Kathryn Hahn

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio

Currently: Making her Broadway debut as sexy American stewardess Gloria in the revival of the swinging '60s farce Boeing-Boeing.

Curtain Up! At the age of eight, Hahn got her start in the theater as a curtain puller at the Cleveland Play House, where she also took classes and acted. "I loved the community of it," she recalls. "I think I was always a drama queen. I really, really, really loved playing pretend." She also fell in love with the theater and the actors—college kids who, at the time, seemed old to her. "I just loved being around them and hearing their stories. I loved the sound of their voices. And there was something about the Cleveland Play House that was the holiest place—you know, with the ghost light on the stage and the brick. It was just the most beautiful theater in the world."

Studio City: After studying theater at Northwestern, Hahn moved to New York with her then-boyfriend/now-husband, actor and writer Ethan Sandler. Their first home was a studio on East 61st Street where the front door would hit the shower door every time it opened. The apartment was "the smallest place in the world that we thought was the most glamorous," she says with a laugh. "We decorated it to an inch of its life. I mean, you could barely walk around." The couple then moved to a midtown Manhattan apartment a block away from the Longacre Theatre where, 10 years later—talk about coincidence—Hahn would make her Broadway debut in Boeing-Boeing.

L.A. Lady: Hahn went back to school to earn an M.F.A. from Yale and was discovered by an NBC casting director during a summer stint at the Williamstown Theater Festival. She signed on for a few episodes of the crime drama Crossing Jordan but ended up becoming a regular, playing grief counselor Lily Lebowski for six seasons. The role, she says, "was definitely a game changer" for her career. Even her husband got in on the action, playing an assistant district attorney in 15 episodes. After moving to L.A., Hahn began to wonder if she would ever make it to Broadway, something she had "literally dreamt about since I was a kid." A videotaped audition landed her the role in Boeing-Boeing, and she's thrilled to be back in New York with her toddler son Leonard in tow. "This poor sweetie was kind of born into a circus family," she jokes of her two-performer household. "I was always focused on my career, but he really changed me. To be responsible for guiding him puts all the stupid career stuff into perspective."

Tongue-in-Cheek: There is a lot of kissing in Boeing-Boeing. A lot! And not pecks on the cheek or lips—although there's some of that, too—but full-on, farcical lip locks. "My poor husband," Hahn says with a laugh. "He definitely wasn't prepared for as much smooching as there is." At one point during a performance, Sandler turned to the man sitting next to him and said, "That's my wife." Unmoved, the guy didn't take his eyes off the actors. As the most sexual of the three stewardesses, Hahn lets it show on stage. But rehearsals were a different story: "Oh my god, when we first had to actually go ahead and do it [make out], I was devastated—red and sweaty," she says. "They thought I was so bashful, and then all of the sudden I just kind of let it go. And now it's 'Slutski McGee' coming out with the tongue, which has been really fun."

Make 'Em Laugh: Who knew farce could be such a contact sport? Because of all the falling, grabbing, pushing and door slamming, cast members are discovering new wounds on a regular basis. "Mary [McCormack] covers up my bruises, I cover up her bruises," says Hahn. "We've gotten to know each other very intimately. [Director] Matthew [Warchus] said we should start covering them up because it looks like, you know, a whole different story is going to be told." As for the demands of performing a farce, Hahn says, "It's intimidating. In a drama, you can kid yourself sometimes: 'Oh, they're just listening really intensely.' In this, the only gauge you have is the laughter, so how well it's going is really in your face." The lively actress cheerfully admits to feeling nervous before every performance. "Every night backstage I'm like, 'Why did I decide to do this with my life?' Or 'Kathryn, you could just run. It would be a really embarrassing night, but people would get over it.'" Instead, she heads through those slamming doors into the hilariously turbulent world of Boeing-Boeing.