Susan Watson (born December 17, 1938) is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in musical theatre.
Jones and Harvey Schmidt cast her in the lead role of Louisa, "The Girl", in their one-act musical The Fantasticks, which ran for one week in 1959, at Barnard College's Minor Latham Playhouse, while the creative team tried to raise financing for an off-Broadway production.
[5] Following a national tour of Carnival,[2] Watson returned to New York to play opposite Robert Preston in Ben Franklin in Paris (1964),[6] a Lincoln Center revival of Carousel (1965) as Carrie with John Raitt and Jerry Orbach,[7] a New York City Center staging of Where's Charley?, and Jenny in the short-lived musical A Joyful Noise (1966) (again with Raitt), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical.
[8] Watson reunited with Jones and Schmidt for their musical Celebration, which opened on Broadway in January 1969 at the Ambassador Theatre[9] and played in Beggar on Horseback (1970) in repertory at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center[10] before taking on the title role in the Broadway revival of No, No Nanette (1971) with Ruby Keeler.
[11] She appeared at the William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas, in a tribute to Jones and Schmidt on April 25, 2009.
Watson performed the featured role of Emily Whitman in the revival of Follies, which ran from August 2011 to January 2012 at the Marquis Theatre.