Boston Conservatory grad Umoh goes to Broadway

Stephanie Umoh, the Boston Conservatory musical theater major profiled in a year-long Boston Globe series over the course of her senior year, is feeling pretty darn "fabulous" right now: She'll be starring as Sarah in the Broadway return of "Ragtime," the Tony Award-winning musical opening in November.

Umoh, a 2008 graduate of the Conservatory, is no stranger to the part: She played Sarah -- a role made famous by Audra McDonald -- in a New Rep production back in 2006. "I mean, it's like unreal," said Umoh, reached in New York. "I don't know how to describe it." The folks back home are thrilled too. "To get a major role in a Broadway show a year out
of school is a dream come true for a young actress," said Fran Charnas, Umoh's musical theater teacher at the Conservatory. "She is so blessed right now; Stephanie is so worthy and so humble," said Boston actress Jacqui Parker, who directed Umoh in SpeakEasy's "The Bubbly Black Girls Sheds Her Chameleon Skin in 2006. "It's a perfect role for it. And I've been looking for a reason to go to New York."