Megan Sikora
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Currently: Keeping Broadway audiences guessing as ambitious starlet/prime suspect Bambi Bernet in the murder mystery/musical comedy Curtains.
Gotta Dance! Sikora started dancing at age three and hasn't stopped since, hoofing her way to a B.A. in Dance from Point Park University in her hometown. The spirited young actress remains thankful that she recognized her passion early on. "When I was 11, I was like, 'Okay, this is what I'm doing. That's it,'" she remembers. "And I'm so fortunate. How many people do we all know who are going through life saying, 'I don't know what I wanna do with myself. I don't know what I wanna be when I grow up.' I'm very, very lucky."
The Dark Side: After a string of old-fashioned musicals, Sikora turned to more contemporary fare. "I did 42nd Street—girl comes to New York to make her dream come true. Thoroughly Modern Millie— girl comes to New York to make her dream come true. Wonderful Town—TWO girls come to New York to make their dreams come true. I was like, 'Hmm, I keep doing the same show over and over with different music.'" A stint in the notorious flop Dracula, The Musical allowed Sikora to juggle the responsibilities of swing, dance captain and understudy for both Melissa Errico and Kelli O'Hara. "To wear all those hats and to do something darker was a huge stepping stone for me." Likewise understudying Glinda and Nessarose in Wicked: "Before that, I was terrified to sing in front of everybody," Sikora confesses. "As a dancer, you're told, 'Just shut up and dance!' I always sang, but it's one thing to sing as a character and another to go into an audition room as Megan Sikora and be confident about it. So, that took me a long time to get over."
Creating Curtains: Joining the Curtains company before its L.A. tryout, Sikora helped shape her character. "They really didn't know what Bambi was in the beginning," she recalls. "She was written a lot more dippy, like your stereotypical bimbo blonde, and I kept insisting that she couldn't be dumb. You had to care about her or it wouldn't work at all. Everybody was open to developing her the way I felt she needed to be." Sikora's history with choreographer Rob Ashford also helped craft her show-stopping Act Two "Kansasland" dance solo. "He knew my acrobatic tricks and ridiculousness from when we were doing tech for Thoroughly Modern Millie," she says with a smile. "We'd be bored and I'd be flippin' around the stage making people laugh, so he got it into his head, 'I'm gonna use that.' Be careful what you show people!"
Debra and David? Delightful! What's the hardest part about acting opposite Tony winner Debra Monk? "Having to look her in the eye and be like, 'You bitch, I can't stand you!'" she says of Bambi's battles with her crafty, brassy producer mom, Carmen. Real life is happier: "She's an inspiration to me as a human being. She is such a strong, powerful woman, and [Bambi] kinda came out of that, honestly." Leading man David Hyde Pierce earns similar praise from Sikora, who declares, "He's grounded and kind and lovely and generous—there's no pretense at all. Nobody is allowed to come in here and be catty, 'cause David has never complained about anything!" Pierce's recent surprise Tony win delighted the Curtain company: "When he won, we erupted and were like, 'Karma EXISTS!'"
A Tough Act to Follow: The ambitious Sikora keeps her eye on the future. She recently caught Legally Blonde and admits to having designs on the title role. "I thought, 'Hmm… Elle Woods… maybe I'll start learning some of that music,'" she says with a mischievous grin. Yet her current role qualifies as "truly a dream come true," Sikora says. "They took all of my strengths and smushed them into one fantastic, beautiful blonde bombshell role. This company will never happen again. I just have to appreciate every day—and keep my body in one piece!"