About Megan Hilty

It's rare for any performer to go straight from college to starring on a Broadway stage. But occasionally, luck and talent defy the odds, and a new performer emerges, seemingly from out of nowhere, to become one of the brightest new lights on Broadway. That's certainly the case with Megan Hilty.

Megan was born in Bellevue, Washington on March 29, 1981. She was drawn to music from a young age, in part because, as she tells it, she didn't have enough of it in her life:

"My mom read this article about how tone-deaf mothers should never sing to their babies, and so she refused to sing to me. And I became obsessed with it when I was little, because I always wanted her to sing to me and with me. But she would always play these recordings for me, and so I became obsessed with all these different kinds of voices. (She played) Manhattan Transfer and...I loved The Music Man when I was little."

At first, Megan was interested in becoming an opera performer. After learning more about the rigors of operatic training and the limited opportunities for younger performers, she decided to switch her focus to theatre. She performed in youth theatre programs in her area (her first onstage role was in Annie as one of the Boylan sisters), and attended the Washington Academy of Performing Arts Conservatory High School in Redmond, Washington. Her credits during this time period include the roles of Nancy in Oliver! and Meg Brockie in Brigadoon, both with the Bellevue School District Youth Theatre. She also performed in Iolanthe with the Bellevue Opera, and won the King County solo competition in the mezzo soprano category.

After graduating, Megan moved to Southern Oregon and spent two years waiting tables and working odd jobs while working in theatre at night.

'I graduated early, I was seventeen and I'd gotten all my real high school credits out of the way...and I got a show down in Southern Oregon...so I left a little early and went down there and decided that I wanted to take a couple years and see if I could support myself doing this and see if this is really what I wanted to do or dedicate four years of my life to training for it. I did community theatre and dinner theatre and I worked retail, I worked as a waitress...I literally worked at the dinner theatre right next to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival...I was actually doing laundry late one night with one of the actors at the Shakespeare Festival and he was like, 'You need to get out of this town, you need to go to college, you need to go to Carnegie Mellon University.'"

Megan took his advice, and was accepted to the theatre program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She performed in a variety of college and regional productions during this time, including Carnegie Mellon School of Drama's production of Kiss of the Spider Woman (as Molina's mother) and the City Theatre production of Cafe Puttanesca. She won the National Society of Arts and Letters competition for musical theatre in 2004, performing "I Can Cook Too" from On the Town and "Simple" from Nine. She graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor's degree in Theatre.

About two months before her graduation from CMU, Megan performed in an agent showcase. She was signed by an agent who sent her to audition for the role of Audrey in the touring company of Little Shop of Horrors. She landed the part, but soon learned that the production had decided to move in another direction and that she probably would not be staying in the role. The agents asked her to travel to New York again, this time to audition for the role of G(a)linda, the role made famous by Kristin Chenoweth in Wicked.

"I was sitting in my little hotel room the night before...I didn't even think I could be funny, really. (I thought) maybe if I just make them laugh two times I can feel like I did my job. Little did I know it was the final callback - I was the wild card. I walked in the room and Joe Mantello shakes my hand. Stephen Schwartz is sitting there, Winnie Holzman is there...everybody (from the Wicked creative team) is in this room."

Her audition lasted eight minutes. She was on an overnight bus trip back to Pittsburgh when she got the news: she had been hired as the Broadway company's Glinda standby.

After a year as standby (during which she made her Broadway debut opposite Tony winner Idina Menzel), Megan took over as principal Glinda in the production in May 2005, working with a cast that included Shoshana Bean as Elphaba, Rue McClanahan as Madam Morrible, and Ben Vereen as the Wizard. Eden Espinosa took over the role of Elphaba for the last four months of Megan's run.

During this time period, Megan participated in numerous benefit events, including the Broadway community's Hurricane Katrina Benefit and other events for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. She also performed in the Broadway Spotlight concert series at Ars Nova and participated in a reading of Breaking Up is Hard to Do, a musical based on the songs of Neil Sedaka.

Upon completing her run in Wicked on Broadway, Megan performed in the TheatreWorks production of Vanities: The Musical at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in Mountain View, California. She played the role of Mary, one of a trio of sorority sisters dealing with coming of age in the '60s and '70s.

Then it was back to Wicked, this time with the touring company. With Shoshana Bean, also a native of the Pacific Northwest, Megan performed the role of Glinda in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and Toronto, Canada. While she was finishing up her run as Glinda on tour and preparing to open the Los Angeles production, she got a call from Joe Mantello, the director of Wicked. He was directing a workshop of 9 to 5, a musical based on the iconic movie, that was being written by Patricia Resnick (co-author of the film). Dolly Parton was writing the music, and Mantello wanted Megan to play Doralee, Parton's role from the film. Megan found that the most daunting part of the role was walking in Dolly Parton's shoes.

"I thought, 'Oh God, I'll never live up to her expectations.' But all those things went out the window immediately. Dolly has been nothing but supportive and gracious -- something that started out so scary turned into an experience that I'll cherish my whole life."

After the initial 9 to 5 workshop, Megan joined Eden Espinosa as lead in Wicked's standing LA production at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Megan stayed with the production from its opening in February 2007 until May 18, 2008. During that time, she and former Wicked co-star Shoshana Bean developed a variety show called the Meg an' Sho Show. Their first performance was in March 2008 at Upright Cabaret in West Hollywood. A few months later, they mounted a larger production called Meg an' Sho: Cinco de Mayo on May 5, 2008 at the Music Box - Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood (just down the street from the Pantages). A third performance took place in Ontario, California on November 3, 2008.

During this time period, Megan also recorded a song for composer Scott Alan's album Keys. Her song was entitled "The Dance" and is available on iTunes. She made guest appearances on numerous televisions series: Shark, The Closer, CSI, Desperate Housewives, The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, and Ugly Betty. On that series, she performed as Glinda, alongside Eden Espinosa's Elphaba, in an episode entitled "Something Wicked this Way Comes." She also provided the singing voice for Snow White in Shrek The Third and the voice of Miss Lee in the Disney film The Secret of the Magic Gourd, and continued to participate in 9 to 5 workshops.

After the end of her initial Wicked LA run, it was back to New York for rehearsals for 9 to 5: The Musical's premiere in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre. For the pre-Broadway tryouts, Megan was joined by Allison Janney as Violet (the Lily Tomlin role) and Stephanie J. Block as Judy (originally played by Jane Fonda). Marc Kudisch played the villainous Mr. Hart (the role originated by Dabney Coleman). After several weeks of rehearsal, the company moved to LA for the musical's world premiere. After a few delayed performances because of set issues, the show began its previews and opened on September 20. Audience reaction was positive, and it was soon announced that the show would be moving to Broadway in April 2009.

Upon completing 9 to 5's LA tryouts, Megan returned to Wicked LA, along with Eden Espinosa, to close out the show's nearly two year run. Fittingly, Megan began her final run as Glinda on Halloween night of 2008, just one day after the fifth anniversary of Wicked's debut on Broadway. She stayed with the production until it closed on January 11, 2009. Megan spoke about her years with Wicked in an April 2009 interview with Playbill.com:

"(Playing Glinda) was horribly daunting because Kristin Chenoweth is such a genius and she set the bar so high. It instantly had this cult following, almost, where the audiences were packed with people who were expecting you to hit those places that she had set. So it was nerve-wracking, to say the least, but also one of the most fun jobs I've ever had in my life. I did the role for about four-and-a-half years, and I really think that I could do it for another ten because it's written so well. She becomes a completely different person by the end of the show so, as an actor, is gives you so much stuff to work with."

The night after Wicked LA closed, Megan participated in Defying Inequality, a benefit for equal rights, alongside many members of the Wicked LA company. On February 1, 2009, she performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC as part of the Broadway: The Third Generation series. Megan performed songs from the musical adaptation of the film Secondhand Lions with composers Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner.

After nearly two years of working in Los Angeles, Megan returned to New York in February 2009 to begin rehearsals for 9 to 5's Broadway debut. Dolly Parton's first Broadway musical opened (after three weeks of previews) on April 30, 2009 at the Marquis Theatre. Megan was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical, a Drama League Award, and an Ovation Award for her work in the show.

On September 6, 2009, 9 to 5 completed its Broadway run. In November 2009, Megan made appearances in Wicked Divas with the Cincinnati Pops (her symphonic debut), and participated a staged reading of Richard Rodgers' Two by Two for the Reprise Theatre Company. She also performed with Scott Alan at his Los Angeles concert on September 19, 2009.

In 2010, Megan will appear in the independent film The Bitter Feast and the short film The Happiest Man Alive. She is also scheduled for a solo concert at Feinstein's at Loews Regency in New York on April 26, and continues to do a variety of television and voiceover work.

Outside of her theatrical work, Megan has a coffee and tea line through Net Worth Coffee Brokers.

"I've always loved coffee, and I've always worked in little independent coffee houses. I was approached to have this little coffee and tea line, so I've been working with these roasters and figuring out what that whole world is about. Just kind of this side project that has always been a passion of mine."

As for the future? Megan has mentioned Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett and the Witch in Into the Woods as dream roles. "I would like to do everything, and I don't think that's too ambitious," she said in a May 2009 interview with the New York Post.

With a talent as big as she has, that doesn't seem a stretch.

Quotes from Seth's Chatterbox, May 28, 2009; "Diva Talk: Chatting with 9 to 5's Megan Hilty" (Playbill.com); "Megan Hilty's Motto: 'What Would Dolly Do?'" (New York Post).