Career
Watson"s first professional role was Velma in the original West End production of West Side Story in 1958. She created the role of Luisa in The Fantasticks and then played Kim on Broadway in Bye Bye Birdie, beginning in 1960. She starred in the title role of the Broadway revival of Number, Number Nanette in 1971.
Watson also appeared in several television series and specials.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Watson was one of five children of a geologist/geophysicist and a dance instructor. From an early age her life was filled with the music of Gilbert and Sullivan and Rodgers and Hammerstein.
As a teenager she performed in summer stock before being accepted at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. Her studies there were interrupted when she accepted a role as Velma and understudy for Maria in the original West End production of West Side Story in 1958.
While biding her time, Watson appeared in a revue entitled Follies of 1910.
She played the role of Kim throughout the entire Broadway run (April 1960 - October 1961). She finally returned to The Fantasticks when it was televised by the Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1964. Watson reunited with Jones and Schmidt for their musical Celebration, which opened on Broadway in January 1969 at the Ambassador Theatre and played in Beggar on Horseback (1970) in repertory at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center before taking on the title role in the Broadway revival of Number, Number Nanette (1971) with Ruby Keeler.
She appeared at the William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas, in a tribute to Jones and Schmidt on April 25, 2009.
Watson"s television credits include several episodes of the Bell Telephone Hour (1964–1966) and guest appearances on the television series Newhart (1982), Saint Elsewhere (1984), Wings (1993), and the soap opera General Hospital (1987). She is one of dozens of Broadway musical performers in the documentary Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age, scheduled for broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service in 2010.
She was back on Broadway for the first time in many years in 2011. 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.
She sang "Rain On The Roof" with Don Correia.
Watson also performed in the run at the Kennedy Center in May 2011 to June 2011. They are the parents of two adult sons.
