Can you help us name these shining stars?

Friends, Readers, and Countrymen, I need your help! Like many of you, Barb and I have been looking for indoor entertainment during this long semi-lockdown. Early on, I reported on our jigsaw puzzle near-success (no, we still haven’t received the replacement for the missing piece). We were itching for the opportunity to do another puzzle to break up the nightly routine of Netflix streaming and online Mahjong and Scrabble, but all the puzzles we wanted to get were sold out.

And then…

Last Saturday we celebrated a 6-day belated Mothers Day. All the kids and grandkids on our back deck, each family at separate tables at least 6 feet apart. Each person had their own box from Superdawg (4 dawgs, 4 burgers, 1 chicken sandwich) and all the kids understood that Nana and Baba were off-limits for hugs and kisses, the only sad part of the day.

Of course, there were gifts and to our delight, Laury had found a site that had in stock the jigsaw puzzle you see in the picture above, Broadway’s Brightest Stars. It arrived at Laury’s house in that 6-day gap between the actual Mothers Day and our celebration–perfect timing.

If you have been reading the blog for long, you know Barb and I are huge Broadway fans. In Pre-COVID days we visited NYC  theaters at least annually and were planning our next visit to coincide with Hugh Jackman starring in The Music Man. With that trip on indefinite hold, the puzzle serves as a perfect connection to the Great White Way.

But this puzzle is hard! We finished the border and the next interior row, but after that, things have bogged down. When broken down into tiny pieces, everyone’s lips and eyes, and lots of their hair, look the same. And to make it more challenging, despite our Broadway acumen, we are having a hard time recognizing lots of the brightest stars. That makes it harder for us to cooperate. “Hey, Barb, have you seen another piece of the blue shirt on that guy over there?” It would be easier, and more fun, if I knew that guy’s name!

Yes, we know some of the faces. You can’t miss the Man Who Is Everywhere, Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Julie Andrews is easy to pick out for an old geezer like me. And though we just missed seeing Ben Platt on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen we did recognize him in the upper right. But a lot of the others have us stumped.

So I ask for your help. I have numbered each actor, 1-20. Tell me, tell me, tell me who they are. A virtual high five and curtain call to all our helpers.

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