I don’t think any of the Mary’s on the first tour was a UMich grad, although Steffanie Leigh was a recent CMU grad when she landed the role. Maddy Trumble on the second national tour was a UMich grad. And, of course, the original Broadway and first national tour Mary, Ashley Brown, went to CCM. Again, as @MomCares says, for what it’s worth. Leads and ensembles in all kinds of productions come from all kinds of schools. Or no school at all, like Jonathan Groff. There are plenty of paths to success, not to mention all sorts of different definitions of successful.
And lest you all think I’m a complete Poppins-o-phile or something, I only know because my daughter was on the first national tour. She performed almost her whole stint save the last week with Steffi, who still serves as a role model for her.
Maddy was on the first tour as well, just not as Mary. She’s totally lovely, as was Steffi. And yes, my daughter was very lucky to have had that experience.
@addicted2MT I know where you were going with your post, just pointing out that it is does actually happen to have leads from other colleges and that Univ of Michigan graduates are not always the lead but ensemble too, etc.
it’s hard because every MT kid , at least initially, thinks they need to go to CMU , UM, CCM etc and the parents think this too. All we do is sit around and question our sanity of even letting our child pursue such a hard field to begin with and then as soon as our kid says “oh yes I want to go to school for MT” we do the infamous Google search for good MT colleges and there they are…the ones we need to get our kid into…but oh wait… we couldn’t afford some of them even if he/she were to get in. So…we look for other schools and research and look for great training elsewhere and just hope that it all works out.
There’s a Michigan grad in the ensemble of Waitress, and I have seen him do lead roles at a big-name regional theater–I was pretty darned impressed to see he was in Waitress (also it’s a very small ensemble). I think he’s a 2014 grad.
Book of Mormon came to town. Cast alma maters included “the usual suspects” and the “not-so-usual”. Most of the leads listed past credits rather than a school.
Elder Cunningham: BFA U of South Dakota (Standby thanked OBU - Oklahoma Baptist??, YAG, SMTI)
Nabulungi : attended Belmont
Elder McKinley: BFA Wichita State
Dance Captain/Swing: BW grad
Female Swings: AMDA X2
Male Swings: BM VP NYU Steinhart; NYU Tisch New Studio on Broadway, U of Oklahoma & Florida State grad
Female Ensemble: BFA Indiana U
Male Ensemble: BFA Penn State, BFA Shenandoah, BFA CCM X3, BA North Central College, BW, BFA Otterbein, BFA U Mich, BA LINGUISTICS U of Arizona > MFA Actors Studio Drama School NYC
^^^A good friend of my daughter’s is the standby for Elder Price on the tour, but isn’t represented in your list above. But maybe there is more than one tour out of BOM. He is on the First National Tour. He is a graduate (BA) from Yale.
@soozievt - neither Elder Price, nor his standby listed a school. First name of standby starts with Z. The second standby for Elder Cunningham also did not list a school. Not sure which national tour this is.
@choirsandstages@lojosmo His name is Ryan Vasquez. He has huge potential, I was overwhelmed by his interpretation at 54below. He has a lot of future on Broadway, he is going to be a star for sure.
Congrats to your D, 