Spider-Man's Laura Beth Wells on Life as the Green Goblin's Wife and Her Own Newlywed Bliss

Age & Hometown: 35; Knoxville, TN

Current Role: A Broadway debut as Emily Osborn, the devoted wife of madman scientist-turned-super villain Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, in Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark.

Taking Flight: Wells gets to watch Spider-Man soar through the air each night, so it’s fitting that her love of theater began with another high-flying musical. “My parents took me to see Peter Pan at the University of Tennessee [her future alma mater] when I was in fourth grade, and I went absolutely bonkers,” she recalls. After grad school and a stint in San Francisco, Wells moved to New York in 2002, continuing to work at regional theaters around the country. “I was very excited,” she said of landing Spider-Man, her first Broadway gig, in 2009. “I’ve been in New York for 10 years, so all of that time standing in line had finally paid off!” As theater fans now know, however, her inaugural Broadway show turned out to be a highly unusual experience.

Mrs. Green Goblin: Of Spider-Man’s highly publicized series of delays and creative team overhauls, Wells notes, “It was interesting to watch the process from the inside. All the sudden there was this spotlight, and we couldn’t quite understand why. Wasn’t there anything else going on in the world?” As the show got back on track, Wells concentrated on exploring the character of Norman Osborn’s wife who, while frequently mentioned in Spider-Man comics, has only been illustrated three times. “Oddly enough, she looks just like me,” the actress says of her comic counterpart. “I was freaked out by that! She’s a big presence for Norman’s character and what fuels his madness.” Whatever challenges any future roles may bring, Wells is ready: “I joke that all I need to put on my resume for the rest of my career is, ‘I can handle it—I was in Spider-Man.’”

Wedding Bells: In real life, Wells is a new bride, having married Metropolitan Opera singer David Crawford in an upstate New York ceremony in August. “David did it all,” she brags, when asked about the stress of simultaneously planning a wedding and performing a Broadway show. “He was fantastic,” she says, adding with a laugh, “Opera singers don’t actually work.” After a honeymoon in Mexico, Wells is back home at the Foxwoods Theatre, enjoying “the most stable job” she’s ever had, along with an anything-but-stable onstage married with Patrick Page. “He’s wonderful," she says of the veteran Broadway leading man. “At my wedding, he sat next to my husband’s cousin and right after they said ‘You may kiss the bride,’ he goes, ‘That’s all well and good, but I get her eight times a week!’”