I do it find it a little bit interesting/amusing that she is so endlessly suggested on this board for some of the most challenging roles in the musical theatre- all of this presumably based on a performance she gave in an ensemble musical over a decade ago. What an uncharacteristically condescending comment from MichaelBennett. As others have explained her, there is a reason people trust her singing. The NEXT TO NORMAL connection makes a lot of sense given her rock band, and Mame is not Momma Rose and Collette clearly has the range for it, same for Roxie Hart.
J52, while I'm sure Collette would have worked as Roxie (so would have Charlize Theron who was apparently cast when Nicholas Hytner was set to direct), there was something about casting someone so different from Catherine Zeta Jones as Roxie that was a brilliant touch from Marshall. Zellweger played up the trashy part of Roxie so well and it's a performance that for me only improves the more I watch it. And I actually think her and Zeta Jones have the perfect Roxie/Velma chemistry. Now SWEENEY TODD is a completely different case, it's outrageous that Collette didn't get cast, she would have been a killer in the role.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
