Spice Girl set to return to the stage
NEW YORK — Most 40-something women facing the prospect of singing and dancing on Broadway eight times a week might ask to shorten their high heels just a smidgen. Melanie Brown wants hers taller. No wonder they call her Scary Spice.
“If you’re into high heels, you want them the higher the better,” Brown said as she prepares to join the cast of Chicago playing the murderous Roxie Hart.
Doesn’t it matter that it’s a very physical role and that she’ll appear for her first song on a ladder 15 feet in the air? Not to Brown.
“Why not?” she asks with a throaty laugh. “Why not?”
Brown, who since the Spice Girls’ chart-topping exploits has become a sought-after TV judge, said she’s relishing the chance to play a jail inmate who kills her boyfriend and sings about her new-found celebrity.
After years of criticizing others, she finds herself on stage. She seems unfazed, saying she made frequent visits to the recording studio in her Los Angeles home to prepare.
“I’m always going to be the one to go, ‘Yes, I just want to get back into singing,’ ” she said. “I’m constantly singing and vocalizing so it’s nice to be able to get the chance to do it all at once.”
Brown has been on Broadway before, playing Mimi in Rent in 2005. But this time her task has Bob Fosse-inspired choreography, skimpy outfits and killer songs such as Me and My Baby.
“My nine-year-old said, ‘Why did you choose that part? It’s such a big part,’ ” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Cause it’s good to challenge yourself.’ And then I’m thinking, ‘Why did I choose that one?’ ”
Brown shot to fame as part of the five-piece Spice Girls, known for its girl-power attitude thanks to songs like Wannabe and Spice Up Your Life. The group marked its 20th anniversary this year.