Dinner Party Question: Broadway Edition

Having just attended a friend's dinner party, I was turning over the old interview question in my head: "If you could invite 5 people, living or dead, to a dinner party (presumably a fabulous one), whom would you choose and why?"



I was last asked this question in my college costuming class (we were meant to design and illustrate what the dinner guests would wear), and it was really hard to think of people! (Oh, also we could include fictional characters -- I just remembered that one of mine was Jamie Fraser.) I guess I just wasn't all that interested in making conversation. When I started thinking about it this week, I'd just watched footage from the 2013 Tony Awards, so I found myself leaning toward a guest list heavy with Broadway personalities. And all of them are still alive.

In no particular order:

1. Audra McDonald
   Gosh, I admire her. She is smart and funny and lovely and strong and has an amazing instrument and seems like a real person.
2. Neil Patrick Harris
   I love his onstage personality, and I wonder if he would be that funny and charming in person.
3. Sara Ramirez
   Aside from my megacrush (GAWJUS), she also seems like she has a good head on her shoulders and a powerful presence.
4. Lin-Manuel Miranda
   I'm really impressed that he wrote, directed, and starred in a Tony-winning musical before he turned 25. He seems maybe a little shy, not completely cocky, which is nice.
5. Stephen Sondheim
   OF COURSE. The man is a genius.

Obviously, we'd have to gather around the piano after dinner! THAT would be AWESOME.

Whom would you invite to your dinner party?