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The just-ended 2007-08 Broadway season inspired many "Year of" headlines: "The Year of the Play," "The Year of the Musical Revival," "The Year of the Sound Designer" (this being the first time they were Tony Award-eligible). Yet one category that received minimal coverage was "The Year of the Newcomer." Sandwiched between the legendary shows of Styne, Sondheim and Rodgers & Hammerstein, last season's new musicals In the Heights and Glory Days were linked by one fascinating fact: they were written by people who had never composed a full-length, professional musical before. Ever.

The composers of In the Heights and Glory Days weren't entirely alone in this respect: Stew, John Bucchino, David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger also found themselves in the Broadway newcomer's spotlight with Passing Strange, A Catered Affair, and Cry-Baby. However, their shows didn't quite demonstrate the extreme highs and lows that mounting a new musical on Broadway can bring; the payoff that can either exceed expectations or inspire speedy closing notices.

This summer, the opening months of the 2008-09 season, Broadway continues to welcome newcomers: A Tale of Two Cities, an adaptation that sold out its regional run in Sarasota, FL, and [title of show], an Off-Broadway charmer and YouTube marketing gem.

The 2008 Best Musical Tony Award-winner, In the Heights, began when Lin-Manuel Miranda was a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. A fiery ode to the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights, Miranda's Latin-inspired music and bilingual, hip-hop/rap lyrics are a fresh contrast to traditional musical-theatre fare. After a college production, new collaborators and several years of development followed. The show, now with a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes and direction by Thomas Kail (both Tony nominees for their chores), moved from workshops and readings to a 2007 Off-Broadway run before opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in March. It garnered 13 Tony nominations in the spring, more than any other show last season. This included two nods for the 28-year-old Miranda: Best Original Score and Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Usnavi, the Dominican convenience-store owner yearning to return to the country of his ancestors. On Tony night, In the Heights took home four awards: Best Score, Best Choreography, Best Orchestrations, and Best Musical.

While In the Heights may have been a critically lauded audience favorite, Glory Days suffered the opposite fate. To commemorate that hazy time between being a kid and venturing into adulthood, childhood buddies Nick Blaemire and James Gardiner wrote the 90-minute musical about high school friends who reunite one year after graduation. Blaemire and Gardiner first shared the pop-based songs and a basic story sketch with director Eric Schaeffer when they attended his master class three years ago at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. After working with the pair during the next two years, Schaeffer, also the artistic director of the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, offered them a world-premiere slot in the theatre company's 2007-08 season.

Glory Days received mostly favorable reviews (including a very encouraging notice in The Washington Post) during its early 2008 run. Practically a month after closing in Virginia, it was announced that the show would bow at Broadway's Circle in the Square on May 6. With less than two months to prepare before previews, the show's young creators and equally young cast found themselves thrust into the unforgiving Broadway spotlight. Critics were not kind, advance sales were paltry, and producers closed shop.

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As Glory Days illustrates, regional success doesn't guarantee triumph on Broadway. Those behind A Tale of Two Cities are hoping their show defies the unpredictability of the commercial theatre market. With its pop-tinged score, lavish sets and costumes, and one of the most recognizable opening lines in English literature — "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…" — this adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel is already drawing comparisons to previous page-to-stage blockbuster Les Misérables.

For Barbra Russell and Ron Sharpe, that's a happy coincidence. The married parents of two first met while performing in Les Miz (he played Marius to her Cosette), and now they are the executive producers of A Tale of Two Cities, having given up their acting careers to concentrate full-time on bringing the musical to Broadway.

"When you start thinking about it, it's so romantic to open a show on Broadway, and when that actually happens, you're like 'Oh my God, now we actually have to do all the work,'" Sharpe said in a phone interview. Billed as a "pre-Broadway engagement" from the start of its run at the Asolo Repertory Theatre, the production's ultimate goal has always been clear, and on Aug. 19, A Tale of Two Cities is slated to begin performances at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Opening night is Sept. 18. Continued...