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Brian d’Arcy James came to many people’s attention with the unearthly beauty of his singing voice in the Off-Broadway musical Floyd Collins and later on Broadway in Titanic.

Since then his stage career has moved easily back and forth from dramas like Time Stands Still and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, to musicals like The Wild Party, The Apple Tree, Shrek, the Off-Broadway premiere of Hamilton, and his current assignment, playing the leading role in Something Rotten!

He also was featured on the TV series “Smash” playing Frank, husband to Debra Messing’s character.

He may seem to have started at the top, but there was a time when James was just another talented teen hoping to get his foot on the bottom rung of the showbiz ladder by picking the right college. Who knows what combination of the right program, the right professors and the right roles will send one on a trajectory to greatness? As part of Playbill.com's Back to School week (#BwayBacktoSchool), PlaybillEDU is reposting our interview with d'Arcy James, in which we asked him where he went to college and how his experience changed his life.

Visit the PlaybillEDU.com pages for the school Brian d’Arcy James attended; or, log in, tell PlaybillEDU your particulars and let us find the ideal program for you from among the 1,000 schools in our database (links are below).

Northwestern: playbilledu.com/school/Northwestern

Guided search: playbilledu.com/search/guidedSearch

Click below to watch the interview with Tony nominee James.

Check out PlaybillEDU, the best tool on the web for researching, choosing and applying to more than 2,000 theatre, music and dance programs across North America.

Learn everything you need to know about getting ready for the new school year with Playbill.com's special Back to School Week! Read more stories here and follow us on social media at #BwayBacktoSchool.

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