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"  Sherie Rene Scott is half Mennonite\u2014&amp;quot;the lower half,&amp;quot; she says. How a Kansas girl whose religion discourages sex and self-expression (unless they serve a higher purpose) became the luscious, trumpet-voiced star of Broadway musicals such as Aida, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Little Mermaid is the story of Everyday Rapture, a new play interspersed with songs that opens this month at off Broadway&amp;#039;s Second Stage.  Scott describes Everyday Rapture as &amp;quot;a one-woman show with four people&amp;quot;\u2014and that&amp;#039;s just the start of the metafictional hijinks she and cowriter Dick Scanlan have in store. (&amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like if Philip Roth could sing,&amp;quot; Scott says. &amp;quot;Imagine how much further he could go!&amp;quot;) As in a Roth novel, a character named Sherie Rene Scott relates autobiographical anecdotes, except that many are made up. Performing for Elizabeth Taylor in a mental hospital, befriending a member of the hate-mongering Fred Phelps clan, falling in love with a street magician who makes her virginity disappear, being spurned by a fanboy who imitates her on YouTube\u2014 Scott won&amp;#039;t reveal which of these hilarious, heart-stopping vignettes really happened. &amp;quot;Only some are factual,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;But all are true.&amp;quot;  The character called &amp;quot;Sherie&amp;quot; is somewhere in between. She is &amp;quot;wronger&amp;quot; than the real Sherie: needy, narcissistic, and almost too eager to perform, whereas Scott says she&amp;#039;s uncomfortable singing without a character she can hide behind and a story that, yes, &amp;quot;serves a higher purpose.&amp;quot; Here the higher purpose is an exploration of the meaning of faith in a world that seems to stymie it. &amp;quot;Most people, when they become parents&amp;quot;\u2014Scott and her husband, the record producer Kurt Deutsch, have a five-year-old boy\u2014&amp;quot;get closer to God in gratitude for their luck. But instead I started wondering what kind of God doles out his grace to only a few. The show is my attempt to find a replacement for religious feeling in art.&amp;quot;  Thus justified, Scott blows the house down. But as riveting as the result is, Everyday Rapture depends less on spirituality than on a switcheroo even the magician boyfriend couldn&amp;#039;t have pulled off: It finesses the question of God by substituting a goddess. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/reviews/a9907/sherie-rene-scott-318171/>