People

By Guy D. Garcia

She wanted to be a musical-comedy star, and "I plan to be a success," said Vanessa Williams after winning the 1984 Miss America title. But the shock of her nude photos in Penthouse nine months later cost her the title and all likelihood of immediate stardom. In the year since, she has been slowly working her way back, with a forgettable guest shot on a TV detective series last fall and a turn among the many performers at last month's reopening of Harlem's Apollo Theater. This week at Manhattan's South Street Theater, she gets to do her first musical comedy, an off-Broadway show called One Man Band. Williams, 22, plays several female figments of the imagination of the young hero, and she sings and dances "wonderfully," reports Director Jack (The Elephant Man) Hofsiss. So bring on the critics.