Dear Diva

If you're a true musical theater snob, you tend to get excited about replacement casts.

Something notable happens on Broadway, over and over. An international star gets a lead role--not really because she has great musical-theater talent, but because her name can sell tickets. Bette Midler, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Hudson. The reviews are warm, but they tend to have subtext: "We love this star mainly because she's a star--and then, as an actress, she acquits herself more or less nicely!" It's that last italicized part that always disturbs me. You're not going to see someone inhabit the world of Dolly Levi. You're going to see Bette Midler play Bette Midler. You're going to see Catherine Zeta-Jones looking beautiful, and you're going to avoid the fact that she isn't a great match for Sondheim.

After the celebrities get bored--and this tends to happen fairly quickly--a replacement cast is announced. And the replacement cast is almost always better than the original cast. That's because the replacement cast will almost inevitably feature a musical-theater genius--someone who maybe doesn't have an Oscar, but who has spent years and years with the Broadway songbook, and who has musical theater running through her veins.

So: Would I rather see Bette or Bernadette as Dolly Levi? You've got to be kidding, even asking that question.

Groban or the talented Mandy Patinkin? Are you joshing me?

Lauren Ambrose or Broadway legend Laura Benanti in "My Fair Lady"? Puh-lease.

Catherine or Bernadette as Desiree? I'm offended even to put Catherine's name in the lofty company of Bernadette's.

And Jennifer Hudson or Heather Headley? Ms. Headley blew Ms. Hudson out of the water.

Recently, I challenged a gay friend to name his Top Three Musical Theater Divas. Then I didn't really listen to the answer, because I was too excited to produce my own. The first two are obvious: Kristin Chenoweth and Bernadette Peters. And then the third is a bit of a curveball: Heather Headley.

Can Ms. Headley really hang on to such a coveted spot? I'd argue yes. She has done only three musicals on Broadway. But each was extraordinary. Right out of Northwestern--had she even graduated?--she became the centerpiece of "The Lion King." The weird headgear may have drawn you to the theater, but it was Ms. Headley's "Shadowland" that kept you humming for weeks and weeks. Elton John loved Headley so much, he basically wrote "Aida" for her, and though the show was a disaster (witness the NYT review), everyone went nuts for its star. Recalling the show, Ben Brantley wrote these immortal words:

There is, however, Ms. Headley, and she is simply splendid. She not only has what is called It -- that ineffable, sensual glow -- but also a voice of stunning emotional variety and conviction. Anytime she sings, whether of memories of a lost girlhood or of Aida's reluctance to take on a mantle of power, the show springs into vital life, only to sag into its torpor again when she leaves the stage.

For those who live to follow the trajectories of rising stars, a trip to ''Aida'' may be worthwhile. Everyone else is advised to wait for the cartoon.

Following that, Ms. Headley disappeared. Well, not really. She did Elton John's Kennedy Center Honors tribute (and that performance is immortal, as well). And she did the thing that enrages me: Broadway Diva Attempts to Have Pop Recording Career. Ugh. I know. A star needs to feed her children. You want to climb as high as you can climb. But, in recent years, it seems to me Headley has made a wise return--slowly, slowly--to the world where she belongs. There was that ill-fated London production of "The Bodyguard." There was Headley as Sondheim's Witch (!) in Chicago. And there was Headley's triumphant Broadway return--replacing dutiful, well-meaning Jennifer Hudson--in the revival of "The Color Purple."

Watch the "Purple" clips below. There's that "vital life" and "conviction" Brantley is talking about. I see it especially in "Too Beautiful for Words," a song that inevitably makes me cry. Headley, as the hurricane Shug Avery, wants to persuade meek Celie that a Powerful Celie lurks within. Because Shug is generous with herself, she has quite a bit to offer to others. And she's trying to persuade Celie to be the same kind of person--to shrug off the hair-shirt and "shine." I'm obsessed with Headley's gestures in this song. When she speaks of her own "dumb comments," she instinctively makes a "brush-aside" gesture, as if sweeping the comments under the rug. When she recalls dancing with dukes, we get to see an abstract version of the actual dance. (Tall, regal Heather Headley enjoys spreading her arms wide, whenever possible; she also enjoys addressing each and every member of the chorus, face to face, often thrusting a finger at someone's nose.) And then I can't get enough of the song's climax, when Headley does a kind of ferocious whisper: "Don't you know you're beautiful....too beautiful for words." You sense what a high-stakes moment this is: It's as if Shug is speaking not just to repressed Celie, but to all women in this town, and to history itself. You can't teach an actress to make a choice like that. It's just in the bones--or it's not.

Headley is on TV today. Channel Thirteen. Look it up: An important concert event. Then--in November--she will be onstage in Brooklyn. I plan to get tickets! Act fast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNrY6etoF-4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k2xzQyT2bk