Linedy Genao: The rise of a Latina Broadway star

I feel very excited. We’ve all worked so hard. Our preview process has been very long, so we’re all very ready for opening and just excited to share the story with the world and Broadway.

It’s been a work in progress every single day. It’s my first time in this position. Everyday I’m learning to trust myself, to surrender, and to put myself first, which is hard. I don’t really do that. But just really taking care of myself and my vocal health, going on vocal rest. My husband understands. Sometimes I’m like, “Listen, we’ll text. I can’t talk.” Because I need to rest my voice. So it’s definitely a transition. It’s been the hardest through the preview process because we have rehearsals and then press. So it’ll be a lot easier once it’s just the show and a sprinkle of a couple of things here and there.

It’s still very much a work in progress, but I’m proud of myself to say that I have overcome a lot of it. A lot of it was really present during the rehearsal process, creating the show. One of the directors would be like, “Try this.” And I’m like, “I’m scared. I don’t think it’s going to be good.” Just judging myself before I even tried. But getting on stage and kind of surrendering and looking into the abyss of the audience really, really helped because I just let all those feelings and thoughts go away, if that makes any sense.

I think very much more about going after my dreams because I didn’t go to school for this. I went to school for business. I worked in banking, and I dealt with my own imposter syndrome in that business, but it was very different because it wasn’t my passion, where this is. So because I was shot out of a cannon, making my Broadway debut, with just theater experience from high school and my community, all those doubts did come in, of there are so many people much more qualified than I that are working harder than I. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve stopped discrediting myself and giving myself grace. I have worked very hard as well, in my own way, having to learn everything from scratch with no training. And leaning on my peers and just taking in each experience and the lessons that they bring.

I think it was when I saw In the Heights on Broadway. That changed my life. Hearing one of the first lyrics, being, “Dominican Republic, I love it, Jesus, I’m jealous of it.” Seeing people who look like me, talking about the foods I eat, the music that I dance to, and my culture. I was hysterical in my seat because for the first time in my life, I saw myself represented on stage, and I knew that there was a place for me, even if it was just in one show. The possibilities were endless, and it blew my mind. And that’s when I knew that somehow I wanted to continue this passion as a strong hobby, singing in the choir and doing community theater. I never in a million years thought that it would become my career.

Yeah, they are beside themselves, as I am. It’s been my dream since I was little. We all started singing in church. My dad was the choir director, playing guitar. I would run up to the choir to sing with my mom and my aunts all the time and do shows in church, our little versions of musicals. But they’re just so proud of me, so grateful for this dream come true. And just reminding me where I started and where I came from all the time.

Linedita, just like Cinderella, spoke her mind. Let me tell you, I would get in trouble all the time because I did not know how to keep my mouth shut, very much like this picture. But I would just take my hairbrush thing in front of the mirror and hold concerts for my family in the living room. My brother, my two cousins, and I had a band called ‘The Cousins’ that we would play for my family. I also was the Pink Power Ranger. We would put up concerts as Power Rangers, and I broke my leg pretending to be the Pink Power Ranger. I jumped off of the table, kicked in midair, landed in a split, and broke my leg. So that was fun. But just very carefree, spontaneous, and loved to just show my love for music and arts.

Yeah, the team even told me typically that never happens, that they’ll tell you in the room that you got the role. You typically find out a few days, maybe a week later from your agents. It’s just a simple email. They’ll call you and say, “Congratulations, blah, blah.” But it was the most intense audition process I’ve ever been through. Obviously, the music is very, very challenging. I was in Dear Evan Hansen at the time, doing eight shows a week, as well as an understudy. And it was 10:00 AM, and we were singing our faces off, which meant I was waking up at 6:00 AM every morning to warm up and talk and just make sure I was alive and awake. They had us do the material over and over and over. Andrew did one-on-one work sessions with the actresses who were in final callbacks for Cinderella, which was really cool to just be able to work with him on the material before going into the big room with everyone else. It really did help calm the nerves. At that point, whether I got the role or not, the fact that I got to work one-on-one with Andrew Lloyd Webber, who was looking at my headshot, looking at me, talking to me - it was just beyond my wildest dreams. I had already made it by then. Then after an intense couple of hours, they called me back into the room again. I was the last person there, didn’t think anything of it. And thinking I was going to have to do everything again, I literally said, “I don’t have anything else.” And they’re like, “Don’t worry.” And that’s when I went back into the room, and Andrew Lloyd Webber asked me to be his Cinderella.

I have two that come to mind. When I went to London for the first time and only time, it was to work with him and record Bad Cinderella, iconic. He invited me over to his home to just have a casual dinner - with Andrew Lloyd Webber. I was dying. That’s number one. And number two, when we were in Brooklyn a few months ago recording one of the singles, we go outside to get in the car, and he’s like -Nobody asked him, nobody said anything- “Linedy, I think this would be a great place for a picture. Come on, let’s take a picture.” And I was like, “Huh?” And then he goes like this. He puts up the rock star sign. And I was like, “Wow, Andrew Lloyd Webber is cool.” And obviously the most special one, him asking me to be his Cinderella. I’ll never forget that.

It’s definitely been an adjustment because, you know, you can’t do too much, so just finding the middle ground. But just my mannerisms, the way that I joke. I don’t know, I feel like a lot of the text in the show, the book, some of the lines... They’ve since changed, but during the preview process, some of the lines were literally things that I say in everyday language, which I’m like, “This is crazy, just how real and how natural it feels to me.” Again, it’s not like a character you have to put on that feels so far removed to me. She’s just so close. I feel like I could very much be myself, again in my mannerisms, the way that I joke, the inflections in my voice, and some of the little dances that we do.

Thankfully, about my race, no, I haven’t had to deal with that online, thank goodness. But of course, it was difficult at first dealing with all the backlash for so many things and why I was chosen and things like that. I had to choose to remove myself and not read that because it was really affecting me. I’m only human, you know. But I just choose to stay positive. I don’t want anyone to rob me, anyone in this experience of this experience. So I just choose to not read them.

Yeah, they saw one of the previews. They loved the show. Right after, they gave me more hugs than they have in the past year. They told me how proud they were of me. They commented, “You’re singing a lot,” and I told them, “You understand why I can’t be yelling at you all the time?” They replied, “I know. We’re going to be better.” I said, “Exactly.”

Oh gosh. Dreams of what’s next. Oh, Lord. Just doing the best that I can in this show, number one. I would love to continue being a part of new works, amplifying especially people of color. And just being a part of a creative process is so fulfilling, it’s so different. I’m very, very grateful for this opportunity.