My Favorite Broadway Villains

I've always had a fascination, and I suspect that I'm not alone in this, with characters outside the law...or those who are just a little shady. Villains can be so much more fascinating than the heroes, especially on the stage. Musicals make for great opportunities to be a villain- they get to explore their feelings in song just like the heroes. Truth be told, often villains get some of the best songs. For others who think that it's good to be bad sometimes, let's delve into some of my personal favorite bad guys (and girls) of the Broadway stage.

I have always loved Javert, since I was 12 years old and I heard his songs for the first time! It's odd, because he's clearly the antagonist of Les Misérables, and he clearly is out for the blood of the extremely sympathetic Valjean. I understand his struggle though, as he's the man who wants to see the law obeyed and the consequences enforced for the breaking of the law. He just doesn't understand the concept of mercy.

Even if you don't find him particularly sympathetic, you have to love his songs! I think they gave him some of the best stuff in the show, and that's saying something when you consider the numbers he's competing with. "Stars" always gets to me, with its gentle, lullaby-like quality and its broad, powerful climax. But "Javert's Suicide" may be my favorite number in the show. True, it's to the same tune as Valjean's song "What Have I Done?", but "Javert's Suicide" tailors to his baritone range, going down where the other song goes up. The most effective part is the very end, when he sings his last note and the instuments play the "Stars" theme. So moving! Not to mention his part in "Confrontation," "Work Song," and "One Day More." He's really fun to sing along with, even if he somehow manages NOT to pull your heartstrings.

Frank Wildhorn's musicals are almost a guilty pleasure of mine. I think he's really talented, if ridiculously sentimental (and if you can't be sentimental in musical theatre, where can you?). He becomes a guilty pleasure because ALL his shows rip off the music of his other works. But I digress.

Jekyll and Hyde may be his best work, and it's certainly his most popular one. It's very moving, with lots of sympathetic characters, biting social commentary, a love story, and some GREAT songs. I especially love the part of Hyde. Hyde is hard to play because the actor must also be Jekyll, the nice doctor struggling to serve mankind. Hyde is the whore-mongering murderer that lives inside him. While Jekyll struggles with himself (quite literally), Hyde gets to indulge in the socially horrific, all the while belting out some great numbers. Hyde can also really emotionally get to you, though, when he takes up with the sweet innocent prostitute Lucy, who you know Jekyll is secretly attracted to and she to him. He abuses this sweet girl who you know deserves something better, and it makes you want to weep and gnash your teeth at the injustice of it all, because you know he's just a perversion of the feelings Jekyll has for her.

Hyde has some great songs though. "Alive" and it's reprise are fantastic, where he gets to belt out great lines like "I feel I'll live on forever/with Satan himself by my side." His duet with Lucy "Dangerous Game" is my favorite song in the show, with the powerful music, close harmonies, and dark subtext. The two most difficult and impressive songs he sings though are the songs that require the actor to sing as Jekyll and Hyde: one man sounding like two separate characters. In "First Transformation" he slowly morphs in Hyde, with his voice changing as he goes. "Confrontation" requires him to change back and forth, as if he's carrying on a conversation with himself. And it's so powerful and an awesome thing to experience when done well.

So Hyde is completely unsympathetic, but he is SO much fun to listen to and sing along with.

As mentioned, I really enjoy Wildhorn's musicals. The Scarlet Pimpernel isn't exactly my favorite, but the songs I like from it, I really really like. And every single song that the villain Chauvelin sings, I absolutely love. Pimpernel, like Les Mis, is about the French Revolution. Instead of focusing on the people's struggle, though, it focuses on the nobles who were being hunted and killed in France. The Scarlet Pimpernel (the character) was a man who rescued the innocent nobility from la guillotine and wisked them off to England. Chauvelin is a man working with the people trying to catch the Pimpernel so that his idea of justice can be carried out. He's a lot like Javert, only on the opposite side of the argument. Ironically, the original Broadway Javert and Chauvelin were played by the same actor, Terrence Mann!

Chauvelin in the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel isn't sympathetic at all. But thanks to the great music of Wildhorn and the clever lyrics that they gave him to sing and the romantic twist they gave him with Marguerite (the hero's wife) made him much more interesting. He sings "Falcon in the Dive" describing how merciless and determined he is, and it wows me everytime- Terrence Mann's performance of the song really captures that drive and emotion. But the song "Where's the Girl" really makes Chauvelin a dangerous character. You know he's out there killing innocent nobility, but he's so seductive in that song that you don't care. He describes this amazing and passionate woman that he used to know (describing Marguerite), and he begs her to come back to him. The song is AMAZING, but then again, I'm a woman. And the song is only to be outdone in terms of passion by its reprise, where a very angry Chauvelin basically leaves her to die. The song gives me chills, it's so powerful.

I don't have to say anything about Gaston. EVERYONE has seen the film of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and everyone loves to hate the self-obsessed narcissist. His attitude makes him endearingly loathable, and his songs are just sooo much fun to sing. The song "Gaston" has great lyrics and that nice taverny feel to it. And "The Mob Song" shows off his darker, villainous side. He's the guy you laugh at when he's made a fool of, and the guy you yell at when he attacks the sympathetic Beast. He's just a really good character with really good stuff to sing. He's even been played by some of the best and most famous actors in musical theatre, such as Donny Osmond and People's Sexiest Man Alive Hugh Jackman.

If you've read my article on the musical Wicked, then you know that I'm not at all a fan of The Wizard of Oz. It really makes me happy that they portray the Wizard as the bad guy. And while the Wizard in the musical doesn't have any real power, you feel the danger coming from his post-modern ideas (listen to the song "Wonderful") and the control he has over the people of Oz. As I'm really paranoid and mistrusting of my government, I really get behind this portrayal of the great and terrible Oz, the man behind the curtain.

But what makes this bad guy special enough to make my list is the people who have played him on the Broadway stage. The original Wizard was Joel Grey, Broadway legend and the only man to ever win a Tony and an Oscar for the same role. I love him- he's such a quirky guy. I've seen Wicked twice on Broadway myself, and both times I got to see a Broadway legend in the role. The first time I saw George Hearn, seen in the original La Cage aux Folles and in the revival of the Sondheim revue Putting It Together, but famous for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd. That's right, there are two different DVDs you can buy that feature him playing the Demon Barber of Fleet Street! The second time, I saw Ben Vereen, famous for his role in Pippin, but also a big dancer in Broadway tradition (think Billy Flynn in Chicago). These are the sorts of actors playing the Wizard, and that makes him plenty cool in my opinion.

If by some chance you've missed the cult classic The Rocky Horror Show, then I am sorry. It's not really a show you understand or analyze; it's just a lot of fun. And it's very difficult to say who the antagonist really is at the end of the show. Going into English major mode here, I'm going to say that Brad and Janet are obviously the heroes/protagonists, therefore Frank is the antagonist because Riff Raff, the other antagonist option, doesn't oppose them but opposes Frank.

Ahem. I digress.

Frank is the most interesting and most recognizable character from the show/movie. He's the sweet transvestite. And while he is diabolically sexual and deceptively cruel (because at first glance he's just silly), he does have a certain appeal to him. He's got lots of fun, catchy songs, such as "Sweet Transvestite" and "I Can Make You a Man," but he also has the surprisingly moving "I'm Going Home" at the end of the show that always makes me emotional. And that's why he's a favorite villain: because he manages to make me all choked up at the end of this silly, confusing, outrageous experience of a show where he's been the antagonizing force (as well as the liberating one).

There is nobody creepier than the Judge from Sweeney Todd. He's so gross. Not only does he have that whole shipping the hero off to Australia to steal his wife thing going on, but he decides he wants to marry his ward who he's raised from infancy. Ew! And then there's his solo "Johanna"...ok, I'm a tough cookie, but I skip that song EVERY TIME. The Judge makes my list because he is so evil and creepy that I can't handle listening to all of his music!

But he also has some great lines to speak and some great low notes to sing. His duet with Sweeney, "Pretty Women," is actually my favorite song in the show. He also has the low notes in the quartet "Kiss Me," which is a fantastic song. And, while I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, Alan Rickman was fantastic as the judge...he wasn't too creepy, but he was just creepy enough. Rickman really knows how to walk that thin line between good villain and disgusting specimen.

ADDENDUM!!! Since publishing this hub, I've been in a production of Sweeney Todd. Can I just say how much more the Judge has risen in my creepiness estimation?? Oh my gosh. He's officially been boosted to the top of the list. You try listening to screams of "God! Deliver me!" with those Sondheim chords every night and you'll understand why!!