Julie Johnson
Country music co
mes naturally to this sixth-generation Texan who was born and raised in Whitewright, a small town near Dallas. Julie grew up listening to a wide variety of music -- from Broadway show tunes to George Jones -- and gave her first performance at the age of three. Julie says, "I never thought of any pursuit other than music and performing." After earning a theater arts degree from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, Julie began making her mark on Broadway, Off-Broadway, film and television, as well as in regional theater, with a loyal and growing following in New York, Virginia, Dallas/Fort Worth and beyond. But nothing could take the small town Texan out of the girl. After Julie established herself as a singer/actress, her passion for Texas country music has brought Julie home to her roots, where she has proudly settled back in, releasing two country albums. Sold-out shows and a growing fan base have caught the ear of critics. Show Business Magazine says, "Johnson has an astonishing vocal instrument. It's a honey-colored, full-bodied dramatic mezzo." Billboard writes, "This is a voice that demands your attention." The Fort Worth Star-Telegram says, "Hers is a rich and powerful voice over which she has complete control.
Internationally renowned vocalist and stage performer David Gaschen remains best known for the years he devoted to the title character in "The Phantom of the Opera.Gaschen graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, his home town, in 1993, his degree in vocal performance. He performed in more than 20 musical plays in Chicago - and was cast by Light Opera Works of Chicago in the leading roles of Frederic in "The Pirates of Penzance," and Karl Franz in "The Student Prince." Acceptance in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" would not be far behind. At age 26, Gaschen had become history's youngest performer cast as the Phantom in a professional production. Gaschen’s first European performance. After refining the role of the Phantom over the course of two years in Switzerland, he was contracted to perform the lead in the German production of "The Phantom of the Opera“ in Hamburg. All told, Gaschen made the role his own, acting and singing as the Phantom more than 1,000 times in Europe. In the summer of 1999, Gaschen found himself walking out on stage to sing for famous Broadway producer Harold Prince. He would make his Broadway debut in the title role of "The Phantom of the Opera" in November 1999. All told, Gaschen has performed the role of the Phantom in professional productions more than 1,300 times. The versatile performer eventually opted to leave Broadway and seek success in the recording and concert arenas. He already is included on the compact disc "Broadway's Fabulous Phantoms" with the likes of Howard McGilin, Hugh Panaro and Michael Crawford, the latter of course being Broadway's original and best known Phantom of the Opera. However, Gaschen also recorded a solo CD called "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," and more recently released a new, self-titled CD, "David Gaschen." His recordings paved the way for pop music success, and his vocal guest appearances with orchestras include the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony Orchestra and Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.In September 2006, Gaschen was inducted onto the West Texas Walk of Fame, where bronze plaques depict West Texas natives being honored for excelling professionally in the arts; this walk of fame traditionally is located adjacent to a bronze state of the late Buddy Holly, considered Lubbock's native son.
Randy got h
is professional start at Six Flags Over Texas performing for three summers at the famous Southern Palace. For two of the summers, his dance partner was a lovely girl named Pau
letta who went on to marry some actor named...Denzel something. After graduating from Stephens College, a time he calls the happiest twelve years of his life, he went to New York and starved for all of two weeks before he got cast in the National Tour of A Chorus Line. Six months to the day later, he was playing Zach, the lead male of that show at the Shubert Theater on Broadway. Over the next twenty years Randy was cast in Cats, Anything Goes, Titanic, Les Miserables, Sweet Charity, South Pacific, Fiddler on Roof and the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. His life changed in 2000 when he came to visit his father in the town of Granbury and while there he was set up on a blind date with a gorgeous professor of ballet at TCU. It took him ten minutes to decide Granbury w
as where he wanted to live out the rest of his days and that he'd found the woman he wanted to live it with. He quit th
e Broadway show Titanic, where he was trying to hit a high c while drowning, and moved back to Texas lock ,stock an
d laundry.
It didn't take long to get put to work here in Granbury. Over the next four years he worked at the Granbury Opera doing such roles as Captain Von Trapp, Harold Hill and his favorite, Will Rogers in The Will Rogers Follies. Sadly that time had to end when his ailing father needed him to take over the family business. Randy said goodbye performing but he kept a dream in his heart that one day he could produce shows here in Hood County. Not wanting to be a producer as badly as he wanted to be a matchmaker, hooking up his very talented friends in show business with the audiences he called the best in the world. his dream began to realize in 2010 when he created Randle Productions. The company, named for his Great Grandfather who moved to Acton in 1872, is committed to bringing the finest in nationally acclaimed talent to Hood county. Though he acknowledges that all live theater, in the face of Cable, Home Theater, the Internet etc. is facing enormous challenges, he feels very optimistic about his business plan and about the audiences in a town that he adopted in the year 2000 and that his family embraced a hundred and twenty eight years ago.
