Popular dream roles coming true / pre-existing associations with a role

I was thinking about how Hugh Jackman’s love for The Music Man has been well-documented, and many people had thrown around his name for a revival long before it was actually announced.

I feel like it’s really special when things like this happen, because we as theatre fans spend so much time imagining which actors could play iconic roles, and I know from experience that actors also spend years dreaming of the day when they can play their ultimate dream role, or return to it professionally after playing it in school. So when it really happens, there’s something kind of surreal and magical about it.

So I started thinking about similar situations:

--Actors who end up playing their dream roles on Broadway or other major productions
AND/OR
--Actors who had pre-existing associations with a specific role for one reason or another, such as being a widely popular dream-cast (but I’m not talking about people like Carol Channing or Yul Brynner who return to their iconic originating performance)

Some examples that come to mind:

--Amber Riley as Effie White (I don’t know if it was actually her personal dream role, but after she notably sang THE SONG on Glee, it felt like the idea of her in this role got in everyone’s heads to some extent, then it really happened!)
--Laura Benanti as Eliza Doolittle (For years she was open about how badly she wanted to play this role, then she replaced Lauren Ambrose in the revival).
--Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man (had a personal history with the role)
--Patti LuPone as Joanne (sort of a borderline one, since she played the role in 2011 – but not in a full production. And even before that, she had notably sung “Ladies Who Lunch” in concert.)

What are some other examples like this? Also note: I'm trying to think of ones that feel more specific. Everyone wants to play Elphaba, or Hamlet, or other roles like that, which are kinda like “duh” dream-roles. I'm trying to think of ones that are more unique, or more widely discussed before it actually happens.

Updated On: 2/9/22 at 05:09 PM

Maybe 'dream role' is a bit of a stretch but when Bernadette Peters was asked approx 2009/2010 once if she would play Mrs Lovett she responded saying she wanted to play Sally in Follies.

Perhaps more relevant, according to a podcast with Richard J Alexander, Bernadette Peters always wanted to play Rose in Gypsy (she was in one of the national tours as a child!) and was upset/anxious at the thought of performing Some People at her Carnegie Hall concert in case it might stop her from doing the role (e.g. if it didn't go well).

Needless to say her 'audition' was successful and Arthur Laurents asked Sam Mendes to cast her instead of Mendes' first choice, Patti LuPone because of this grudge he held against LuPone. This is in distinct contrast to Patti LuPone who has always said she never really wanted to play the role and she didn't 'get' Rose - it was others that encouraged her to do the role.

Oh, so many. Hmmm, well I have to say, after recently playing the title role in Mame in PA, with my beloved Lea Delaria as Vera — she was awesome by the way — I’d love for the powers that be to bring it back in the great, big Broadway revival it deserves. Then, and I don’t think it’s ever too soon with this show, I’d “kill” for a grand revival of Sweeney Todd. I remember the magic of seeing the show when Dorothy Loudon took over for Angela Lansbury and was just transported by its murderous melodies and passions. The pairing of Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince brought us such iconic moments. I mean, is there anything more glorious than “A Little Priest”? And, you wouldn’t have to twist my arm to play both Mame Dennis Burnside and Mrs. Lovett in those revivals. Haha, I’m greedy when it comes to those great roles! I’d also love them to bring back Hairspray because Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s joyous “You Can’t Stop The Beat” finale should always be available for Broadway audiences — it was like musical cotton candy. I adore those two boys.

binau said: "Maybe 'dream role' is a bit of a stretch but when Bernadette Peters was asked approx 2009/2010 once if she would play Mrs Lovett she responded saying she wanted to play Sally in Follies.

Perhaps more relevant, according to a podcast with Richard J Alexander, Bernadette Peters always wanted to play Rose in Gypsy (she was in one of the national tours as a child!) and was upset/anxious at the thought of performing Some People at her Carnegie Hall concert in case it might stop her from doing the role (e.g. if it didn't go well).

Needless to say her 'audition' was successful and Arthur Laurents asked Sam Mendes to cast her instead of Mendes' first choice, Patti LuPone because of this grudge he held against LuPone. This is in distinct contrast to Patti LuPone who has always said she never really wanted to play the role and she didn't 'get' Rose - it was others that encouraged her to do the role."

Patti Lupone must be exhausting to have a personal relationship with. A real hoot to be drinking buddies with, sure but to have to deal with on a deeper level that woman must be a nightmare. She is forever changing events to suit her whim.

One story, she was upset that nobody warned her not to sing full out at the orchestra rehearsal for Evita as she lost her voice. She tells the story again, she was so overcome with excitement at the orchestra rehearsal for Evita that she was singing full out and the assistant director was trying to tell her to save her voice but she didn’t care and decided to ignore them.


She tells Andy Cohen she wanted to play Dolly but Jerry Herman didn’t want her, another time she tells Andy Cohen she ‘didn’t get Dolly as a role’

I would say her Rose anecdote is most typically from the same box of bull she always peddles from.

Norm Lewis spent years dreaming of playing the Phantom. He tells the story on his episode of the 54 Below podcast better than I can.

Surprised no one has mentioned Beanie landing Funny Girl.

Not Broadway directly, but Marvel Comics has a long history of redesigning its characters in the image of a movie star, only to see that star play the role a decade or so later.

After Star Trek TNG and Dune, artists began to draw the bald Professor Xavier to explicitly resemble Patrick Stewart, who later spent three decades in the role. Similarly, Nick Fury was redesigned to look not like a young Clint Eastwood but an older Samuel L. Jackson, and guess who wound up playing the role?