Miscast 2022: What Role Would Lea Michele, Kelli O’Hara, J. Harrison Ghee, and More Miscast Themselves In?

Did you miss MCC Theater’s Miscast 2022? This year, theatre fans do not have to fret. The annual gala, which took place in person April 4 at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom,  will be available for streaming beginning May 22 at 7 PM ET for three days only. This year’s concert features Broadway favorites Lea Michele, Anika Noni Rose, Audra McDonald, Joshua Henry, Aaron Tveit, and more performing songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast.

At what other event can one watch Hamilton’s Christopher Jackson belt “Listen” from Dream Girls(below) and Hadestown’s Eva Nobelzada sing “Go The Distance” From Hercules? Or Company’s Katrina Lenk perform “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof while accompanying herself on the viola?  

This year’s gala honored Emmy and Tony Award winner Christine Baranski, MCC Board Chair Susan Raanan, and MCC Youth Company Alum Alexander Lambie. Under the musical direction of Will Van Dyke, the concert also includes 2022 Tony nominees Shoshana Bean, Jennifer Simard, Uzo Aduba, and Myles Frost; Tony winners Andrea Martin and Kelli O’Hara; J. Harrison Ghee, Steven Pasquale, Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza, Tamika Lawrence, and Skye Dakota Turner.

Playbill asked a few of this gala singers what role they would most like to miscast themselves in. Read their answers below.

Myles Frost
If I could miscast myself into any musical, it would be The Tina Turner Musical. Tina and Mike [Michael Jackson] had very similar work ethics and I’m curious as to how that would translate before a Broadway audience.

Lea Michele
That is such a tough question because there are so many roles that would be fun to play! I would have to say Aaron Burr in Hamilton. Leslie Odom is so incredible and his voice is out of this world. I would love to sing “Wait For It.” And I sing “Dear Theodosia” to my son all the time; it is one of my all-time favorite musical theater songs. His character has some of the best moments in the show and it would be so much fun to play!

Kelli O’Hara
For years, I have had a group of songs in my concert set that I call “my man songs.” These are songs that were written for men to sing in shows written about a man’s perspective on life. One of the greatest of these songs, and, more importantly, one that holds the most identifiable perspective for me, is “Finishing the Hat” from Sunday in the Park with George. I have always posited that a man is not the only one who struggles with the balance of creating their art and living their life. In some ways, I would argue that a woman struggles even more because of what I feel is an innate sense of maternal responsibility and instinct pulling me, joyfully, to one side. When I performed Dot in this show, it was the role of George, obsessively stuck inside his art, seeing life “from a window”’ that intrigued me the most. It would be a miscast to the status quo, but it would be a perspective worth representing.

Andrea Martin
Lola in Damn Yankees because “whatever Lola wants, Lola gets!”

J. Harrison Ghee
If I could miscast myself, it would be to play the title character in The Drowsy Chaperone. That was the first show I saw on Broadway when I moved to New York to study musical theater, and Beth Leavel is an inspiration in every way. I would have so much fun playing that role.

Steven Pasquale
Mama Rose, of course, is the correct answer.

Tamika Lawrence
If I could play any character, I would play Sweeney Todd. I love watching crime documentaries and am fascinated with crimes of passion that turn into serial crimes and why. It would be interesting to play someone who does something heinous without judging them. There is a challenge in that.

For information on the stream, visit MCCTheatre.org.

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See Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Myles Frost, Lea Michele, More Perform At Miscast 2022

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