So you think you can Broadway?
Tejal Wakchoure | Published June 17, 2023
I recently witnessed pop star JoJo play Satine in Moulin Rouge's most recent run on Broadway. While it's not unheard of for artists to move into sister fields, it felt like a fever dream to see her in her new glittery persona. Over 12 million people attended the 2022-23 Broadway season, the first full-fledged season since covid-19 shut theatres down. Long considered the highest form of theatre in the world, it stays a dream for most musical actors. This begs the question – how on earth do you get to Broadway?
You come from a famous family
Most performers don't begin as Billboard Hot 100-topping singers at the age of 13, but many of them do start with family connections. 15 out of every 100 opening night cast members for current shows were born into prominent families. Although musical theatre is not nearly as nepotistic as Hollywood, the fact that it is part of the entertainment industry means that it still places a priority on relationships. Here are some performers whose relatives have a Wikipedia page, the true mark of stardom.
Hill is a prolific actor, comedian, and producer who has been nominated for the Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Awards.
Calud performed as Kim in the Broadway production of Miss Saigon in 1991. Noblezada later played the same role in 2017.
Miranda Jr. consulted on high-profile political campaigns including those for Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. He was chairman of the Board of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, appointed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Colin Powell was the former United States Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Spade was the co-founder and co-owner of the designer brand Kate Spade New York. Brosnahan rose to fame as the titular Jewish American character on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, despite not being of Jewish descent.
You go to NYU
A staggering 40% of stars who went to college attended one of 5 schools. New York University is at the top by a large margin, beating specialized schools like Julliard and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). NYU alumni include Wicked's Idina Menzel, The Book of Mormon's Jared Gertner, and Kimberly Akimbo's Victoria Clark.
Nearly half of all college-educated broadway stars come from these 5 schools
Schools that actors obtained their highest qualifications from
Source: Wikipedia
It's worth noting that while most of these stars have received a professional education, many have also opted not to go to college. These performers usually start as child actors, as in the case of Grey House's Mia Sinclair Jenness (who also happens to be actress Emily Bauer's daughter) and industry veterans Neil Patrick Harris and Adam Godley.
You have performed on-screen
Musical theatre is a competitive field with few winners on top – only 176 of all 783 opening night cast members for current shows have Wikipedia pages, and many of them are because of crossovers in other sections of the entertainment industry. So, many performers choose to start their careers with advertisements or small roles in TV shows. For instance, out of the 22 cast members of the 2015 smash hit Hamilton, 16 had already appeared on screen. Renée Elise Goldsberry, who won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Angelica Schuyler, already had 26 film and TV credits to her name before opening night.
over 70% of broadway actors have on-screen credits before opening night
Number of credited on-screen performances by actors before opening night, by show
Source: Wikipedia
Methodology
Shows and cast list are from IBDB. While the IBDB database mentions 783 opening night cast members (including ensemble and understudies) for all of the shows currently playing on Broadway, only 176 of these had enough information about them on the internet. This information was scraped from the actors' Wikipedia and Playbill profiles. 'School' here refers to the latest school that the actor went to (mostly MFAs).
Data journalism project for the Lede Program at Columbia.
Project Type: data journalism
Role: data collection, data analysis, data visualization
Tools: Python(Jupyter) for scraping and analysis, Plotly for graphics
Date: June 2023
Sources: IBDB, Playbill, Wikipedia
Code: GitHub