JK's TheatreScene: Broadway Ladies: Ms. January 2014: Beautiful's Anika Larsen

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Broadway Ladies: Ms. January 2014: Beautiful's Anika Larsen

Ms. January 2014

Anika Larsen

WHY SHE'S MS. BROADWAY: She's been an actress that I've seen several times in all different venues, and I have always enjoyed her work. She's a career stage actor that can do it all - comedy, camp, drama, sing, dance, roller skate and have puppet sex. I've seen her off-Broadway in Miracle Brothers, on tour and on Broadway in Avenue Q, and on Broadway in Xanadu. And I am looking forward to seeing her in Beautiful. But I have to admit that it was her moving, inspiring story as told by An;ka Larsen herself on Broadway.com (HERE). It says it all about the woman and the Broadway community. It also explains why she is the perfect Ms. Broadway for January 2014.

FUN FACTS:

She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
She studied acting at Yale.
She's one of ten kids of, as she describes it, "all different races and countries," some adopted.

IN PHOTOS:
Candids

MORE FUN FACTS:

Her professional debut came when she joined the L.A. Company of RENT, and she later made her Broadway debut in the same show.
She likes to say that she's the only person to be in the original casts of both Xanadu and Zanna, Don't!
She's appeared in the National Tour, Broadway and off-Broadway Companies of Avenue Q.

In RENT as Maureen and Mrs. Cohen

Check her out in cut costumes from All Shook Up

(Check out a young Cheyenne Jackson, too!)

As Kate Monster in Avenue Q

Xanadu and Zanna, Don't!

STILL MORE FUN FACTS:

Her family was the subject of an autobiographical musical called Shafrika, The White Girl, in which she also starred.
Among her regional credits was Paper Mill Playhouse's Godspell, and Signature Theatre's The Boy Detective Fails.
Just before Beautiful, she was in the cast of Disaster!
Her most recent off-Broadway appearances include Unbroken Circle, Closer Than Ever, Myths and Hymns, and How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes.
Now, she and Mr January play couple Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.