Dan Fogler

Currently: Singing an ode to his "magic foot" every night at Broadway's Circle in the Square as quirky spelling bee contestant William Barfee in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

A Cinderella Story: Dan Fogler's two year journey from the depths of off-off-Broadway to the Great White Way began when fellow Poly Prep high school alum Rebecca Feldman called him up with an idea about creating an improvisational show around that elementary school institution: the spelling bee. Fogler initially made up two characters, one that he says was similar to Bee's kooky Leaf Coneybear—"the A.D.D., couldn't sit still, just totally living in their own fantasy world kind of kid." For the other, the actor thought, "What's my take on the kid who's drowning in their own mucus?" Then he became more specific: "He's got a breathing problem…he's got a collapsed nasal passage. I stole that from my brother. He still snores like he's a bear in hibernation." He also keyed in on certain contestants' tricks for spelling at the mike. "I liked the concept of writing it out—the invisible writing, so I was like, 'This kid is a show off. This is how he shines. He's going to write across the floor with his entire leg.'"

Did I Do That?: "I had always stayed away from characters like this because it's been done before," he says of his messy, bossy and hilarious altar-ego, citing nerdish predecessors like Lily Tomlin's Edith Ann. "But Barfee is a new spin on a classic theme," he says. The name was inspired by the gross and gruesome 80s trading card characters, The Garbage Pail Kids. "There was a Garbage Pail Kid named Peter Pukey and so I said, I'm going to name my character Billy Barfee…but he's going to be more sophisticated, so he calls himself William."

Bits and Pieces: Fogler's preteen creation spelled his first word on stage in C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, the "mockumentary" play that came from those original improv exercises. Feldman's boyfriend Jay Reiss and Fogler's Boston University classmate Sarah Saltzberg were the only other current cast members who were a part of this early incarnation of Bee. Two essential pieces then came through playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who fell for the play and put the gang in touch with composer William Finn. His talent helped morph it into a completely original new musical, which was developed in the Berkshires at Barrington Stage Company, where it debuted. The show soon headed off-Broadway at Second Stage, where director James Lapine joined the company, and then made the leap to Broadway.

Aw, Nuts: One might suspect that the creative, engaging and not at all nasal Fogler might get bored playing the same character for two years, but as he reminds us, Spelling Bee is unique. "Because you're allowing audience members on stage, it's never the same," he explains with a twinkle in his eye. And live theater is just that. One night, at the point in the show when frustrated Bee loser Chip Tolentino throws a bag of M&M's at the nut-intolerant Barfee, the bag burst, strewing candy all over the stage. "So I look up at everybody, knowing that we have to sing and dance on this stage and I say," Fogler recalls, slipping casually into his Barfee voice, "'He threw the yellow ones. I…can't…be near nuts…can someone please…help me remove the M&M's from the stage…' Everyone, like clockwork, descended. It was in a split second—BOOM—everyone grabbed one and they went back to their places. And the icing on the cake was that Coneybear picks up his M&M and he eats it on the way back," he laughs. "I mean they were on it…and they made it look like art."

One Plus One: Fogler is officially and suddenly a breakout Broadway success with a Tony nomination and Outer Critics Circle Award under his belt, but he humbly insists that "Barfee wouldn't exist without every other color of the rainbow there," gushing about his co-stars. Doing this show "has proven to me that I've been on the right path," he says. "Before it was just an equation. Now, I see…the equation works. You sit there with your friends and you do something and your dream can come true."