Carmen Cusack the standby, Jemma Rix, had been given the lead role. Cusack was with the company from June 10 to July 10, 2009. She left to begin rehearsals for "South Pacific". In 2009, Cusack played Nellie Forbush in the first national tour of "South Pacific". Based on the 2008 Broadway revival, performances began September 18, 2009 in San Francisco. For this role Cusack was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non Resident Production. In 2012, she played the role of Miss Gardner in the Off-Broadway revival of "Carrie - The Musical", which began performances at
Nellie Casman In 1982, the musical comedy, “The Showgirl”, which she wrote with Steinberg was performed by the Shalom Yiddish Musical Comedy Theater at Town Hall starring Mary Soreanu. Following Steinberg’s death in 1938, Casman married two more times including marriage to chess master Jacob Bernstein. She died in New York City. Nellie Casman Nellie Casman (1896?–1984) was an actress and singer in Yiddish theater. She was born in Proskurov, Russia, and moved to the United States in the early 1900s.; She lived in Philadelphia where her father was a "hazzan". Casman showed such talent as an actress when a child, the