Who is Michele Ragusa and why is her name billed above the title of Bad Dates, the one-woman comedy at Studio Arena Theatre? Is she a soap opera star, maybe? Did she write the play? No. No. She’s a hometown girl and a Niagara University graduate who happens to have an impressive list of Broadway and regional theater credits. Ragusa last appeared at Studio Arena in a supporting role in the comedy Noises Off, but this time, her home theater is giving her a boost—star billing in a solo performance. She was even allowed to choose her director.

The play is about a woman who is re-entering the dating world after marriage, divorce, motherhood, and a tumultuous restaurant career.

“Gavin [Cameron-Webb, former Studio Arena artistic director] called me,” recalls Ragusa, “and asked me to do the part. I assumed he’d be directing it himself, but when he said he was leaving and that he wanted me to suggest my own director, I couldn’t believe it!” Clever Michele chose up-and-coming director Scott Schwartz who directed William Gibson’s hugely successful one-woman show, Golda’s Balcony, starring Tovah Feldshuh on Broadway.

Bad Dates is a nice opportunity for Ragusa for several reasons. She’s looking to take her career to the next level. Featured in the original casts of Broadway’s Titanic and Cyrano, she has become a kind of Broadway go-to-gal for high-profile replacements. When she took over the role of Evelyn Nesbit—the girl in the velvet swing—in the Broadway production of Ragtime, author Terrence McNally, director Frank Galati, and choreographer Graciela Daniele agreed that Ragusa brought unique depth and vitality to the character. She also stepped into the Broadway company of Urinetown, originally as an offstage voice, but was quickly asked to take a featured role. She also stepped into the sleeper hit, A Class Act, as a replacement. Still, though she is well-known as a brilliant talent with a track record of impeccable reliability, when casting directors are assembling new shows, there is a tiny sorority of Broadway leading ladies, and it is nearly impossible to join their ranks.

To put it plainly, Ragusa has advanced to the point that she can work on Broadway any time she wants, but not in the roles she wants. Twice in the past year, she has been offered “standby” gigs—jobs where she would learn a prominent role, but perform it only if the leading lady took ill. Twice Ragusa has declined.

“I’m just not interested to do that any more,” she says. “Usually standby work is just a paycheck. Nobody ever actually sees your work!”

Looking ahead, Ragusa sees Mary Poppins coming to Broadway from London, but is convinced she will not be considered for the lead. “That’s the way on Broadway. I was not even seen for Ragtime, originally, because they thought I couldn’t be funny. To them I was just this soprano. I’m sure they won’t even see me for Mary Poppins—for the mother maybe!”

In any event, Ragusa is not waiting around to find out. She has been forging ahead in the regional theater. The roles have been more prominent and certain shows hold the possibility for a transfer to New York. For example, she comes to Bad Dates direct from brilliant notices for the Philadelphia run of Adrift in Macao, a new musical by Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick in which she played a hilarious drug-addicted saloon singer in a spoof of 1940s film noire. Last year she made a truly enormous splash in the theater world with her performance in She Loves Me at the prestigious Paper Mill Playhouse. She was favorably likened to Barbara Cook, who had originated her role.

“The reviews for She Loves Me were so good that I actually felt a little embarrassed!” admits Ragusa.

Ragusa has also been involved in some high-profile workshops, including a musical version of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, which she thinks is very promising.

In the meantime, Ragusa is entirely focused on Bad Dates. This doesn’t mean she’s not already thinking of ways to leverage her Buffalo experience. “You know, Scott and I were thinking that Bad Dates might go well in other cities—or at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. And you know, I’d love to sing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra again—that was one of the highlights of my life. Do you think they’d be interested in doing a book-in-hand performance of a Broadway musical the way they do Encores in New York?”

Maybe they would? Might I suggest, say, She Loves Me or Ragtime?

Ragusa laughs. “I even have a title for it: ‘Ovations!’”

Ovations, indeed.

Michele Ragusa can be seen at Studio Arena Theatre in Bad Dates through January 29th.