10 roles I'd like to play

So I'm procrastinating from doing my college work again by thinking back to the production of Les Mis we did back in December 2015. Les Mis is a musical that I always wanted to do, and I am willing to take part in again. This made me think about my role in Les Mis - would I audition for the same characters? Would I audition for different characters? (I could probably only audition for different characters if the company I was auditioning for was willing to gender-bend some of the roles, but still). This made me think of roles in general, and characters that I'd like to play. So, in no particular order, here are 10 characters that I would like to play at some point in my life time.

10 - Christine Daee in "The Phantom of the Opera"

The first musical I remember watching was The Phantom of the Opera when I was 8 years old. I know that I had seen musicals before that (Oliver, West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz) but I didn't watch them very often and I couldn't really remember what they were about. I only saw the stage version of this show in 2015 at the West End (Harriet Jones played Christine), but I had watched the 25th Anniversary when it streamed in cinemas (with Sierra Boggess as Christine) across the world and fell in love with the movie as a kid. 

So, if I could have picked a character to play when I was 8, it would have been Christine and to this day I would love to play her (my vocal range may disagree, but you never know). Plus, HAVE YOU SEEN THE COSTUMES THAT SHE WEARS THROUGHOUT THE SHOW? THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL! Maybe I could join the cast and when no one was looking I could run around in the Christine costumes? 

 9 - Nancy in "Oliver"

I remember watching Oliver as a kid and thinking that it was the most boring musical ever. However, I fully appreciated it when I was involved in a school production of it in 2012 - when I was 13. Before auditioning I looked up the female leads in this show and read up on Nancy ad immediatly fell in love with her as a character. Unfortunately I messed up my audition and didn't get cast, but I don't think that that was my time to be Nancy anyway - I had braces, really bad acne and I just couldn't sing very well at that age. Not to mention that my cockney accent was terrible. I wasn't really Nancy material at that age. Now however, I feel like I could be better at playing this role - especially since I've had accent classes and can do a slightly better cockney accent.

8 - Wendla in "Spring Awakening"

I only discovered Spring Awakening in 2014 because it was the musical that my College were doing before I attended and they invited me to go and watch the performance. I did not go to see it - which I really do regret - but I have listened to the sound track and watched a recording of it online and I fell in love with it. 

I would love to play Wendla one day - from watching the musical and reading more into the character we are both quite similar (whether that would be good for me playing her or not idk) and I love the songs that she gets to sing (which are in my vocal range).

7 - Heather Chandler in "Heathers: The Musical"

To be perfectly honest, I would be quite happy playing anyone in Heathers, but there's something about Heather Chandler that intrigues me. I think I would just like to play a bitchy character at some point in my life and she is that character, and besides, who wouldn't want to say my personal favourite line in the musical - "Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw". I also love how much power she has in the High School. Sure, she isn't the nicest person in the world, but what leader is actually nice? I love how she can basically get anyone in the school to do what she wants, and I would like to play a character with that sort of power.

6 - Enjolras in "Les Miserables"

This one is probably more of a fantasy than something that will actually happen (unless gender blind casting is a thing that becomes more mainstream in the next few years) even though it almost did.

One thing that I really loved about our production of Les Miserables was being a barricade boy and doing the barricade sequence - even though it was an extremely intense scene to do (being on stage for 30 minuets was challenging, and I though that the emotions felt during this sequence was so powerful and could be overwhelming for some people). I found it extremely fun and loved every minuet of it, but I still wish I had a bigger part. So, what part could  be believably played by a female, who has a vocal range that could be sung by a female and who is involved in the barricade sequence - Enjolras of course. And he is such an amazing character any way - I'd like to play a strong leader at some point, okay? And a female Enjolras would be so bad-ass (I've seen it happen, believe me, it was so good). Like, it would be a female character who for once isn't there just to be a love interest (unless you are a Enjolras/Grantaire shipper) and who isn't a villain or a soprano (I've noticed a pattern that if a female character isn't a soprano they tend to be a villain - not in all cases, but I have noted it to be quite common).

5 - The Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz"

Although I've kind of done this role before (I've stepped in when I needed to), I would love to be officially cast as the wicked witch. I don't really know why, I just think that she is such an amazing character to play and it would be fun to be the evil person for once. I'd also love to play Elphaba once in my life time in "Wicked", but I prefer this side to the character more than her character in Wicked (even though Wicked is a great musical and I love it, I just couldn't imagine myself as that role right now). And since they are both technically the same character, I decided to put this version of the character on the list rather than her Wicked counter part.

4 - Lucy Harris in "Jekyll and Hyde"

Lucy isn't a very glamorous role in my opinion, which is what made me quite interested in playing her. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this musical, Lucy Harris is the main attraction as a rather "seedy" drinking establishment in Camden called "The Red Rat". She sees her self as an actress who men come to watch as part of the floor show, but she works as a prostitute to gain money for her room and rent. Knowing that there is little better life for her, she takes things as the come - although she does dream of a better life. 

I really really love the song "Bring on the Men", which has been replaced with "Good vs Evil" in some adaptions of the show, but I would hope that if I was ever given the opportunity to play Lucy that our version of the show would include this song.

3 - The Witch in "Into the Woods"

Into the Woods is just a fantastic show and I would love to be involved in a production of this in anyway possible (hell, I would be happy even if I was paid to make the cast a coffee!) I feel like this character is what a traditional witch would be like, but as the same time she isn't. She starts of the musical as old and ugly - which is what people would expect of a witch - but she gives the Baker and his wife an opportunity to get a child (even though she was only doing it to reverse the curse on her, but still, that's a nice thing to do!) and is actually beautiful in act 2 (which isn't what everyone would expect a witch to look like). But yea, I really love her and it would be fun to play her at some point. She also seems to be the type of character that an older person could play, so I don't even have to rush to play this role, I have plenty of time.

2 - Lola in "Kinky Boots"

I think that this definitely wouldn't happen - due to the whole point of Lola's characterization is that he is a Drag Queen - but I just love how flamboyant he is as a character. If I was a man, this would definitely be on my top ten dream roles list. He is such an interesting character - not to mention the COSTUMES ARE BEAUTIFUL! (I'm sorry, I love costumes). I feel like gender bending this character wouldn't really work the same way as gender bending Enjolras though; I think people could be offended by a girl portraying a Drag Queen, but people are offended by everything these days.

1 - Carrie White in "Carrie"

I feel like this role is something that I would probably only be able to play if we ever did a production of it in college - since it wasn't extremely successful on broadway - but I love the music and the characters in this musical. I also fit some characteristics of Carrie - I was a bit of an outsider in school and didn't have an awful lot of friends and had religion forced upon me - and I feel like I can connect with her as a character. I think it would be a fun role to play - it certainly isn't a glamorous role to play, but acting isn't a glamorous career really.

So, that's ten roles that I would like to play. There are tons of other roles that I'd like to play, so I may make another post like this in the future, but here are the roles for now.