Cates stepped in to cover the role. She returned to the Broadway production and gave her final performance there on May 29, 2005.

Cates then joined the Chicago sit-down production of Wicked as standby for Elphaba, a role being played by Ana Gasteyer of Saturday Night Live. The production began previews on June 24, 2005, and opened officially on July 13, 2005, at the Oriental Theatre, now known as the Nederlander Theatre. On January 24, 2006, Cates assumed the lead role, performing opposite Stacie Morgan Lewis and Erin Mackey as G(a)linda. During her time in Chicago, she appeared at the Taste of Chicago and sang the National Anthem on Veterans Weekend at a Chicago Bears football game. She departed the production on December 10, 2006, and was succeeded by her standby, Dee Roscioli.

Following her run in Chicago, Cates returned there in January 2007 for a weekend of solo shows titled "An Inteminent Evening with Kristy Cates," each of which sold out with over 350 tickets per night. She sang the National Anthem for both Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox games in the spring of 2007. That summer, she was cast as Marty in a production of Grease at the Muny in St. Louis, which ran from June 25 to July 3, 2007. She also participated in a reading of the new musical City of Light. In 2008, she starred as Tracy Boyd in the musical Unbeatable, which played in Phoenix and Houston before opening off-Broadway at New World Stages on October 10, 2008. In February 2010, she portrayed Susan in the Lyric Theatre at the Plaza production of Stephen Schwartz's musical Snapshots in Oklahoma City. In April 2014, she appeared in The Bardy Bunch, an off-Broadway musical comedy parody of The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch presented in Shakespearean style.

Cates returned to Broadway in 2016 with Finding Neverland, in which she portrayed Ms. Bassett and understudied the role of Madame du Maurier. She subsequently joined the Broadway production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as Grandma Josephine, her final Broadway credit to date. In 2018, she released a song titled "Kristy's Lament (Another Awful Day With the MTA)," which originated from a Facebook post about a difficult subway commute that went viral. Lyricist Chris Giordano and composer Ryan Edward Wise adapted the post into the musical number.

Beyond performing, Cates serves as Chair of the Performing Arts Program at the New York Film Academy Musical Theatre School, where she has produced or directed student productions including Spring Awakening, Chess, Wedding Singer, and Carousel.