Age & Hometown: 24; Baltimore, MD

Current Role: Making her Broadway debut as the vengeful and protective psychic maid Cassandra in Christopher Durang’s comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

A Famous Friend: Few young actresses would turn down an ensemble role in The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, but Shalita Grant recalls thinking, “I don’t want ...

Age & Hometown: 41; Indianapolis, IN

Current Role: A fiery Broadway debut as Opera Populaire prima donna Carlotta Giudicelli in the 25th anniversary cast of The Phantom of the Opera.

Jingle Bells: Michele McConnell knew she was born to be a star...even if her junior high school music teacher didn’t. The teacher “personally knew the engineers at a recording ...

Age & Hometown: 29; New York, NY

Current Role: Patty Ann Donovan, a down-on-her-luck Irish-American racist who agrees to "ghost-buy" a home for an African-American family in 1950s Boston, in Lincoln Center Theater's Luck of the Irish.

Getting Nasty: Luck of the Irish is the second meaty off-Broadway project in a row for Amanda Quaid, the daughter of Oscar-nominated actor ...

Age & Hometown: 37; Maarn, Netherlands

Current Role: Making her Broadway debut as the gravity-defying sorceress Elphaba in the blockbuster musical Wicked.

Wicked’s Powerful Spell: Dutch stage star Willemijn Verkaik (pronounced “Villa-main Ver-kike") has played Elphaba in Wicked more than 1,000 times, in three different languages. “It’s a spell like magic,” she says of the role. “Once you ...

Age & Hometown: 29; Boston, MA

Current Role: Originating the character of Jean-Michel, a crusader for the kingdom’s poor and a love interest for Ella’s stepsister Gabrielle, in Broadway’s new Cinderella.

A Passionate Original: A Bostonian turned Brooklynite, Hildreth never expected he would have the opportunity to create a role in a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. “It’s super ...

Age & Hometown: 36; Baton Rouge, LA

Current Role: An explosive Broadway debut as Nick, a rookie professor at New Carthage University in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A Killer Education: Born and raised in Baton Rouge (the “kid brother to New Orleans, its cooler older brother”), Dirks grew up watching football games and plays at Louisiana ...

Age & Hometown: “Too old for Gavroche but not quite ready for Jean Valjean”; Los Gatos, CA

Current Role: A Broadway debut as Christine’s loyal beau Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny in the 25th anniversary cast of The Phantom of the Opera.

Renaissance Raoul: Raised in “a little slice of heaven” in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kyle Barisich grew up ...

Age & Hometown: 29; Los Angeles, CA

Current Role: A Broadway debut juggling three intentionally ambiguous roles in Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of The Other Place, a haunting drama about a woman suddenly affected by a mysterious illness.

Mother Always Knows Best: The only child of Steppenwolf Theatre Company members and TV stars Jeff Perry and Laurie Metcalf, Zoe Perry ...

Age & Hometown: 26; Spring, TX

Current Role: Alan Seymour, a rich suitor who pines for the beautiful Madge (Maggie Grace) in Roundabout Theatre Company’s sexy revival of Picnic.

Juilliard Reunion: Making a Broadway debut is nerve-wracking, but luckily for Ben Rappaport, the classically trained actor is collaborating with a familiar face: “[Director] Sam Gold and I go way back ...

Age & Hometown: 14; South Salem, NY

Current Role: Pulling double duty as Deputy, the sharp-eyed assistant to a bumbling gravedigger, and Master Nick Cricker, a Victorian music hall child star, in Roundabout Theatre Company’s acclaimed Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Training With Tony Winners: Like most 14-year-olds, Nicholas Barasch hasn’t actually read Charles Dickens’ The ...