Espinosa made her Broadway debut as a member of the original Broadway cast of Stephen Schwartz's musical Wicked, which opened on October 30, 2003.[5] She started the production as standby for Idina Menzel in the role of Elphaba.[5] She was also an understudy for the role of Nessarose. Espinosa performed the role of Elphaba for a month continuously during the summer of 2004, while Menzel was filming Ask the Dust. Espinosa left Wicked on September 5, 2004, to originate the lead for the Broadway debut of Brooklyn.
Following the closing of Brooklyn the Musical, Espinosa performed the lead role of Elphaba for the Wicked First National tour during the entire San Francisco run, from August 5 to September 11, 2005. She replaced Stephanie J. Block while Block recovered from an injury.[6]
On January 10, 2006, Espinosa returned to perform in the lead role of Elphaba for the Broadway production of Wicked, taking over the role from Shoshana Bean.[7] Espinosa performed for the Wicked celebration of its 1,000th performance on Broadway, on March 21, 2006. She left the Broadway production on October 8, 2006, and was replaced by Ana Gasteyer.[8]
Espinosa received the 2006 Broadway.com Audience Award for "Favorite Female Replacement", in recognition of her performances as Elphaba during her Broadway run as lead.[9]
Espinosa originated the role of Elphaba for the third U.S. production of Wicked in Los Angeles, which opened on February 21, 2007, playing the role until December 30, 2007.[10] She received broad critical acclaim for the role.[11] She returned on October 31, 2008 and stayed with the production until its closing night on January 11, 2009.[12] On March 2, 2010 until June 26, 2010, Espinosa played Elphaba in the San Francisco production of Wicked.[13] This was the last time Espinosa ever played Elphaba.[14]
Brooklyn the Musical
Espinosa originated and workshopped the title role in Brooklyn the Musical over the course of two years. Its world premiere was on April 30, 2003 (previews),[15] and it ran until June 15, 2003, at the Denver Civic Center.[16]
Espinosa opened in Brooklyn on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on October 21, 2004, and stayed with the musical until it closed on June 26, 2005.[17] It played 27 previews and 284 regular performances.
Espinosa was nominated for a 2005 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance.[18] She was featured on the original Broadway cast recording of Brooklyn the Musical.[citation needed]
Rent
On May 30, 2008, joined the Broadway cast of Rent at the Nederlander Theatre[19] and stayed with the production until it closed on September 7, 2008. Espinosa made appearances on Good Morning America and at the 2008 Tony Awards (which featured the original and closing Broadway casts). She also featured in the filmed final Broadway performance.[20]
Additional theatre
Espinosa starred in a production of Flora the Red Menace which ran at UCLA's Freud Playhouse from May 6–18, 2008.[21] After its closing, on September 21, 2008, Espinosa made her West End debut in "Never Neverland", a benefit concert that raised money for British charities Ovarian Cancer Action and NCH. The concert took place at the Duchess Theatre in London.
Espinosa performed as Miranda in the one-night staging of Howard Ashman's previously unproduced musical Dreamstuff on June 23, 2008, at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Michael Urie.[22]
On October 22, 2005, Espinosa made her solo concert debut with a co-headlining show with Tony Award nominee Euan Morton at Town Hall in New York City part of the venue's Cabaret Festival.[30]
In March 2009, Espinosa performed her solo show entitled "Me" at Joe's Pub in New York City, directed by Billy Porter.[31] She returned to Southern California with her show on Friday, July 24, 2009, at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.
In December 2009, she performed a 2nd solo show entitled "From Eden With Love" at the Razz Room at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA.
In September 2012, Espinosa became one of the first few major lineup acts opening Feinstein's/54 Below with a themed show paying tribute to the acclaimed singer-songwriter Eva Cassidy.[32]
She was featured as a soloist for Disneyland's new firework spectacular "Magical" premiering in the summer of 2009, where she sang Magical's theme song as well as Disney songs such as "Baby Mine".[33]
In February 2020, Espinosa launched a new acoustic solo show at The Green Room 42 entitled Unplugged & Unplanned.[34] Every concert, the show's setlist would be all new. The February shows were sold out; it included an extension that led into March 2020. However, the final two shows were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When live performances started to resume during the spring of 2021, Espinosa returned and completed the last two shows of the residency.
Today, many of the Espinosa's concerts are done in the style inspired by her Unplugged & Unplanned show rotating the setlist of tunes from her Broadway career, both her solo albums, pop/rock covers, and a Musical Theater fan request section. On August 8, 2021, she headlined her first solo concert on the Las Vegas Strip at The Space Las Vegas. For fans who weren't able to make it, the concert was also livestreamed. On November 13, 2021, Espinosa performed a one night only concert in Holmdel, NJ at the Holmdel Theatre Company (part of the Broadway at the Barn series).
Espinosa brought her concert overseas to London at Cadogan Hall on April 8, 2022.
Solo albums
In August 2012, Espinosa announced she was in the process of recording her debut solo album, featuring modern Broadway hits with a pop sensibility, entitled Look Around.[35] The album was released on December 18, 2012, debuting at #41 on the iTunes Pop Charts.[36] The album also went on to win multiple awards for independent artists including the Independent Music Awards for Pop Album of the Year, Female Pop Vocalist of the Year, and Producer of the Year (which went to Espinosa's producer, Joseph Abate).[37]
On July 25, 2015, Espinosa announced she was in the early development process of her sophomore studio album. Just like with Look Around, she started a Kickstarter fundraiser to raise money for the album.[38] The album recordings and release were delayed due to Espinosa's schedule with various theater projects, voiceover work, concerts, and personal situations that ended up inspiring the album of original songs.[citation needed] The sophomore album, entitled "Revelation", was officially released on January 23, 2019.[39] It debuted at #15 on the Pop iTunes charts.
In 2007, the ABC series Ugly Betty included performances of "I'm Not That Girl" and "Defying Gravity" in the episode "Something Wicked This Way Comes", featuring Espinosa and other members of Los Angeles Wicked cast.[41]
In 2011, she appeared on the animated sketch comedy series Mad episode "Force Code / Flammable" as Katy Putty, a Katy Perry parody made out of Play-Doh who sings about flammability, and performed "Flammable", a spoof on Perry's song "Firework".
In 2016, she voiced Orizaba the moth fairy in the tenth episode of Elena of Avalor, "The Sceptre of Light",[43] and again in 2018 for season two episode 18, "Finding Zuzo".[44]
She sang vocals in the musical number titled "TRUCKS" in the episode of the same name of Cars on the Road.
Game Night
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Espinosa along with real life best friend vocalist and Rent alumna Kamilah Marshall collaborated with California based Regional house Musical Theatre West creating a weekly web series on Instagram Live entitled Game Night with Eden & Kamilah. The series featured the duo in a friendly competition playing a series of Musical Theatre themed trivia games. The series would go Live every Thursday night on Instagram. However, the plug got pulled from them doing the lives due to the change of restrictions of use of music on the lives on social media. They later moved it to being an interactive show on Zoom featuring fans playing along. Most recently, Game Night was then changed to a real live studio game show featuring both Espinosa and Marshall hosting with special Broadway guests. It was released on Broadstream on November 3, 2021.
Personal life
Eden married managing producer Joseph Abate on October 16, 2010. They divorced in 2019.
