Biography
Sue Mathys is an award winning actor, singer and recording artist who has gained critical and popular acclaim in the German speaking parts of Europe, where she has performed for more than three decades in countless musicals, plays, concerts, revues, galas, films, TV shows and radio plays.
Originally born in Switzerland, she starred as Norma Desmond in two hundred performances of the German premiere production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard (directed by Trevor Nunn), in Master Class (Maria Callas), Piaf (title role), Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett, German premiere), the world and German premieres of the new musicals Heidi and Heidi And Johanna (Johanna Spyri), in Candide (Old Lady), Drei Bräute für ein Halleluja (world premiere) and her One Woman shows Lila Rosen (world premiere) and Act I:The Same Old Song. She played leads and title roles in Cabaret (Sally Bowles, many productions), Nunsense (Sister Robert Anne, Original German recording), Company (Marta), Kleiner Mann, Was Nun (Entertainerin), Irma La Douce (Irma), La Belle Helene (Helene), Jesus Christ Superstar (Mary Magdalene), Grease (Rizzo), Im Weissen Rössl (Ottilie), West Side Story (Anita), My Fair Lady (Eliza), the German premiere of The Rocky Horror Show (Columbia), Der Schwarze Hecht (Iduna), Pippi Langstrumpf (Pippi), Bedroom Farce (Kate) and many more. Revues include Eusereine Chönnt Das Au (Hans Gmür Revue), Jeff, One Touch of Weill (with Zürich Weill Orchestra), Hop-Là, Raymond Queneau’s Autobus S, and the award winning Ein Genie Bin Ich Selber (Hanns Eisler Revue, Förderpreis der Internationalen Bodensee-Konferenz). She received a Prix Walo Award (the Swiss equivalent of the Tony Award) for her spectacular portrayal of Edith Piaf in Piaf, and the last world premieres she starred in in Switzerland (Heidi And Johanna, Drei Bräute Für Ein Halleluja) were nominated as Best Production for this most prestigious Swiss entertainment award.
Concerts include Leonard Bernsteins Mass (Deutschlandhalle Berlin), galas with orchestras (Lucerne Symphony, Zürich Weill Orchestra, Pepe Lienhard Big Band, Stadtmusik Zürich, Swiss Brass Consort) and Jazz formations (Roberto Bossard Trio, Vince Benedetti Quintett) to name just a few. CD’s with orchestras and cast recordings include Sue Mathys Sings Broadway And Piaf (live recording with the 60 piece Luzerner Sinfonieorchester from the sold out 2,000 seat Great Concert Hall of the Kultur-und Kongress-Zentrum in Lucerne), Piaf, Lila Rosen, Heidi (Moser/Schneider), and Heidi Teil 2.
Since 2008, Sue Mathys is based New York City. She made her American Concert Debut at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, reprised this concert at Carpenter Performance Hall in Irving, Texas, and elated audiences in many gala events (Swiss Ball, Swiss Embassy Washington DC, Cocktail Français at the National Arts Club, Friar’s Club, Dutch Treat Club, Actor’s Temple Benefit) and New York festivals (Cabaret Festival at Urban Stages, 8-Minute Musicals at the New York Musical Theatre Festival 2010, in Taking The Plunge, which reached the finals of the 36th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival 2011).
She was a featured singer at the gala opening night of the 21st New York Cabaret Convention 2010 presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation and dazzled the audience at Rose Hall (Jazz at Lincoln Center). She played leads in New York readings (Ayn/Sister: Ayn Rand, Pumped: Margaux Bottier, Neurosis, The Musical: Samantha, Café Puttanesca: The Baroness, the musical The Rivals: Mrs. Malaprop), sang the part of the villainess Kitty on the concept recording of the secret agent musical Sympathy Jones, and is the voice of Calpurnia in the upcoming video game The Judgement of Quintus. Ms.Mathys performed her concert Two Worlds, One Voice – which received an Agnes Moorehead Award as one of the “Ten Best New York Live Performances of 2009“ – in venues in New York (Urban Stages, Metropolitan Room) and at the Library of Congress in Washington DC; in New Jersey, Florida and Rhode Island.
Regionally, Ms. Mathys played Jacqueline in La Cage Aux Folles at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, Matron Mama Morton in Chicago and Fräulein Schneider in Cabaret at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Helga Ten Dorp in Deathtrap at the John W. Engeman Theatre in Northport, Long Island, and starred as Mama Rose in Gypsy at the New Bedford Festival Theatre in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and at the Lyric Stage in Irving, near Dallas, Texas, to rave reviews.
Her new piece IRRESISTIBLE: Edith Piaf and Her Music (conceived and performed by Ms.Mathys, directed by David Hilder, music directed by John Bell) about the life and music of the famed French singer Edith Piaf, was presented and received enthusiastically in a reading at the York Theatre Company in New York City, and is currently in development.
