# Willemijn Verkaik

Willemijn Verkaik (Dutch pronunciation:; born 16 June 1975) is a Dutch singer and actress. She is best known for her stage roles in the musicals Wicked and Elisabeth, and for providing the voice of Elsa in the German version (singing only) and the Dutch version of Disney's Frozen.
Verkaik performed the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked more than 2,000 times, the most of any actress, and is the only person to have played the role in three languages. Her first performance as Elphaba was on 31 October 2007, in Stuttgart, Germany, and her last performance was on 22 July 2017 in the West End in London.

## Early life

Verkaik was born in Son en Breugel, Netherlands, on 16 June 1975, and grew up in Nuenen near Eindhoven. She graduated from the Rotterdam Conservatory.

## Career

Verkaik began her career singing in various pop bands for over ten years. Her first professional theatre role was in the ensemble of the Dutch production of Elisabeth. In 2004, Verkaik recorded the singing voice of Erica for the Dutch version of the animated movie Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. In 2008, she was the Dutch voice of Lydia in Barbie & the Diamond Castle.
Her other musical theatre credits have included Elisabeth (in Holland and Thun, Switzerland), The Three Musketeers, We Will Rock You, and, for the longest period of time, Elphaba in Wicked; Verkaik is the only actress to have played Elphaba in three languages, in German, Dutch, Broadway, and West End productions. Verkaik originated the role of Elphaba in the first German-language production of Wicked, "Wicked: Die Hexen Von Oz", in Stuttgart from 1 November 2007. She repeated her performance in the Dutch-language production in Scheveningen from 6 November 2011 until 11 January 2013, and transferred to the Broadway production in New York, marking her third language production, from 12 February 2013 to 26 May 2013.
Verkaik subsequently played the role of Donna in the Stuttgart production of Mamma Mia! from 26 July 2013, before reprising the role of Elphaba in the West End production from 18 November 2013. She left the production on 19 July 2014 for health reasons.
She can be heard on Wicked's German-language cast recording, as well as Scott Alan's album What I Wanna Be When I Grow Up and on the Scott Alan album LIVE, which was recorded at the Birdland jazz club in New York City on 30 April 2012. The CD was released on 26 June 2012. Verkaik provided the Dutch speaking and singing voice and the German singing voice of Elsa in Disney's 2013 animated movie Frozen. She also performed the song "Let It Go" in English at the UK premiere of the movie.
Verkaik played Pauline in musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in the West End from 16 December 2014 until 23 May 2015. This was Verkaik's first role after a surgery in 2014. She returned to Stuttgart as Kala in Tarzan in August 2015.
She returned to the role of Elphaba in the West End production of Wicked beginning 30 January 2017 as part of the production's 10th-anniversary celebrations. She played her final performance there on 22 July 2017.
She next starred in Ghost – Das Musical in Berlin from 7 December 2017 to 7 October 2018, as Molly. She appeared as Sloane at the Metronom Theater in Bat Out of Hell from 8 November 2018 to 30 March 2019. She played Pepa in the Amsterdam production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown from 4 July 2019 to 14 July 2019 and toured the Netherlands as Miss Hannigan in Annie from 26 November 2019 to 24 May 2020.
On 9 February 2020, Verkaik joined Idina Menzel, Aurora and eight more of Elsa's international dubbers to perform the song "Into the Unknown" during the 92nd Academy Awards. Every international performer sang one line of the song in a different language. She played the lead role of Jenna in Waitress in the Netherlands in 2020–2021. In 2023, she took over the role of Elsa in the German production of Frozen.

## Personal life

She is married to musician Bart van Hoof, a saxophone player.

## Theatre

| Show | Location | Role | Year |
| Elisabeth | Scheveningen, The Netherlands | Ensemble | 2001 |
| Jeans 11 | Tour, The Netherlands | - | 2001–2002 |
| The Three Musketeers | Rotterdam, The Netherlands | Ensemble | 2003 |
| Eternity | Rotterdam, The Netherlands | Barbara | 2004 |
| We Will Rock You | Cologne, Germany | Killer Queen u/s | 2004–2005 |
| Elisabeth | Thun, Switzerland | Elisabeth | 2006 |
| We Will Rock You | Cologne, Germany | Killer Queen | 2006 |
| Wicked | Stuttgart, Germany | Elphaba | 2007–2010 |
| Aida | Tecklenburg, Germany | Amneris | 2009 |
| Wicked | Oberhausen Germany | Elphaba | 2010–2011 |
| Wicked | Scheveningen, The Netherlands | Elphaba | 2011–2013 |
| Wicked | New York (Broadway), United States of America | Elphaba | 2013 |
| Mamma Mia! | Stuttgart, Germany | Donna | 2013 |
| Wicked | London (West End), United Kingdom | Elphaba | 2013–2014 |
| Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | London (West End), United Kingdom | Paulina | 2014–2015 |
| Tarzan | Stuttgart, Germany | Kala | 2015–2016 |
| Wicked | London (West End), United Kingdom | Elphaba | 2017 |
| Ghost the Musical | Berlin, Germany | Molly | 2017–2018 |
| Bat Out of Hell | Oberhausen, Germany | Sloane | 2018–2019 |
| Best of Broadway | Tour, The Netherlands | - | 2019 |
| Aida in Concert | Rosmalen, The Netherlands | Amneris | 2019 |
| Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | Amsterdam, the Netherlands | Pepa | 2019 |
| Annie | Tour, The Netherlands | Mrs. Hannigan | 2019–2020 |
| Come from Away | Tour, The Netherlands | Beverly Bass, Annette | 2021–2022 |
| Rebecca | Vienna, Austria | Mrs. Danvers | 2022–2023 |
| Frozen | Hamburg, Germany | Elsa | 2023–2024 |
| & Juliet | Hamburg, Germany | Anne Hathaway | 2024– |

## Concert performances

* Pfingstgala (Tecklenburg, Openluchttheater, Whit Monday 2006, 2008, 2014 and 2020)
* Concert with Mark Seibert (Stuttgart, Palladium Theater, 26 May 2008)
* Dance Benefit Gala (Hamburg, TUI-Operettenhaus, 29 September 2008)
* Benefit concert with Roberta Valentini (Oberhausen, Metronomtheatre 30 August 2010)
* Simply the Music of Scott Alan (Londen, New Players Theatre, 26 September 2010)
* Backstage with Philippe Ducloux (Essen, hall Lukas, 22 and 23 January 2011)
* Concert with Scott Alan (Hamburger Kammerspiele, 20 June 2011)
* Performance with Jason Robert Brown & Scott Alan (New York, Birdland, 22 August 2011)
* Concert with Alex Melcher (Oberhausen, hall Ebertbad, 31 March 2012)
* Concert with Scott Alan and Friends (New York, Birdland, 30 April 2012)
* As I Am (Scheveningen, Circustheater, 26 June 2012)
* Concert with Patrick Stanke (Hamburg, Stage Club, 10 August 2012)
* Concert with Scott Alan (Amsterdam, M-Lab, 5 November 2012)
* Exclusevening with Willemijn (Utrecht, Boerderij Mereveld, 20 November 2012)
* Concert series Musical & Xmas (Thun, Bern, Switzerland, 12–16 December 2012)
* Concert with Scott Alan (Londen, O2 Arena, 4 August 2013)
* Wow, Here Comes The Girls (Dunstable, The Grove Theatre, 27 April 2014)
* Musicals in Concert (Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome, 15 en 16 November 2014)
* Jesus Christ Superstar in Concert – Maria (Amsterdam, DeLaMar Theater, 16 March 2015)
* Soloconcert (Amsterdam, DeLaMar Theater, 31 mei 2015 en 31 October 2015)
* Soloconcert (London, Ambassadors Theatre, 25 August 2015)
* Soloconcert (New York, 54 Below, 27 & 28 August 2015)
* Musicals in Concert (Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome, 13 & 14 November 2015)
* From Broadway to Breda (Breda, Chassé Theatre, 15 November 2015)
* Exclusevening with Willemijn (De Weistaar, Maarsbergen, 6 June 2016)
* Live in Concert (Cambridge Theatre, London, 31 July 2017)
* Bevrijdingsfestival (Amsterdam, Amstel, 5 May 2018)
* SpaceXperience (Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, 3 November 2018)
* 92nd Academy Award Ceremony (Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, U.S., February 9, 2020)

## Discography
### Cast recordings

* Jeans 11 (Jeanscompany, 2001)
* Eternity (Orkest Kon. Luchtmacht, 2003)
* Drie Musketiers (Three Musketeers) (Joop van den Ende Theaterproducties, 2003) – a DVD was also released
* Wicked, German cast recording (Stage Entertainment Germany, 2007)
* Frozen, Dutch cast recording (Walt Disney Records, 2014)
* Olaf's Frozen Adventure (Walt Disney Records, 2017)

### Other recordings

* Musical Gala Ludwigsburg (2008)
* Best of Musical Gala 2010, Promo CD from Stage Entertainment Germany (2009)
* Musicalballads Unplugged – with Mark Seibert (2010)
* Superstars des Musicals – collection of 3 CDs (2010)
* Scott Alan: What I Wanna Be when I Grow up (2012)
* Scott Alan: Live – double CD recorded in Birdland (2012)

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2004 | Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper | Erika | Dutch version (voice) |
| 2008 | Barbie and the Diamond Castle | Lydia | Dutch version (voice) |
| 2012 | Goede tijden, slechte tijden | Elphaba | Dutch TV show |
| 2013 | Frozen | Elsa | Dutch version (voice) German version (singing only) |
| 2015 | Frozen Fever | Elsa | Dutch version (voice) German version (singing only) |
| 2017 | Olaf's Frozen Adventure | Elsa | Dutch version (voice) German version (singing only) |
| 2018 | Ralph Breaks the Internet | Elsa | Dutch version (voice) |
| 2019 | Frozen II | Elsa | Dutch version (voice) German version (singing only) |