Age: 27

Hometown: Tucson, Arizona

Currently: Playing everyone’s favorite swamp-dwelling ogre, who sets out to rescue a feisty princess with a very chatty donkey in tow, as the title role in Shrek the Musical. Crawford replaced original star Brian d’Arcy James on November 10.

Destiny’s Child: Crawford was a self-described “goofy kid,” who loved performing but didn ...

She may have played second fiddler to the “David versus David” rivalry on American Idol’s seventh season, but second runner-up Syesha Mercado is confidently taking the spotlight now in a shiny new Dreamgirls, currently kicking off a national tour at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. As Diana Ross doppelganger Deena Jones, the 22-year-old Florida native is making her professional ...

Age: 31

Hometown: Lakeland, Florida

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a honky-tonk pianist from Harlem whose unbending response to bigotry creates dramatic fireworks in the Broadway revival of Ragtime.

Yes, He Can: There’s nothing jaded about this Broadway newcomer, whose conversation bubbles with thankfulness and joy. Yet Darrington admits that his career path has had ...

If anyone can bring 20 personalities to life in just 90 minutes, it’s Anna Deavere Smith. A performer, interviewer, writer, college professor and co-star of TV’s Nurse Jackie, Smith is currently back on the New York stage for the first time in 10 years in Let Me Down Easy, the latest example of her unique combination of journalism ...

Tony Award nominee Hunter Foster, whose Broadway resume includes such shows as Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown, The Producers and Footloose, began his career on the New York stage over 15 years ago. So, he’s had plenty of experience to draw on for his last two gigs, off-Broadway’s New York-centric musicals Happiness and the currently playing Ordinary Days ...

Age: “Grown!”

Hometown: Born in Macon, Georgia, Glover moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a baby when her dad became a student of the University of Tennessee. “It’s the scenic city of the south,” she declares. “It’s beautiful—hilly and green. A great place to grow up.”

Currently: Raising the roof of Broadway’s Shubert Theatre as Felicia Ferrell ...

Glee fans might be in a bit of withdrawal since the World Series has put the popular TV show on a two-week hiatus. But have no fear, Gleeks! Not only did the just-released CD Glee: The Music, Volume 1 become an instant smash, but Jane Lynch, who plays the show’s deliciously evil cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, is performing off-Broadway ...

Playing the man who invented the vibrator might sound like the set-up for a comedy routine, but Michael Cerveris is seriously excited to be starring in the Broadway premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play. And, really, why should anyone be surprised that Cerveris would accept the rather daring role of a Victorian doctor ...