Tony nominated composer and lyricist Andrew Lippa (seen earlier this season with Big Fish) revisits his cult musical The Wild Party at 54 Below on April 17. A star-studded cast of Broadway headliners comes together to perform two shows of The Wild Party Swings with Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band. BroadwayBox caught up with Lippa and asked him to look back on seven of his musicals and tell us who his ultimate dreamcast would be for each if we were reviving the musical tomorrow.
John & Jen
"I want to do an African American cast of John & Jen, so I want Beyoncé to be Jen, and I want Josh Henry because he’s a theater name."
The Wild Party
"Holy crap! The goal would be to have someone be discovered, someone we don’t know yet, like Ciara Renee. I could see her as both. She always plays Kate so it might be fun to make her Queenie."
You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown
"Besides Kristin Chenoweth? Annaleigh Ashford. She’s so funny and charming and she can sing anything. I love Annaleigh."
The Little Princess
"Sierra Boggess is amazing on the record but too old at the end of the day. Like if Dakota Fanning can sing, I think she’d be really interesting. Those eyes are so fabulous."
The Addams Family
"I would play Gomez. I would cast myself and Morticia would be Kate Hudson. She actually might be Queenie too, by the way. I think she needs to come do theater and wake everybody up as to how unbelievably talented she really is. I love her."
I Am Harvey Milk
"I am playing Harvey Milk and I’m really excited about all the things coming up. But if somebody else played Harvey Milk: James Franco."
Big Fish
"Who is better than Norbert Leo Butz? The only person I could ever see doing that part other than Norbert, at the moment, would be Hugh Jackman, who did one of the reading with us and is a huge fan of the piece. If we did a big concert version and Norbert wasn't available, I could probably twist Hugh’s arm to do it, but seriously nobody is better than Norbert."
