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"And people don't expect that, and I think that's what sets it apart. 'Chicago' is like a bunch of vignettes. It never really emotionally ropes you in like this. It's about history, you know?"

She says she gets goose bumps just talking about it.

New sense of freedom

Gibson finds it amusing when people ask her how she "made the transition" into theater.

"I had my Equity card, like, five years before I had my record deal," she says.

In retrospect, her record deal at age 16 with Atlantic seems almost like a detour, though she doesn't see it that way.

She still plays her old hits, mixed in with her newer piano ballads, on gay cruises and in nightclubs. She revisited her past again this year as the host of VH1's "100 Greatest Teen Stars" (she was No. 20).

She indulges her kitschy side whenever she feels like it. She was eliminated in week three from Fox's "Skating With Celebrities," where she was paired with champion skater Kurt Browning.

Last year, she finally said yes to numerous requests to pose for Playboy, and she attributes that to a new sense of freedom inspired by the theater.

"At this point, to not do it would be denying a part of myself that I do have," she says. "I am in the theater world. We do quick changes in the wings. I do risque roles like in 'Cabaret' and 'Chicago' and 'Gypsy.' So I felt it was almost hypocritical not to do it."

Sure, she's still a punchline for wiseacre music critics who already have a comedy routine written in their heads before the shrink wrap even comes off the CD (her last pop album, "M.Y.O.B.," came out in 2001). And because she used to be "Debbie Gibson," she knew that when she returned to Broadway for "Les Miserables" in 1992, she had to do it better than anyone else had ever done it.

But she has outlived anyone's notions of celebrity stunt casting by now, and that's evident in the rehearsal studio as she darn-near nails the choreography for "Perfectly Marvelous" after a quick run-through with choreographer Jennifer Werner.

The hat toss to Duguay, the head pops, the spins, the sassy kick when she sings the word "stim-u-la-tion" all have to punctuate the lyrics precisely. Gibson, in her black gauchos and bedazzled black top, her hair in pigtails, commits only the most minor flubs -- and does everything she does right with gusto.

Watching from along the mirrored wall, Werner parrots Gibson's moves at first to guide her if she needs it. Before long, though, she just stands there and watches with eye-twinkling admiration, chewing gum and nodding her head occasionally.

"Deborah, that's awesome," she says when the song's over. "You're great. So good."

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