Q: What is it like being in a show on Broadway and how does it compare with your expectations?
Eric Gunhus: I came from performing in Los Angeles, where you really have to hustle to get enough work-weeks a year. Just to be in a long-running show is such a luxury — to sort of sit back and take a breather for a minute and just enjoy working for a change, instead of hustling.

Linda Griffin: It exceeded my expectations — an amazing cast, an amazing show. Just everything was incredible for me.

Mara Davi: It’s everything I dreamed it would be and then some, but at the same time, it’s like doing a show anywhere else. Walking up to the theater is special every day in New York, but when I’m on the stage, I can be in Japan, California or Colorado — it doesn’t matter. It’s just home.

Ryan Sander: Sometimes you can forget how big it is, but it’s those moments when you’re walking to the stage door — you see people in line waiting to buy tickets. You see publicity around town for the show that you’re in. It’s almost overwhelming.

Noah Rivera: I’m really glad I’m on Broadway, but it could be any show. I came in as a replacement, so everyone already knew each other. I happened to come in on the last day of the week and everyone was getting ready for the day off and wanted to go home. It wasn’t as positive as it could’ve been back stage. And, no one was there for my opening night. Now, I love it. I love everyone in the cast, I love going to work, I love being on stage.

Griffin: To be on an original Broadway cast album. You know, I collected them as a kid, and now here I am on one.

Q: What was it like finding out you got the part?
Davi: It was, oh my gosh, I did it! Now, I have to continue to prove myself. I was in Central Park, getting ready to go back to California, and my agent called me and said, “What would you say if I told you you got your first Broadway role?” Then I walked down Broadway calling everyone I knew.

Rivera: It was really a relief, because I had just gotten back to California from doing “Hairspray” in Vegas. That was a big deal and fun, but the show closed early. Not even a week after the last show I got the call saying that they wanted me to be in the Broadway cast of “Wicked.”

Griffin: It happened so fast. Casey Nickolaw (“The Drowsy Chaperone” director/choreographer) and I worked together 20 years ago in a production of “42nd Street,” and we remained very good friends throughout the years. I was at home raising my son and doing some landscaping work — I had gotten my certification in horticulture and had been out of the business for six years. He called me and said, “You’re really right for this show. Do you want to come in and audition?” Auditions were the next day in L.A. — no time to prepare. But I decided to just embrace it and not embarrass him. The next morning I got the call and that was it. It was like, let’s get on the train and go!

Gunhus: I thought I had missed out on “The Producers” entirely. I was on the road with “Ragtime.” They had been casting and I was not able to come back to New York to audition. I left the tour and I found out that they were having a call for the lead tenor to sing “Springtime for Hitler.” Everyone else was cast. I had a Monday audition, a Tuesday call back and a Wednesday offer. I was walking down the street in New York coming back to my apartment and got the call from my agent and just sat down on the stoop of a brownstone and wept.

I remember, the day after I got that call, I thought, what am I going to wish for on my birthday candles from here on out?

Q: Who was the first person you called when you got the call?
Rivera/Sander: My mom.

Davi: Yes. I called home, thinking, whoever answers is going to hear the news first. And then I called my boyfriend. I knew that he'd understand if I called my mom first, and I knew she'd never understand.

Gunhus: I called my partner, then I called my parents.

Griffin: My husband, Tom, and son, Max. Initially the show was produced at the Ahmanson — the call to go to Broadway came later after our successful run in L.A.

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