Kelli Fournier is every Broadway hopeful's nightmare.

        She didn't take drama classes in high school. She didn't major in theater in college. She never took an acting or vocal class until she had been cast in the Broadway production of Aida.

        Kelli Fournier even tripped over her gown in her Broadway debut with the director, the choreographer and composer Elton John in the audience.

        Lose her job? Nah. They liked it so much they thought about keeping the bit in the show.

Kelli Fournier in 'Aida' | ZOOM |

        The girl who grew up Kelli Thacker in Hamilton (class of Hamilton High School '91) holds up one edge of the romantic triangle in the national tour of Aida, opening Tuesday for a two-week run at the Aronoff Center as part of Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati.

        Aida is a pop-rock re-telling of the opera favorite: the title character is a captured (and disguised) Nubian princess in love with her Egyptian conqueror Ramades (tour headliner is Patrick Cassidy). Spoiled Egyptian princess Amneris (Ms. Fournier) also has eyes for Ramades and that's enough points for a romantic triangle and a tragic ending.

        Not bad for a girl who never thought of Broadway as part of the picture and more or less got there by accident.

"She just had it'

        Ms. Fournier grew up dancing, starting, as she remembers it, “at 2.” She spoke from her last tour stop in Tucson, Ariz., where she swore she was sitting in her hotel room with the shower running to battle the dryness in the air.

        She carries her own humidifier on the road. “It's not all glitz,” she says after another swallow of water.

        Here's what was supposed to happen.

        Ms. Fournier danced through high school, performed in show choirs and musicals, tried to get summer performing jobs at Paramount's Kings Island, but never took a drama class.

IF YOU GO

What: Aida     When: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 17.     Where: Broadway in Cincinnati, Aronoff Center Procter & Gamble Hall     Tickets: $20-60. 241-7469

        She was planning to enroll at Ohio State University after graduation and major in dance, when her dance teacher, Carol Young of Millville, told her about a cruise ship audition.

        “She just had it,” says Mrs. Young, who still teaches dance in Millville. “She always had all the personality and self-confidence in the world. Even when she was little, she made sure she was in the front row. It was absolutely adorable.

        “As a teen-ager, she had a body that went on forever. And gosh, she has a wonderful voice. I remember wondering where she was being trained — of course she wasn't taking lessons. I knew she'd make it.”

        Ms. Fournier pointed out that she didn't even have pictures and a resume. “Just go,” Ms. Young advised.

On to Disneyland

        “I have the best parents in the world,” says Ms. Fournier. Mom and dad, Debbie and Mike Thacker, who still live in Hamilton, gave their blessing. Ms. Fournier spent the next six months entertaining aboard ship. After a month off, she went back on board, saw the world for a couple of years.

        When she finally walked down the gangplank for the last time, it was in Los Angeles not New York.

        “I love L.A.,” says Ms. Fournier.

        She never waited tables, or any other job not entertainment-related. She danced almost straight into a gig at Disneyland, playing a doll in a revue based on Toy Story.

        “I'm still working for Disney,” she laughs. “Then it was a theme park, now it's Broadway.” (Disney owns this Aida.)

Switch to Universal

        She switched theme parks, to Universal, to perform in a rock 'n' roll show. The theme park gigs paid the rent and gave her time to audition for television and film roles.

        It turned out that a fellow performer became the assistant choreographer for Aida. Ms. Fournier didn't have an agent, but she and other cast members were allowed to put their names on an audition list.

        Ms. Fournier loved the tough odds.

        “I'm very competitive. My parents say, where did that come from?” (She says it's her mom.) “Give me 200 girls to be better than, that's when I'm at my best.”

        Ms. Fournier was hired to be standby for Amneris, and, in the best showbiz style, the show hadn't been on Broadway a month when the actress playing Amneris came down with laryngitis.

        Ms. Fournier made a memorable Broadway debut.

        “I tripped and crawled off the stage.” She screams with laughter. “I had to deliver lines from off-stage, but the things I was saying to myself — my minister/grandfather would not have been happy.”

        All the show's creators were still in New York, including Elton John, and caught her act. “They loved it. They wanted to keep it in the show.”

"I'm an L.A. girl'

        When the national tour was being put together, Ms. Fournier was asked to stay on Broadway as an understudy. Instead she asked for first refusal for the tour. “I'm an L.A. girl, I don't like New York that much.”

        Ms. Fournier loves the role, loves the show. “I love Amneris. She's very, very funny.” She likes infusing her role with "Kelli-isms.' “I can be giddy, and I'm a handsy person. I use my hands a lot onstage.”

        “That part,” says Mrs. Young, “is just Kelli in and out.”

        “Amneris,” says Ms. Fournier, “is the only character who gets to do a (character) arc. She goes from being ditzy and materialistic to being a strong, independent woman. She snaps to it, becomes an adult and takes over Egypt.

        “I love being a supporting lead. There's not that much pressure. It's amazing,” she adds, “I grew up listening to Elton John's music and we're singing songs he wrote for us.”

        But catch her now, because Aida may be Ms. Fournier's last national tour as well as her first.

        For one thing, she misses her husband, Todd Fournier, who's performing in a production of Grease. They're having a hard time making their schedules work, although he will be joining her here, at least for a bit.

        (They met on that first cruise ship gig. She was getting on, he was getting off, but sparks flew. When they met again seven years later, the spark re-kindled and they were married nine months later, in September 2000.)

        Ms. Fournier is ready to settle down, in Los Angeles, where she intends to concentrate on television and film.

        “I want to buy a house,” she says. “I want a family.” (For the time being she's settled for a puppy.) “I love being in this business but — I don't need a picket fence — but sometimes I'd love a little bit of normalcy.”
       

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