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Audri Dalio as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
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‘Beauty’ Understudy is an APA Rising Star
By Gerrye Wong
Special to AsianWeek
When San Francisco theater patrons go to see Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Orpheum Theatre this month, they may see beautiful Filipina American Audri Dalio playing Belle, the beauty. As the understudy and alternate for the role of Belle in this traveling company, she played the starring role over half a dozen times in Utah and Arizona recently.
Beauty and the Beast was a smash Broadway musical, winning nine 1994 Tony Awards including Best Musical and has since wowed audiences around the world. San Francisco audiences have the opportunity to see the show — and Dalio in the starring role or the ensemble — until Nov. 3.
Born and raised in Florida to a Navy family, Dalio was said to have begun singing before she even started talking. Her parents were born in the Philippines, but she was raised in a typical American fashion —her fondest memories of childhood are playing cards and listening to records of popular music with her family.
In junior high and high school, Dalio enrolled in a summer dance program, sang in the chorus and entered acting competitions. Her love for music carried into roles in school productions of Guys and Dolls and Li’l Abner. Throughout her youth she had little formal training, but a lot of determination. Dalio’s big break came in 1995 when she auditioned for the Walt Disney World performers and won the starring role in Spirit of Pocahontas. She was 20 years old.
The next year she took a chance and moved to New York, determined to break into show business. A high school friend had once sent her a tape of the music from Miss Saigon and predicted Dalio would be its star; so upon arriving in the Big Apple, she auditioned for the show. She won a place in the ensemble cast of the German production of Miss Saigon and promptly had to learn how to sing the songs in German. Performing in Stuttgart, Dalio began in the ensemble but eventually became understudy and alternate for the leading role of Kim.
She met her husband-to-be Marc in the show, and while in Germany they married and had their son, Blaze — now 3 years old. They then joined the German company of Beauty and the Beast, with Marc playing the role of Gaston, the pompous village stud. They then returned to America to play in the American tour company of Beauty and the Beast. Dalio thinks that working in the same company as her husband is a wonderful life and the couple is able to travel with their son and nanny.
“We figure this is the time we can travel, before Blaze goes to school, and we both enjoy working with our traveling crew and cast of over 70 members. Since the summer, we have played in Nebraska, Texas and Washington — to name just a few places,” Dalio said.
Dalio said that she and her husband plan to stay with the show until next September.
Dalio will be starring as Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Sunday, Oct. 27, in San Francisco.
For ticket information go to www.bestofbroadway-sf.com or call 415-512-7770.
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