Megan Lawrence

Megan Lawrence is an American actress born in 1972 who appeared on Broadway between 1987 and 2016. She grew up near Baltimore, Maryland, where both of her parents worked in music education — her father as a professor at Towson University and her mother as a lower school music teacher. Lawrence attended the Cincinnati Conservatory for a year before returning to Baltimore, where she took classes at Towson, worked as a waitress, and weighed the possibility of a professional theatre career. By the early 1990s she had begun performing in children's theatre and adult musicals at a Maryland dinner theatre.

Her regional career gained significant momentum at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, during the 1990s, where she took on a range of demanding roles. Among them were Marta in Company, Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods, and Sally Bowles in Cabaret in 1995. All three performances earned her Helen Hayes Award nominations, and her work in Into the Woods brought her the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Resident Musical. She also played the daughter in Kander and Ebb's Over and Over at Signature in 1999. During this period she appeared on a national tour of Grease in the role of Frenchy.

Lawrence made her Broadway debut as a replacement in the original production of Les Misérables, performing the role of Éponine during 1998 and 1999. She was part of the original Off-Broadway cast of Urinetown and later returned to the show on Broadway as a replacement, playing Little Sally in 2002 and 2003. Additional credits from this period include Hillary Clinton in Monica! The Musical at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and a role in O. Henry's Lovers at the Goodspeed Playhouse in 2003. In 2005, she appeared as Lucetta in Two Gentlemen of Verona, produced by The Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in New York City.

Lawrence received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Gladys in the 2006 Broadway revival of The Pajama Game. In 2009 she played Mother and Buddahdalirama in the Broadway revival of Hair. Her final Broadway credit listed in her verified record came in 2016, when she starred as Louise in Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical at Studio 54. Beyond the stage, Lawrence has appeared on television, including a role as Joyce on the soap opera One Life to Live. She also has credits in Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions. In 1999, she married actor and singer Kevin Kern.