#5FandomFriday: Make-Up Friday - 5 Broadway Roles I'd Love to Play

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly prompt challenge hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. This week, I'm joining in with a make-up topic I missed the first time around that seems timely following the Tony Awards: 5 Broadway Roles I'd Love to Play. One fact about me that I haven't written about too much on this blog is that I studied dance from second grade through college - by high school, I was spending hours each week in ballet, pointe, lyrical, modern dance, liturgical dance, and clogging classes, with the occasional jazz or hip-hop workshop thrown in for good measure. I often wish I'd pursued drama classes but they didn't fit into my very academically driven schedule in high school and were almost impossible to get into in college. While I appreciate serious theater (I did take every Shakespeare course offered at UVa!), I'm a huge geek when it comes to musicals. Give me song and dance every day of the week (and twice on Saturdays!). Here are the 5 roles I'd really love to play in the alternate universe where I took voice and drama lessons along with dance classes...

1. Velma Kelly in Chicago - Chicago is my absolute favorite musical and my favorite character is definitely Velma - Roxie may be the protagonist, but Velma knows exactly what she wants and how to get it, and her fire burns hot from "All That Jazz" through "Hot Honey Rag." I probably first learned about Chicago when the 1996 revival was getting publicity on TV and Bebe Neuwirth was making the rounds on talk shows as Velma. The combination of 1920's style and Bob Fosse choreography is pretty irresistible for me. Plus, I'd love to have a good excuse to get that flapper haircut and blunt bangs.

2. Penny Pingleton in Hairspray - Going from a bad girl to total naïveté with a rebellious edge, Penny Pingleton is Tracy Turnblad's loyal best friend in Hairspray. I thought Penny was a cute character as played by Amanda Bynes in the 2007 film version (my introduction to Hairspray), but loved the nerdier/more awkward way the character was played in the 2009 traveling production of the play. Bonus: the verse "If they try to stop us, Seaweed, I'll call the NAACP" is one of the best lines in the whole play.

3. The Girl in the Yellow Dress - A Broadway role where I wouldn't have to sing? Yes, please. I was in high school when I saw this performance from Contact on the Tony Awards and I wanted to be the Girl in the Yellow Dress so badly. At the time, the choreography didn't look nearly as intimidating to me as it does now.

4. Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun - Clearly, watching the Tony Awards as a high school student had an effect on my life because I still sing "Old Fashioned Wedding" all the time. I want to be Bernadette Peters.

5. Éponine Thénardier in Les Miserables - Éponine is such a complex character - after being spoiled as a young child by her terrible parents, she is brought low by poverty and falls in love with the equally poor boy next door. Even though she now understands that her parents are the worst, she still tries to help her family while also mostly doing right by Marius. Éponine breaks my heart.