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THE OTHER HALF: LAW AND OPERA
Christine Radman -- John Bolger's wife -- has taken a very varied career path.
by Valerie Davison
Soap Opera Weekly
March 21, 2000

Christine Radman and John Bolger (John, One Life to Live) were star-crossed lovers even before they became a couple. "John and I met in a high school production of West Side Story," Radman says. "He was Tony and I was Maria, if you can believe that. Pretty corny, huh? There's a soap opera for you." Bolger, she says, had a girlfriend at the time, so "all that kissing was restricted to the stage."

Something obviously crossed the footlights, however, for they marked their 20th wedding anniversary last summer and celebrated by traveling to Paris and the South of France. "We had such a wonderful time," she says euphorically, still basking in the afterglow. "It was so renewing. Being there together made us remember why we got married in the first place."

The oldest of four girls, Radman was a performer when she was still in diapers. "My mother has a tape of me singing Happy Birthday to myself when I was a year old," she says with a laugh. "I didn't know what the words meant or anything. I guess I was kind of young when it all started. I told John that was my downfall. I peaked too early!" Though she had a surprisingly mature soprano voice even as a preadolescent, the shy Radman was reluctant to accommodate her mother's recurring requests to "Sing! Sing!" at family parties. It wasn't until her freshman year in high school that she realized singing was to become her life's blood. "I got involved in the drama club, and that really opened me up. I was in My Fair Lady, Carnival, Hello, Dolly! and, of course, West Side Story." After high school she got a master's at Juilliard, sang with the Metropolitan Opera chorus, toured with City Opera, and did major roles in the smaller opera companies around New York. "What frustrated me about opera was that it was wonderful theater, but a lot of people didn't take advantage of it. That's changing, though. American singers are much better onstage [than the Europeans]. I think it's because of the environment they live in with [the influence] of TV, theater and movies. They don't want to get up there and just sing."

Radman is unflinchingly candid about the difference between school and a career in the arts. "While I was at Juilliard," she says "I sang concerts and won competitions. Then, all of a sudden, I was dropped into the big, bad world and I didn't know what to do. We were married and had one child. John was working in restaurants, I was singing in temples and churches, and that's how we supported ourselves. It wasn't too encouraging in the beginning. I had seen the life. I was at Juilliard when Christopher Reeve, Robin Williams and Patti LuPone were there. All these people had gone on to be great stars, but there were a lot of other kids who had been there who were starving. It scared me. I said to John, 'This is a horrible life,' so l went to law school. I'm actually a New York- and Connecticut-licensed attorney. I worked for about a year in the DA's office, and I found it rewarding because, as a DA, you get to do justice. If a case comes before you that smells, you can just dismiss the charges; whereas, as a defense attorney, you have to defend your client vigilantly." Eventually, however, the musical muse went to work on her again. Bolger had had success in soaps and nighttime, and they now had three children. She said to herself, "You're not a lawyer. You'd much rather be singing. You'd much rather be teaching."

Today, in addition to singing in churches and synagogues and spending time with her family, Radman spends her time directing musicals as an adjunct teacher at a neighboring high school on Long Island, working with the Willow Cabin Theater Company (which she, Bolger and her sister founded in 1988), vocal coaching, and getting yet another degree, this time in speech pathology. "People call me a professional student," she says, laughing. "I love school. I'd do it forever if I could." But her interest in speech pathology is more pragmatic and more inspired. As a result of losing her own voice temporarily (caused by medication taken during pre-term labor with her youngest), and not knowing how to recover it, she sought find those answers for herself and, ultimately, for others. "Singing had always come so intuitively that I never really understood what I was doing. Now I can actually explain what's going on, and I feel more bona fide about teaching it."

While the Bolgers' two younger children, Johnny, 6, and Laura, 10, do show some interest in show business, the oldest wants to go into psychology and live in the Village. Her name, not coincidentally is Maria. "There are several reasons [for that]," her mother says. "My sister, who's her godmother, is also Maria. The first time I felt her kick, I was singing the Ave Maria. So I thought, 'Gee, there are just too many Maria's floating around. If it's a girl, it's going to be Maria." This Maria, now 17, is about to graduate from high school and to put her parents through another rite of passage -- separation anxiety. "I can't even go there," Radman says of contemplating sending her first-born off to college. "Just the applications are enough. Help! Someone! She's my rock. She was always old her age. I always say she brought John and me up. Maria's marching to the beat of her own drummer and all I can say is, 'God bless her.' " #