How & Juliet Star Maya Boyd Chose a Life in Musical Theater Before Ever Being in a Musical

Age: 21

Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Current Role: Maya Boyd stars as Juliet in the Broadway production of & Juliet, a remixed Shakespearean love story scored by the pop hits of Max Martin.

Credits: Boyd made her Broadway debut in the revival of Merrily We Roll Along, playing Mimi from Paramount/Make-Up Artist (a track she named herself) and understudying Gussie. As a student at the University of Michigan, she performed in productions of The Wild Party, Hair, Rent and Sophisticated Ladies.

A Dancer Dances—And Occasionally Karaokes
“I didn't watch many musicals growing up,” says Maya Boyd matter-of-factly from her dressing room at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. “So, I don't have a favorite musical.” She hadn’t even performed in a musical—any musical at all—until her sophomore year at the University of Michigan, a dream school for Broadway hopefuls. “I was actually a dancer,” Boyd says, beginning to fill in the blanks with a story that she notes has become a family favorite. “The summer leading into my senior year, I was dancing with Alvin Ailey," she explains, contextualizing an after-party at Mom's Kitchen that followed the New York City program's showcase performance. "There was a karaoke thing happening, and my sister Alexis told me to sing." She would have normally given the request a fast and definitive no, but, "Something in me just said yes,” she recalls. Boyd ended up singing Etta James’ bluesy “I’d Rather go Blind” to a mix of family, friends and strangers. “That was the first moment my family realized I could sing.” For her, it was more like disclosing a secret. “I always sang to myself,” she shares. “I don’t know how many videos on Photo Booth I have of me just singing to a karaoke track.”

I Want It Both Ways
The daughter of doctors, Boyd’s “very academic” parents encouraged her older siblings to pursue pragmatic careers in fields like business and computer science (Boyd, with her twin sister, is the youngest of five girls). “It was a very unfamiliar feeling being allowed to pursue dance as intensely as I did.” By her senior year in high school, she felt she had to choose between forgoing college and starting a career as a ballet dancer, or staying in school and quitting the arts altogether. Over Thanksgiving break, one of her sisters' friends—an actor in the Mean Girls tour—offhandedly suggested she apply to the Michigan musical theater program. It was a best-of-both-worlds solution—despite the fact that Boyd had never been in a musical, had no idea the program existed and had exactly one week to send in pre-screen audition materials. “There was no incentive to do it, but for some reason I said yes,” Boyd recounts. Much like the mysterious forces that got her to the karaoke mic, “It was the universe. It had to have been—because I did it.” 

What's Wrong With Being Confident?
“I just remember telling myself, ‘It's for the experience. I've never done a musical. There's no way.’” That was the narrative in Boyd’s head for the two months leading up to her in-person audition, which was scheduled for Valentine’s Day 2020. For help preparing a song and monologue—neither of which Boyd had ever performed in any formal capacity—her mother reached out to her elementary school music teacher. The entreaty, according to Boyd, sounded something like, “Who can help my daughter? We know nothing. We need help.” When the University of Michigan called her with the news that she had been accepted to the program, Boyd’s mother said to her, “You know you shouldn’t have gotten in, right?” Boyd didn’t argue. Her mother then added, “Because you did, I think you need to go.” Boyd replied, “I think you’re right.”

Just a Simple Sponge
“I just remember being in awe of them,” she says of her Michigan classmates. “Because they were willing to make choices that I was too afraid to make. I didn't know how to act and sing at the same time. But I remember watching them. They had this ability to be present.” A turning point for her was a clowning class she took at Yale during her junior year. “It really made me learn how vulnerable acting is.” She remembers thinking, “This is what I'm going to be doing. It may work, it may not.” She leaned away from imposter syndrome and towards curiosity. “Being new to musical theater, I was able to just be a sponge,” she says. “And I loved every second.”

Opening Doors
“You're getting your diploma,” Boyd's parents would intone, their daughter assuring them, “That was all I had my mind on,” even as she was regularly auditioning ("I never said no to an audition"). But in the middle of her junior year, the Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along came calling. Her audition, which she characterizes as more of a "master class" with director Maria Friedman, led to an offer of an onstage swing contract. Still, she insisted, “I wanted to make sure I could graduate first." By either luck or design, she had taken 18 credits a semester her first three years of school, so she didn’t have much further to go. “Talking with my mentors and professors, they were like, ‘You can graduate and not be in Ann Arbor to do so.’” She thought, “‘I can do both? I'll do it.’” Boyd was a full-time college senior when she made her Broadway debut in the now-Tony-winning revival of Merrily We Roll Along at the Hudson Theatre in September 2023. “I learned so much, just absorbing so much from incredible people. I would not be able to do what I'm doing now if it weren't for that experience.”

F**kin' Perfect
Boyd opened Merrily in October 2023 and was cast as Tony nominee Lorna Courtney's replacement in & Juliet by March 2024—and was still in school. “I was doing my exams and starting & Juliet rehearsals,” she says, looking back on the dizzying few weeks when she was learning the role, wrapping up finals and traveling back to Michigan for her college graduation. “I definitely will say it has been one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. But it was also one of the best decisions I've ever made.” Remembering her very first performance as the lead of & Juliet's Broadway company, she says, “It was very scary”—it being only her second time executing all of the show's quick changes and chandelier-dangling stunts. “Nowadays I love to remind myself that whatever I do in the moment will be perfect for what the moment needs.” She also gets to enjoy a bit of cosmic synergy with her new character. “Juliet is saying 'yes' to everything. Receiving these signs to do something and going for it and learning from it.” The parallels to her own path are unmistakable. “I was not expecting this for myself at all, but I'm so grateful to be here and to have found my calling.”