NEW YORK (AP) — Lea Salonga stepped onto a Manhattan stage final spring and sang one thing uncommon for her — “Edelweiss” from the musical “The Sound of Music,” a music often carried out by the paternal Captain von Trapp.
It was a part of MCC Theater’s annual “Miscast” gala that is celebrating 25 years with an album of high musical theater stars performing songs from roles by which they might not historically be solid. It drops March 28.
Along with Salonga, the album has performances by an A-list of Broadway: Eva Noblezada, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Platt, Kelli O’Hara, Katrina Lenk, Stephanie J. Block, Rachel Zegler, Raúl Esparza, Heather Headley, Aaron Tveit and Gavin Creel.
Zegler channeled her inside inexperienced ogre for “Who I’d Be” from “Shrek,” and Lenk borrowed Tevye’s “If I Were a Rich Man” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Headley, who originated the position of Nala in “The Lion King,” as a substitute sang Simba’s transferring ballad “Endless Night.”
“We have some that are just funny and silly. We have some that actually change the meaning of a song when someone sings them. We have some that’s just a phenomenal person singing a phenomenal song and that’s enough,” says Scott Galina, supervisor of musical programming and growth at MCC. “So it really feels like it captures the breadth of the way a ‘Miscast’ performance can land.”
Different highlights embrace a dwell model of “Take Me or Leave Me” from “Rent” by Tveit and Creel, a seize made extra particular due to the demise of Creel final yr. And Groff and Jordan sing the 2 divas’ anthem “Let Me Be Your Star” from “Smash.”
Noblezada will get muscular singing “Go the Distance” from “Hercules,” and Platt will get in a inexperienced temper to sing Elphaba’s “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked.” O’Hara submits a young “Beautiful City” from “Godspell,” whereas married couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson sing “The Human Heart” from “Once on This Island.”
“There’s not a track on the album that you get to and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a skip,’” says Will Van Dyke, musical director for ”Miscast” for the previous six years. “That’s like my goal in everything — you never want to have a skip track on there.”
MCC Theater is a nonprofit, off-Broadway firm that delights with its spring gala “Miscast” surprises, which began in 2001 and went on-line for a couple of years in the course of the pandemic. To make the brand new album, the performers have been requested to recreate their dwell songs within the studio, giving engineers a cleaner sound.
Whittling down the assorted performances over the a long time to suit on a 12-album assortment — known as “MCC Theater’s Miscast: The Studio Sessions” — wasn’t straightforward however some songs popped out for having made an enduring impression.
“Katrina Lenk is still hearing about people who talk about her singing ‘If I Were a Rich Man,’” says Galina. “These are moments that have become bigger for these people than we certainly ever could have intended.”
MCC Theater will have a good time its twenty fifth anniversary on April 7 with a “Miscast” gala on the Hammerstein Ballroom. It’ll honor Sheryl Lee Ralph and MCC Youth Firm alum and artist Travis Raeburn.
The “Miscast25” lineup will function performances by Tituss Burgess, Cole Escola, Jordan Fisher, Steven Pasquale, Nicole Scherzinger, Britton Smith, Phillipa Soo, Ephraim Sykes, Jordan Tyson, Michael Urie and Tveit. Funds raised by the gala and the album return to MCC Theater.
Over time, “Miscast” has seen the panorama of Broadway change with extra unconventional selections in race, gender and age. Galina factors to a current gender-swapped model of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” that reworked the male lead Bobbie into a lady.
“A lot of years before my time at ‘Miscast,’ you would have women singing ‘Being Alive’ from ‘Company’ or ‘Mary Me a Little’ from ‘Company,’” he says. “And now there’s been a production on Broadway with a woman playing Bobbie. So, there are no rules around that anymore, which is amazing.”
