Sara Jean Ford

Age: 25

Currently: Playing Luisa often referred to as simply "The Girl", the sweet and yearning ingenue in the off-Broadway revival of The Fantasticks.

Hometown: Thousand Oaks, California. "I decided by the time I was 7 or 8 that I wanted to be a performer," Ford recalls. "California is not like New York, where theater is at your fingertips—the theater that I had was in my head. I would take a cast recording and read the liner notes about each scene, press 'play,' listen to the song, and then press 'pause' and read everything again. My mom always said that when she bought me a recording of a musical, it was like buying me a book because it educated me."

East Coast or Bust: Though Ford longed to study acting, "I was raised with the mindset that we didn't have enough money to send me to college," she says. After two years at community college, she was accepted to Carnegie-Mellon and got through its prestigious musical theater program with her mom's support and a mountain of student loans. "Carnegie-Mellon can be pretty competitive," she says. "My boyfriend, Andrew Gehling, who went to school with me, almost left and went to med school!" Happy ending: Gehling just finished a run in Hello, Dolly! at the Paper Mill Playhouse, and Ford went directly from her senior-year showcase to a job understudying Glinda and Nessarose in the Chicago production of Wicked. "It was my first audition!" she marvels. "What are the chances?" Pretty slim.

A Fantastick Day: Speaking of charmed auditions, when Ford began preparing to read for Fantasticks director/composer Tom Jones, she found she didn't have to memorize Luisa's monologue. "I became obsessed with the show after seeing it at the Sullivan Street Theatre when I was 18," she recalls, "and I had a ratty, old script that I must have read a bunch of times. When I picked it up, I realized that I already knew the dialogue; it was like magic."

Keeping Up With Jones: A simple piece of advice from Jones, who's also reprising his onstage role as Henry billed under the pseudonym "Thomas Bruce", helped Ford and her castmates set the right tone for this romantic fable: "He explained that it's as if we're in a traveling acting troupe that has just put its wagon down, and we're presenting the backstage life," she says. "It's the first time we are telling this story, and we don't know exactly what we're going to say. El Gallo, the narrator, is like a conductor. He introduces us, and then it's up to us to tell the story the way we want to. After [Jones] said that, it felt like everything clicked into place in a beautiful way."

Isn't It Romantic? Ford isn't surprised that The Fantasticks retains the crown as the world's longest running musical. "It's a timeless story that appeals to everyone and always will," she says simply. "I get choked up sometimes when I walk out there and see tons of couples, old and young, holding hands and watching the show. I think every single person, no matter what kind of life you've lived, can remember your first love. That's why it's lasted so long. It's all about love!"

On the Record: Talk about full circle: For this lifelong lover of cast albums, the opportunity to re-record The Fantasticks is a priceless gift. "When I first heard about the new recording, I said, "Don't even tell me about this until you're 100 percent sure it's happening—you will send me over the edge," Ford says with a laugh. "The idea that another little girl somewhere out there might lay on her floor and learn about this show from listening to my voice? I can't even describe the feeling."