Iconic Broadway Couples: Leslie Odom Jr and Nicolette Robinson, More (2024)

Sometimes falling in love onstage can lead to an epic offstage romance — just ask Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson, who met during a production of Once on This Island.

"Les was responsible for helping me figure out all of my blocking," Robinson told Broadway.com in October 2018, explaining that she was asked to join the production weeks before opening night. "It was not a romantic thing at first. It was really just a human connection, like, ‘Wow, I need to be around this person all the time.’ We stayed in touch after the show and started dating pretty soon afterward."

A shared love of the stage also helped bring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick together. The couple met in November 1991 after Broderick got involved with the Naked Angels Theater Company, which Parker's brothers Pippin and Toby helped start.

“I’m so nervous acting opposite him,” the Sex and the City star told the Los Angeles Times ahead of the show’s debut. “I don’t know how we’re going to manage this without laughing hysterically at each other. We do not discuss it. I don’t even want to rehearse — I’m going to go on stage with a big blinder on my head — I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

Keep scrolling to see more of Broadway's most iconic couples:

Sometimes falling in love onstage can lead to an epic offstage romance — just ask Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson, who met during a production of Once on This Island.

"Les was responsible for helping me figure out all of my blocking," Robinson told Broadway.com in October 2018, explaining that she was asked to join the production weeks before opening night. "It was not a romantic thing at first. It was really just a human connection, like, ‘Wow, I need to be around this person all the time.’ We stayed in touch after the show and started dating pretty soon afterward."

A shared love of the stage also helped bring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick together. The couple met in November 1991 after Broderick got involved with the Naked Angels Theater Company, which Parker's brothers Pippin and Toby helped start.

“I’m so nervous acting opposite him,” the Sex and the City star told the Los Angeles Times ahead of the show’s debut. “I don’t know how we’re going to manage this without laughing hysterically at each other. We do not discuss it. I don’t even want to rehearse — I’m going to go on stage with a big blinder on my head — I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

Keep scrolling to see more of Broadway's most iconic couples:

The twosome — who share children James, Marion and Tabitha — credit their theater background with helping their 20-plus year marriage last. “Matthew and I come from a different time and place,” Parker told Harper’s Bazaar in 2013. “When we were young people, all we ever wanted was to be good working actors. [My dream] was to work in theater, to be around those people whose work I was in total awe of. Nobody talked about being a celebrity.”

She continued: "So, when our marriage came up in conversation, it wouldn’t occur to us that we were obligated to respond to allegations or gossip. You have to be a bit circ*mspect, but you also have to take up a position, and you have to stick to it."

McDonald — who has won more Tony Awards than any other actor — met Swenson when he understudied the male lead in the 2007 Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade. They welcomed daughter Sally in October 2016. The Good Fight star is also the mother of daughter Zoe from a previous marriage, while Swenson shares sons Bridger and Sawyer with ex-wife Amy Westerby. "He is such an incredible Father and it has been one of my greatest joys to watch him raise his children with such fun, patience, joy, kindness, and love," McDonald gushed about her husband via Instagram in June 2021.

Before romance rumors began swirling about the couple in 2006, both Burtka and Harris had long careers in the theater. The professional chef's credits include 2001's The Play About the Baby and 2003's Gypsy, while the How I Met Your Mother star has performed in productions of Rent, Cabaret, Assassins and Hedwing and the Angry Inch, for which he won the 2014 Tony Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical. The duo welcomed twins Gideon and Harper in October 2010 and tied the knot in September 2014.

Two years after the One Night in Miami star won the Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, Robinson made her Broadway debut as Jenna in the musical adaptation of Waitress. At the time, she was the first mother to play the role of the pregnant pie maker, as she and Odom Jr. welcomed daughter Lucille in 2017. Their son, Able, was born in March 2021.

The Leftovers star has performed in seven of her husband's plays, beginning with Bug in 1993, and the couple tied the knot in September 2007. "We’re not a 'take turns' couple. The irresistible job is always the one we accommodate," Coon told Harper's Bazaar about balancing their respective careers in August 2021. "If one of us gets an offer that is like, 'This is really special,' we make room for it." She and the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright share two children: son Haskell, born in July 2018, and a daughter who was born in 2021.

The Tony winner met her now-husband in January 2006 when they played Elphaba and Fiyero, respectively, in a national tour production of Wicked. They later reprised their roles on Broadway in October 2007 — the same month that they tied the knot in New York City. "It was interesting how we met, [and] I recognized [that] this man is really something special, but I'm not into the 'show-mance' type thing," Block recalled to Playbill in December 2007. "He was still on the road, and I was here in New York, and we really just made it work and put a lot of effort into it. Starting a relationship when it's long distance is not always the best, but it was immediately right." They welcomed daughter Vivienne in January 2015.

After meeting at a Starbucks in 2015, Doyle began dating his boyfriend after Clayton got his email address from a mutual friend. "The nice thing about us is that Max and I don't compete against one and other, and I think that's been an easy thing for us because we do very different things even within the industry," the Tony nominee told Rye Myers of RyeTheNewsGuy.com in June 2019. "It can be really difficult to date someone who's doing the EXACT same thing, or God forbid, going up for the same roles as you. ... We're able to be completely supportive and embrace each other's careers, which is helpful. I know how important a career is and I think he feels the same way."

After several years of friendship and the duo each portraying the title role in Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen, Platt and Galvin started dating in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Theater Camp costars got engaged in November 2022 after two years together.

The “Brave” songstress met Tippett when they costarred in her Waitress musical during its 2015 out-of-town tryout. After five years of dating, the Rise alum proposed in January 2023.

Jackson and Richardson have been together for more than 50 years and even worked together on the stage. The legendary actor scored a 2023 Tony nomination for his performance in The Piano Lesson, which his wife directed.

The Hamilton actress and Pasquale, two fan-favorite Broadway stars in their own right, got engaged in February 2016. They tied the knot one year later before ultimately playing onstage love interests in the Kennedy Center’s 2022 production of Guys and Dolls.

The Mean Girls the Musical costars — who played Cady Heron and Aaron Samuels, respectively, during its debut Broadway run — tied the knot in May 2023.

Hadestown premiered off-Broadway in 2016, costarring Carney and Noblezada as lovers Orpheus and Eurydice in the musical retelling of the Greek myth of the same name. The costars sparked a romance in 2019.

After Carney left the show in November 2023, Noblezada (who had exited the production earlier that year) returned to toast his final bow.

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