After
A-level exams, she successfully auditioned for an acting degree at the
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, from where she graduated with a BA in Acting in 2004. After graduation, she had a number of small cameo roles on TV (
Doctors,
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, among others) and commenced a long-standing relationship with
Pearson Education doing both voice-over and video recordings for English Language teaching media. Beck performed in opera and operetta with
Holland Park Opera (''
Puccini's Madame Butterfly'' and
Donizetti's ''
L'élisir d'Amoré'') and the
Buxton Opera House (
Gilbert and Sullivan's
Ruddigore and
The Sorcerer). In 2006 she toured South Africa in
The Merry Widow and in June of that year made her
West End debut as
Cosette in
Les Misérables at
Queen's Theatre. She performed the role in the 21st anniversary celebration concert of
Les Misérables which was broadcast on
BBC Radio 2. After a year, she left the show to create the lead role of Rebecca Warshowsky for the world première of the new musical
Imagine This at the
Theatre Royal, Plymouth in July 2007. At Christmas 2007 Beck appeared as
Wendy Darling in the Rachel Kavanaugh production of
Peter Pan, the Musical at the
Birmingham Rep. She took over the principal role of
Christine Daaé in
The Phantom of the Opera at
Her Majesty's Theatre in September 2008, for which she was nominated for a Theatre Fans Choice Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, 2010. She subsequently performed
The Phantom duet with
Ramin Karimloo at
Andrew Lloyd Webber's 60th birthday concert in
Hyde Park, London. She has sung the duet "
All I Ask of You" with co-star Simon Bailey on the Grand Staircase of the actual
Opera Garnier in Paris (where
Phantom is set) for
CBS television and the same song on the
Alan Titchmarsh show on
ITV1. On 3 October 2010 she appeared as part of the Alumni Ensemble in the 25th Anniversary Celebration of
Les Misérables at London's
O2 Arena and also appeared in the
Les Misérables sequences in the 2010
Royal Variety Performance at
The London Palladium. Later that year, Beck returned to
The Phantom of the Opera as an emergency cover for Christine on 23 December, co-starring with
John Owen-Jones. Beck also played Cosette as a voice role in the
Focus on the Family Radio Theatre production of
Les Miserables. She has supported the music of young musical-theatre composer Steven Luke Walker. She has taken part in several workshops of his compositions for the musical based on the novel
Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott and, together with many stars from the West End, has performed in and helped promote a concert of his songs. In June 2011, she made her debut in the leading role of
Maria von Trapp in a new production of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
The Sound of Music at the 3,000 seat Plenary Hall Convention Centre in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In September 2011 she played Letitia Hardy in
Hannah Cowley's restoration comedy ''
The Belle's Stratagem'' at
Southwark Playhouse. This was the first time in over 100 years that this play had been produced in London. In December 2011, Beck took over the lead role of
Glinda the Good Witch in the West End production of the musical
Wicked, at the
Apollo Victoria Theatre. She starred alongside
Rachel Tucker and, later,
Louise Dearman as Elphaba. She completed two years in the role at the
Apollo Victoria Theatre in November 2013. She also appeared as an extra/solo singer (turning woman 3) in the 2012 film adaptation of
Les Misérables.
Return to Wicked (2013) – present On 26 November 2013, it was announced that Gina Beck would be returning to the role of
Glinda, this time in the United States, joining the cast of the first national tour of
Wicked, alongside
Alison Luff as Elphaba and
Curt Hansen as Fiyero. She began performances on 16 December 2013 at the
Oriental Theatre in
Chicago, Illinois. This marks the first ever international transfer to join an American production for an actress playing Glinda. On 14 July 2014, it was announced that she would be leaving the First National Tour on 27 July 2014. She was replaced, as Glinda, by
Chandra Lee Schwartz. In November 2014 she performed in an Off-West End 5-week run of
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Charing Cross Theatre In April and May 2015 she played the role of
Bathsheba Everdene in The Watermill Theatre's production of
Far From the Madding Crowd In 2015, Gina Beck played the leading role of Magnolia Hawks in Daniel Evans' acclaimed production of Kern and Hammerstein's classic and ground-breaking musical
Show Boat at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. The production subsequently transferred to the West End at the New London Theatre in April 2016 for a limited run until August 2016. In 2017 she recorded two songs for the album
Wit & Whimsy – Songs by Alexander S. Bermange (one solo and one featuring all of the album's 23 artists), which reached No. 1 in the iTunes comedy album chart. Gina Beck then joined the West End production of
Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, playing the role of Miss Honey, in September 2017. After an extremely successful run, she finally left the show in March 2020, just before the West End went dark because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. She was next scheduled to star as Ensign Nellie Forbush opposite
Julian Ovenden in the
Chichester Festival Theatre production of
South Pacific but, due to COVID-19, the show was postponed to summer 2021. In the meantime, Gina appeared in the all-star outdoor Summer 2020 concerts at Chichester Festival Theatre. Due to becoming pregnant, Beck shared her lead role in
South Pacific with
Alex Young during the summer of 2021. Beck returned to the role with fellow stars in the transfer to
Sadler's Wells in July 2022, preceding a UK and Ireland tour. ==Filmography==