Age: 27

Hometown: Tucson, Arizona

Currently: Playing everyone’s favorite swamp-dwelling ogre, who sets out to rescue a feisty princess with a very chatty donkey in tow, as the title role in Shrek the Musical. Crawford replaced original star Brian d’Arcy James on November 10.

Destiny’s Child: Crawford was a self-described “goofy kid,” who loved performing but didn ...

Age: 31

Hometown: Lakeland, Florida

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a honky-tonk pianist from Harlem whose unbending response to bigotry creates dramatic fireworks in the Broadway revival of Ragtime.

Yes, He Can: There’s nothing jaded about this Broadway newcomer, whose conversation bubbles with thankfulness and joy. Yet Darrington admits that his career path has had ...

Age: “Grown!”

Hometown: Born in Macon, Georgia, Glover moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a baby when her dad became a student of the University of Tennessee. “It’s the scenic city of the south,” she declares. “It’s beautiful—hilly and green. A great place to grow up.”

Currently: Raising the roof of Broadway’s Shubert Theatre as Felicia Ferrell ...

Age: 19

Hometown: Potomac, Maryland

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Eugene Morris Jerome, the precocious teen narrator (and alter ego of playwright Neil Simon) in the revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Comedy Tonight: The youngest son of a lawyer and a film documentarian, Robbins debuted professionally in children’s shows at the Kennedy Center under the direction of Debbie ...

Age: 25

Hometown: Virginia Beach, Virginia

Currently: Making her Broadway debut as Gwen Cavendish, a third generation stage actress who’s not sure she wants to carry on the family business in Manhattan Theatre Club’s revival of Kaufman and Ferber’s The Royal Family.

Girl Power: Though she wasn’t raised in a Royal Family-style stage clan, Barrett ...

Age: 23

Hometown: “Just outside Vancouver, in Canada.”

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as the hip-swiveling, not-so-“Sincere” title star in the first ever Rialto revival of musical classic Bye Bye Birdie.

Canadian Achin’: An accomplished athlete, Funk is used to aches and pains—a broken foot before the Canadian nationals ended his career as a gymnast, and he later ...

Age: 24

Hometown: Waukegan, Illinois

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Franco Wicks, a brash young man who goes head to head with Michael McKean as the ex-hippie owner of a rundown Chicago doughnut shop in Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts.

You’ve Got Talent: Hill discovered performing in elementary school and vividly recalls the high school drama teacher who “put ...

Age: 32

Hometown: Puyallup, Washington

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as a pair of psychiatrists (including one who morphs into a rock star!) in the Broadway musical Next to Normal.

Can’t Stop the Music: Growing up in the Seattle suburbs, Hobson became serious about singing in high school, when he placed second among baritones in a statewide competition. “I ...