Why theater?, I asked Perrysburg native Lindsay Roginski.

“It’s always been my dream since I was a little girl,” she answered. “I grew up, at five years old, dancing and singing…so my mom decided to put me in classes. I went to New York and saw my first Broadway show, and knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

It has been a long road from those first classes for Roginski, and now the long road leads her home. The Perrysburg native will return to the Toledo area on Nov. 17 and 19, performing at the Stranahan Theater as cell block girl Liz in the national tour of the smash Broadway show “Chicago.”

Roginski

The tour is just the latest step for Roginski, whose credits include starring in productions of “Damn Yankees,” “My One and Only” and “42nd Street.” But “Chicago” has always been her favorite.

What’s your dream role, I asked. If I could snap my fingers and give you any part in the world, what would it be? Roginski didn’t even give it a second’s thought.

“To play Roxie on Broadway,” she said. Her love for “Chicago” was apparent with every word she uttered about it, and it was a genuine pleasure to talk to someone who so clearly loves what they are doing with their life.

Although her training began at a young age, Roginski did not begin appearing in musical theater until she was 15 — her first appearances in shows were with the Toledo Repertory Theater.

“I did a couple shows with them, and then I ended up doing my senior high school musical, which was ‘Grease,’” she said. “And then I moved to New York to go to school.”

Ironically, while training at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, her first job in the city was selling souvenir programs for “Chicago.” But the spicy and seductive tale of murderous showgirls already had a strong hold on her imagination.

“It was always my dream to be in this show,” Roginski said. “When I actually got the chance to audition for it — and got it! — it was a dream come true for me.”

The production she is appearing in is actually her second tour of “Chicago” — in her first, a non-union show, she played the lead role of Roxie Hart, the killer who becomes a media sensation. Her current tour may see her in a smaller role (she remains the understudy for Roxie), but she said she’s having a lot more fun.

“On the non-union, it was a lot of one-and-two nighters, so it was a lot of travel, all the time,” she said. “One this one, it’s a lot nicer. We get to stay in one place for a while.”

Roginski said that despite the difficult times for the economy, the tour has been extremely successful. “It’s been surprisingly great, as far as ticket sales. I think things like this…people are looking for some way to get away from their troubles of the day,” she said. “So, we haven’t been really affected by that. Thank god!”

The process of touring in a show can be grueling on all involved, even if it is your favorite show ever. But even as she outlined a schedule where performers do a show eight times a week — off for travel on Monday, but twice on Saturday and Sunday — Roginski’s enthusiasm never wavered.

“It’s real fun! You get to travel and see everything. Like, this is an extreme situation, but we just got back from Tokyo. We played there for a month, which is very unusual. We do a show every night, so we have the days to explore the city.”

Tokyo may be a far cry from Toledo, but Roginski’s excitement on returning to the area, doing what she loves to do, is overwhelming.

“I can’t even tell you! On the non-union tour, the closest we got was, like, Akron,” she said. “It’s going to be so great to have so many of my family and friends— my whole family still lives in Ohio — be able to see what I’ve been doing for so long … it’s going to be so fun! And the fact that I can actually stay at my house, it’ll be great!”

Roginski’s goals are wide-reaching, including eventually getting into commercial and film work — “I kind of want it all,” she laughed — but the ultimate goal is still to be Roxie on the Great White Way.

“It would be like coming full circle,” she said. “To grow up wanting something so bad, and to actually get it, I can’t even imagine what that would be like.”

E-mail columnist Jeff McGinnis at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Pop Goes the Culture, Theater.
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