Playbill.com polled our readers via Facebook and Twitter. Their responses follow:
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Laura Osnes |
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Photo by Nathan Johnson Photography |
Ron Hallsten: Laura Osnes. She can sing, she can act, she's the right age and she is one of the most versatile people in the theater. Laura has tackled many diverse roles from Sandy (Grease) to Ella (Cinderella) with stopovers as Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde) and Hope Harcourt (Anything Goes) among others. I would love to see her in the lead of Pretty Woman.
A two-time Tony Award nominee, Osnes was most recently seen on Broadway in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. She can currently be seen as Polly Peachum in the Atlantic Theatre Company’s revival of The Threepenny Opera, which began performances March 12 and will officially open April 7 at the Linda Gross Theater.
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Alice Ripley |
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Photo by Dirty Sugar Photography |
Ripley won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal. She was also the first performer to be co-nominated for a Tony Award, along with Emily Skinner, for their performance as conjoined twins in Side Show. Ripley's numerous other Broadway credits include The Who's Tommy, Sunset Boulevard, The Rocky Horror Show and Les Miserables.
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Laura Benanti |
Steve Ortiz: This role SCREAMS Laura Benanti!
Lyndsay Wilshaw: Laura Benanti!
Kim Naphegyi: Laura Benanti
Shannen Banzhoff : Totally & completely Laura Benanti!!!
Kathleen Mullins Tringale: Either Laura Benanti or Mara Davi!
Scott Richard: Laura Benanti
Carissa Francheskah Strauss: Laura Benanti!! She is the funniest human being and has the voice do it as well!!!
Benanti won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in the 2008 revival of Gypsy. She was most recently seen in the NBC live television broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music as Baroness Elsa Schräder. Check out this video of Benanti “teaching” a master class in the Playbill.com video series “Life With Laura.”
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Idina Menzel |
Menzel made her Broadway debut in 1996 in Rent, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She won her Tony for her work in the international hit musical Wicked, and she can currently be seen in the new Broadway musical If/Then. She also provided the voice of Elsa in the 2013 Disney film “Frozen,” which won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (“Let It Go”).
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Betsy Wolfe |
Wolfe made her Broadway debut in 2007 in 110 in the Shade and has since been seen in the Broadway productions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture and the Off-Broadway production of The Last Five Years. She is currently playing the role of Ellen in the new Woody Allen musical Bullets Over Broadway alongside Zach Braff. Bullets Over Broadway began performances March 11 and is set for an official opening night April 10.
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Annaleigh Ashford |
Annaleigh Ashford received her first Tony Award nomination for her delightfully kooky performance in the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots. She has also been seen on Broadway in Wicked, Legally Blonde and Hair as well as in the Off-Broadway premiere of Dogfight. Ashford can also be seen in the HBO original series “Masters of Sex.”
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Krysta Rodriguez |
Rodriguez was on Broadway earlier this season opposite Zachary Levi in the original musical First Date. She has also been seen in The Addams Family Musical, Spring Awakening and in the second and final season of the NBC series “Smash.” In December 2013 she performed in a concert version of the fictional musical Hit List, along with Carrie Manolakos and “Smash” co-stars Jeremy Jordon and Andy Mientus.
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Sutton Foster |
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Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Marianna Pivoto: Sutton Foster! Diva! Perfect!
Two-time Tony Award winner Foster has been seen on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Women, Shrek the Musical, Young Frankenstein and the 2011 revival of Anything Goes. She will be seen later this season in the title role of the Broadway debut of the acclaimed musical Violet. Click here to check out more about this upcoming production.