Cyndi Lauper as Pirate Jenny on Broadway?

her Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera, which goes into previews on March 24, in which she'll play Pirate Jenny, having stepped in for, of all people, Edie Falco, who had to leave because of commitments to The Sopranos. Lauper had been looking for a Broadway role?-she was passed over for Patti LuPone's part in Sweeney Todd?-so when she heard about Threepenny, she pounced. "The casting director said to me, ?'Cyndi Lauper is interested in doing theater,' " says the show's director, Scott Elliott. "That happened on a Friday, Cyndi and I got together on Monday, and she accepted the job on Monday night."

So while the production features a remarkably eclectic cast?-Cabaret's Alan Cumming, SNL's Ana Gasteyer, rapping cabaret prankster-prodigy Nellie McKay, the transvestite Flotilla DeBarge?-Lauper is arguably the most remarkable. In fact, casting her runs the risk of seeming like dinner-theater gimmickry. But Elliott gathered his ensemble according to a particular philosophy. He didn't just want interesting actors?-he wanted interesting lives. "There's no one on this stage who hasn't lived an interesting life, no matter how old they are," he says. "That's what people are bringing to the table?-these interesting lives."