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 A. Ramsey Leslie the music director for at least three years. In 1920, she was still living in Muskogee, now in the state of Oklahoma, which was admitted to the union in 1908. In 1921, Leslie performed at a Baptist gathering in Bristow, Oklahoma. Nellie A. Ramsey Leslie Nellie A. Ramsey Leslie (better known as N. A. R. Leslie, c. 1840s-c. 1920s) was notable as a teacher, musician and composer, working in Louisiana and Mississippi, and then in Indian Territory and Corpus Christi, Texas, where she founded a musical conservatory for girls. Born into slavery in Virginia, after emancipation she gained schooling in