Kyle Riabko

Age: 20

Hometown: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. "People tend to think of Saskatchewan as a barren farm land, but we also have a lot of great arts."

Currently: Making his Broadway debut as Melchior, Spring Awakening's bright and rebellious leading man.

Rock 'n' Roll: Riabko started out as a musician, playing guitar and singing in a band called Ten, Eleven, Twelve—so named for the respective ages of its members. By his late teens, he had already toured Canada. "When I was 15, around the same day I got my driver's license, I signed a record deal with Columbia Records," Riabko says. To support his album, Before I Speak, he went on the road with artists such as John Mayer, Maroon 5 and even James Brown and B.B. King, completing his education through correspondence courses. "We never talked about music, we talked about life," he says of the famous musicians he toured alongside. "I learned in those three years that we're all human beings. It's a humbling thing to talk about life with someone you've idolized."

Prepare Ye: Though focused on music, Riabko was no stranger to the stage in high school. To introduce him to musicals, his drama teacher cast him as the beggar in Fiddler on the Roof. "Then I got the bug, and the next year I moved up to Jesus in Godspell," he says. Whether performing at school or in a professional gig, Riabko says his parents were supportive without being pushy: "The beauty of [my parents] is that they never asked too many questions or tried to become my 'Momager' or whatever you call it. They allowed me to blossom as a human being."

Spring Awakens: With his music life winding down a bit, Riabko found himself looking into professional acting. After a stint on the Canadian TV show Instant Star, he headed to New York to try his luck on Broadway. The young singer had seen and loved Spring Awakening, but the idea of being in the Tony-winning musical became a reality only after his manager saw Riabko perform an acoustic show at Joe's Pub. "After the show, he said, 'You have to go in to see [director] Michael Mayer—you are so Moritz!'" Mayer thought differently. At the audition, he asked Riabko to read for Melchior instead, and everything clicked into place: "It was just one of those great things; it worked out from the beginning." By the time he was cast, Riabko was on the road again, playing guitar with the band Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. "I had to leave in the middle of the tour," he recalls. "There was a three-day window where I got to fly to Toronto, pack all my stuff and move down here. It was fast."

Becoming Melchior: Taking on the role of Melchior meant replacing Tony nominee and fan-favorite Jonathan Groff. "Groff has such a distinct style and people love it so much that for me to copy things he did would come off as me copying Jonathan Groff," Riabko explains. It helped that a new Wendla, Alexandra Socha, came in at the same time, and both actors seem younger than Groff and Lea Michele. "Alexandra, in particular, is so young looking, it makes her seem a little more vulnerable," Riabko notes. "We spent a month together rehearsing and developing a certain chemistry. I didn't feel like I was going it alone." As for the show's controversial hayloft sex scene, he says, "Melchior is a little more in touch with his physicality than Wendla, so he knows what he wants and he'll get it by the end of the scene, even though it's not rape in any way. It's a sensual, beautiful scene, and as far as [performing] it, it's not as shocking as one might think. Having seen it so many times with Jonathan, I know how great an image it is, so I'm happy to be doing it."

Welcome to the Family: Joining the Spring Awakening company, many of whom have been working together for more than two years, proved easier than Riabko expected. "They really are an open-hearted group of people," he says. "It's a great family." After touring with older musicians, working among teens and 20-somethings also gave Riabko the chance to experience a community he missed in the past few years. "We're allowed to be our age," he says. "I've been playing with people 10, 15, 20 years older than me for so long that I've been acting like an adult, which is helpful in developing who you are, but it's so nice to relax and not worry about that side of life for a while."

The Road Ahead: Riabko is set to take Melchior on the road later this summer, joining Blake Bashoff as Moritz in the national tour of Spring Awakening. A new album is also on the way, and he hopes to book solo gigs in the cities he visits on tour. If all goes according to plan, he'll balance the world of music and theater, with a little TV and film work thrown in. "I'd like to continue riding that circle of just exploring them all," he says, emphasizing his desire to take on more stage roles. "When [the tour] ends, I think I'll move back here and keep pursuing things. I love this world so much."