Best Gender-Bending in a Musical

Okay, his name is actually Brian Mallgrave, and he’s an excellent and very intense young actor, but we’d never seen him like this before. It took several seconds after B. Hamlette’s gliding, swooping entrance in Chicago before most of the audience realized he wasn’t a she. As gossipy, credulous reporter Mary Sunshine, Mallgrave was simultaneously elegant and silly, stealing every scene that the character graced. And though it was hard to decide if it was a soprano or a countertenor, the voice was soaring and rich.