From high school theater to Broadway star

The stars of great musicals often started on a high school stage. Get the stories behind Broadway success for Sierra Boggess, Megan Mullally and Mario Lopez.

See how we got hot Broadway stars, Sierra Boggess, Megan Mullally and Mario Lopez together for our cover shoot. See our behind-the-scenes slideshow For more: Actors are often athletes, too I starred in "Annie Get Your Gun." By Al Harrington "The Lion King" producer on his "how-to" book. USA WEEKEND offices swamped with entries the first year, in Aug. '07.

By Brian Truitt

Superlatives in high school yearbooks haven't changed that much over the years: most outgoing, biggest flirt, most likely to succeed.

Broadway bound.
For real. Today's teen performers are, indeed, the Broadway stars of tomorrow. The proof? Just tune in to the Tony Awards June 15. Chances are, a hefty portion of those winning kudos as Broadway's best started out as awkward, unsure, pimple-faced teens with stars in their eyes in a high school musical.

If that sounds like just another corny theater cliché -- geeky misfit kid proves his/her mettle by overcoming all the odds and making it to the bright lights of Broadway -- so be it. Just ask the current crop of stars populating the Great White Way.

"Doing high school musicals was one of the biggest catalysts to get me to where I am," says Sierra Boggess (class of 2000, George Washington High, Denver), aka Ariel in Broadway's "The Little Mermaid."

We talked to some of the biggest names on Broadway about their high school musical days and the impact they had on their current success. Each cited the experience as vital. But not in the way you'd think. They didn't simply gush about the applause or the thrill of being onstage. Instead, these artists waxed poetic about less glamorous -- and, they believe, far more important -- lessons gleaned as teenagers in their school productions.

"We all learned about pitching in," says Boggess, 26. "We would paint and build sets and make costumes and were always working together. That's just a good lesson, I think, especially at that age. That's how I basically survived high school, because of my drama department."

No doubt, painting sets isn't the first thing that comes to the minds of awestruck little girls as they watch mermaid Boggess float onstage. Nor are good manners the first quality one associates with the nutty shenanigans of "Spamalot." But that's exactly what "Spamalot" veteran Christopher Sieber (class of '88, Forest Lake (Minn.) Area High School) cites about his 10th-grade debut as a waiter in "Hello, Dolly!" as key to his success today.

"Be nice to people, and treat them as you like to be treated," says Sieber, 39, of the valuable lesson he learned as a kid. "Before you know it, that person you were a jerk to years before is now, say, the director of the new musical or show you're up for. People notice that kind of stuff." Next up for Sieber: He'll play Lord Farquaad in the big-budget musical "Shrek" later this year.

Starting with a kiss
Others may have recognized Megan Mullally's potential for stardom, but she didn't. In fact, the way she tells it, Mullally (class of '77, Casady School, Oklahoma City) was a shy, artsy kid who was terrified of the spotlight.

"Doing a musical or performing, you're taking a chance because you're just setting yourself up for potential complete ridicule," Mullally says. "That's why you have to go in with both barrels blazing."

She endured her share of potentially embarrassing episodes onstage -- having to kiss a boy when she was 16 and belting out "Don't Rain on My Parade" for the entire school. But she realized life is all about taking risks.

Years later, the actress was the picture of chutzpah in her Emmy-winning role on TV's "Will & Grace." Now, the performer, 49, struts her musical stuff nightly in Broadway's "Young Frankenstein."

Shedding those fears
Like Mullally, "Mamma Mia!" star Andy Kelso (class of '98, Eaglecrest High School, Denver) struggled with shyness. Persuaded by his sister to audition for "Secret Garden" his freshman year, he didn't make the cast, but he found his innate talent simply by running the spotlight and watching what went on around him. The next year, he surprised everybody by winning the lead in "Into the Woods." The key for him? Seeing the commitment you need to make a show successful.

"The juniors and seniors were like stars to me," says Kelso, 28. "Seeing them being able to go up there and actually do it, and going home and maybe singing through the same songs I just heard, helped me develop my confidence."

Missing homecoming pays off
Singing while gently scolding and flying is not a talent Ashley Brown, who stars as the nanny in Broadway's "Mary Poppins," learned at Gulf Breeze High in Florida (class of 2000). When asked what playing showstopping leads taught her, Brown points to something she says was a much harder lesson: discipline.

The actress says she sacrificed a lot of her free time and the important "high school experience" to rehearse in the gym lobby during basketball games or to raise money to rent a theater for shows.

"In high school, I missed high school dances -- which at the time was absolutely devastating," says Brown, 26. "To not go to homecoming is the end of a 16-year-old girl's world. The good thing is, my parents never pressured me -- it was always decisions I had to make."

Making it work
Broadway's newest wunderkind, Lin-Manuel Miranda (class of '98, Hunter College High School, New York City), was clearly a talented kid when he actually directed a production of "West Side Story" his senior year. But it's not those early accolades he won as a young director that catapulted Miranda, a Tony favorite for starring in as well as writing the music and lyrics for "In the Heights," into the limelight. Instead, he says it was something far more prosaic.

"Time management is the keystone of what I learned," says Miranda, 28. "You learn to budget time immensely, and it's a lesson I continue to carry with me."

Knowing how to balance responsibilities also was paramount for both Mario Lopez (class of '91, Chula Vista (Calif.) High), now making his Broadway debut in "A Chorus Line," and the man who dons lots of makeup and a colorful headdress as "The Lion King's" Mufasa, Nathaniel Stampley (class of '91, Whitefish Bay (Wis.) High).

As a student, Lopez, now 34, juggled a star-studded wrestling career (he was a state champ), school musicals and teen heartthrob status on TV's "Saved by the Bell." He says he learned the importance of trying new things and keeping an open mind -- all of which have led to his multimedia success. "I've done everything I've wanted to get into as far as being able to act, host, produce and now star on Broadway," Lopez says.

Stampley adds that being game for anything in school, from track and basketball to musicals and student council, helps him now as he balances his crazy schedule as a Broadway actor and cares for his 11-month-old daughter.

"For me, it was really a time to learn about yourself, the things you like and don't like and what you do well," says Stampley, 34. "A lot of the jocks also did musical things, so it wasn't a bad thing."

But at times it was impossible, Stampley admits. After much deliberation, he sacrificed a part in his senior year musical, "My Fair Lady," to play basketball during the playoffs.

For her part, Jenny Powers (class of '98, Andover (Mass.) High School) gave up hoops her sophomore year for theater. "It wasn't the coolest thing to do -- I was always a part of the 'popular' group. It was hard," says Powers, 28. "I was like, 'Oh God, am I not going to be cool anymore?' " As it turned out, "almost the whole school came to see me" in her school's musical. "It was awesome." The sacrifice paid off: Powers is now reprising her senior-year role as bad girl Rizzo in Broadway's "Grease."

Channeling those teen hormones
Laura Benanti (class of '97, Kinnelon (N.J.) High), who co-stars with Patti LuPone in Tony-favorite "Gypsy," went from doing high school musicals straight to the pros. Before graduation, she won an ensemble part in "The Sound of Music"; within a few months Benanti was starring opposite Richard Chamberlain.

But what leavened her quick rise to Broadway was not just precocious showmanship. It was learning the hard way that the show must go on.

Benanti, 28, says she'll never forget when she was a freshman in "Fiddler on the Roof" and the male lead lost his voice right in the middle of the show. The fix? Benanti sang the rest of his songs off-stage into a microphone while he lip-synced. "It really taught me, you just gotta do what you gotta do," she says. "The other day, a piece of glass broke on the stage, and Patti ran onstage and swept it off. Those are the kinds of lessons I learned in high school."

"The Little Mermaid's" Boggess doesn't want to forget how she felt as a teen performer. To play Ariel, she reread her old high school diaries. They helped her relive the rush of excitement when, in ninth grade, she was a lead dancer in "The Music Man." "That's exactly how I felt when I stepped onstage as Ariel for the first time on Broadway," she says. "Can it really get better than this?"

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USA WEEKEND shows you behind-the-scenes of our photo shoot for the cover of the June 1, 2008 issue. We highlight actors -- Broadway stars -- who talk about the importance of experiences in their high school theater programs. Featured are Mario Lopez ("A Chorus Line"), Megan Mullally ("Young Frankenstein') and Sierra Boggess ("The Little Mermaid").