![Meet The New Generation of Broadway Actors_550 [i_1972] Meet The New Generation of Broadway Actors_550](http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Meet-The-New-Generation-of-Broadway-Actors_550.jpg)
Photo Credit: Matt Jiggins via cc
Patti, Bernadette, Elaine, Mandy, Zero, Joel, Nathan – Move Aside!!
Make way for the brand new generation of Broadway performers who are taking over the great white way.
Here are the names who we think you should look out for, we are pleased to introduce you to the next generation of Broadway stars.
The New Generation of Broadway Actors
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Laura Osnes (click to view video)The video I have chosen is a beautiful rendition of the Kooman and Dimond song ‘Breathe’ from the short film ‘Flour Baby’“Sometimes people are, like, ‘Oh, Laura goody two shoes, oh, she’s so naïve … Yes, I am, in a way. But I’ve gotten much more worldly since being here.”Laura Osnes is a Broadway star who was chosen as the winner of the US reality talent show You’re The One That I Want and overnight went from Small Town Sandy to Broadway leading lady!She has played starring roles in Grease as Sandy, South Pacific as Nellie Forbush, Anything Goes as Hope Harcourt, and Bonnie and Clyde as Bonnie Parker, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.She starred in the title role of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway, for which she received a Drama Desk Award and her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.In 2014 Osnes starred as Polly Peachum in the Atlantic Theatre Company’s Off-Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera. For this role, Osnes received a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.
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Patina Miller (click to view video)Watch the video of Patina Miller singing ‘Corner of the Sky’ from Pippin a song she never sang in the show she performed in for a year, but she gives so much to here.“if you fight hard enough and work hard enough for your dreams that anything is possible. I didn’t know if that would ever come to me, and the fact that it did made me want to work even harder.”Patina Miller most famously originated the role of disco nun Delores Van Cartier in the West End and Broadway productions of Sister Act.In 2005 Miller got down to the final three for the role of Effie in the movie adaptation of Dreamgirls. She lost out on that role to Jennifer Hudson but went on to join the cast of the US soap All My Children and a Central Park production of the musical Hair before being cast in Sister Act.She followed up Sister Act with a Tony Award winning performance as the Leading Player in the Broadway revival of Pippin, a role originally made famous by the wonderful Ben Vereen.She has recently been stretching her screen acting chops and plays Commander Paylor in The Hunger Games: Mockinjay movies.
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Annaleigh Ashford (click to view video)The video I have chosen is Annaleigh singing ‘The Lighter Side’ from ‘Chasing The Day’ by Will Van Dyke“Early on, I was already a huge fan of Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Bette Midler. I loved Cher already — basically, I was a young gay man — I also loved Liza, and I had a weird karaoke background tape of Liza Minnelli’s greatest hits, and I would put on my fishnet tights and my black leotard and false eyelashes at eight-years-old, and I would sing “City Lights” and “Maybe This Time.” “Maybe This Time” was very inappropriate.”Annaleigh Ashford is an American actress originally from Denver, Colorado.After graduating from college she got her big break performing in the ensemble and understudying the role of Glinda on the First National Tour of Wicked. She joined the cast in December 2005 and left in September 2006.She then originated the role of Margot in Legally Blonde: The Musical, her Broadway debut. She also understudied the lead role of Elle Woods.She went on to play Glinda on Broadway and take over the role of Jeanie in Hair before snapping up the role of lesbian performance artist Maureen in the first-ever New York revival of Jonathan Larson’s landmark rock musical Rent.Ashford recieved Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for her portrayal of Lauren in the original Broadway cast of Kinky Boots.Recently she has appeared as Betty Dimello in the Showtime TV series Masters of Sex and her role has been upgraded from recurring role to regular cast for season 2.
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Andrew Keenan-Bolger (click to view video)The video I have chosen is Andrew singing ‘Top of the World’ from the wonderful ‘Tuck Everlasting’ a show I love which needs to find a bigger audience“I think what’s really special about Disney Theatricals is that they are creating unforgettable experiences for families. I’m super close with my family and saw firsthand how theater changes lives at a young age. To get to be a part of that message is extraordinary”Andrew Keenan-Bolger is the brother of actresses Maggie Keenan-Bolger and Tony Award-nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger. As a teenager Keenan-Bolger was in the original 2000 cast of Seussical on Broadway, as an alternate Jojo. He has also appeared as a child on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast as Chip.More recently he played Roberson Ay in the Broadway and National tour productions of Disney’s Mary Poppins. He also created the role of Omar in the 5th Avenue Theater production of Disney’s Aladdin. He most famously played Crutchie in Disney’s NewsiesHe was supposed to star as Jesse Tuck in the musical adaptation of Tuck Everlasting however due to Tuck Everlasting not being able to find a Broadway home, the show has been delayed.Keenan-Bolger co-created the web series Submissions Only with fellow Broadway performer Kate Wetherhead. He serves as the series’ director and editor.
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Nikki M James (click to view video)The Nikki M James video I have chosen is a fun medley of songs made famous by the Disney princesses“I never, ever believed that I couldn’t accomplish it as a young kid. It didn’t occur to me that I was going to audition for jobs that I wouldn’t get, I didn’t know that it was difficult. And thank goodness, because it is hard. But I keep that little girl around with me a lot because she’s much more brave than I am.”Nikki M James is a Tony Award Award-winning actor. She beat the legendary diva Patti LuPone to the award in the 2011 Tony Awards for best featured actress in a musical for The Book Of Mormon in which she played Nabulungi.As a child she was nominated for a Rising Star Award at Paper Mill Playhouse for her performance as Dolly Levi in high school production of Hello Dolly. She trained at the Tisch School of Arts in New York.She made her Broadway debut in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and starred as Ottilie in the Encores! production of House of Flowers. She played Adela in the Off-Broadway run of the musical adaptation of Bernarda Alba and appeared in the Broadway cast of All Shook Up. She went on to play Dorothy in the revival of The Wiz at La Jolla Playhouse and also starred in Romeo and Juliet and Caesar and Cleopatra at the Stratford Festival with Christopher Plummer.Most recently she is playing Eponine in the new Broadway production of Les Miserables
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Lin-Manuel Miranda (click to view video)This video is from the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series and is Lin_Manuel Miranda’s rendition of Jay-Z’s love letter to New York “Empire State of Mind,” sprinkled with some “Another Hundred People,” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.”“I do feel a responsibility to hook kids in early, though – I mean, I got hooked in and saw that this was a potential place where I could live and work and be happy by doing musicals in high school. You know, I still go back to my high school to see their musical every year. I feel very connected to that because that is where I figured out who I was. So, that was very important to me.”Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning American composer, rapper, lyricist, and actor. He wrote the Broadway musical In the Heights and starred in it as Usnavi.He appeared as Charley in an Encores! staged concert of Merrily We Roll Along at the New York City Center.In 2014 Miranda was in the revival of Tick, Tick… Boom! as part of the Encores! Off-Center series the show we reunited Miranda with In The Heights alum Karen Olivo.He is working on The Hamilton Mixtape, a hip hop album based upon the life of Alexander Hamilton. He performed part of it at the White House accompanied by Alex Lacamoire.
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Aaron Tveit (click to view video)The video I have chosen is Aaron singing the very funny and lovely audition song ‘Along the Way’ from the Pasek and Paul musical ‘Edges’“ I relish the opportunity to do a play, and I’ve been very lucky the last couple years being successful in three different mediums — stuff from Broadway and television and film work. I really want that to continue. I’m not a person who’s trying to jump to television or jump to movies and get out of theatre. I really hope that this crossover that I’ve been able to do will continue for the rest of my career. I want to do stuff here in New York, do plays and do musicals and I also want to be able to work in film. I hope that I can just have no boundaries. Wherever great stuff is, that’s where I want to be.”Aaron Tveit left Ithaca College after two years to join the national tour of Rent as Steve and covering Roger/Mark. Following Rent, he was cast as Link Larkin in the first national tour of Hairspray. In 2008 he originated and starred as the role of Gabe in the Off-Broadway production of the musical Next to Normal.Tveit has also played Frank Abagnale Jr. in the stage version of Catch Me If You Can, Fiyero in Wicked, and on screen as Enjolras in the film production of Les Miserables.
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Or use our contact form to get in touch and send us your favourite new Broadway star to add to this list.