Opel grew up in the Kansas communities of Prairie Village and Leawood, and graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School.

She has appeared on Broadway in Evita (1979),[1] Teddy & Alice (1987),[2] Sunday in the Park with George as Frieda, Betty (1984),[3] Anything Goes (replacement Hope Harcourt),[4] Triumph of Love (1997) as Corine[5] Fiddler on the Roof (2004) as Yente,[6] Memphis as Mama in 2011 and 2012 and[7] Cinderella as Madame (the Stepmother) in June 2014 to September 7, 2014.

[12] Opel played the title character in the first national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone, which started in September 2007.

[9] In the 2008 rock musical The Toxic Avenger, she played three characters: the Mayor, Toxie's Mother, and a nun.

For this role, she received a 2009 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.