Jessica Goldyn: One Singular Sensation

There are a lot of young women who would say Jessica Lee Goldyn is one of the luckiest people in the world, as her mother drives her from her home in Parsippany, New Jersey to the 3:30 bus bound for New York.

It's not the city she's headed for that makes her the envy of so many, it's the address: Goldyn has found a home on Broadway. At 20, she's starring in the revival of "A Chorus Line." She plays Val, the surgically enhanced cynic who got the Broadway job she dreamed of with a nip and a tuck and a little bit of luck.

"Oh, I wanted this job. This was my dream job since I was 10," she told Sunday Morning correspondent Richard Schlesinger. "I think this was the show that made me fall in love with musical theatre."

Goldyn's real life story is kind of like a show biz fable. She had no agent and NO Broadway experience when she showed up to audition with nearly a thousand other young women looking for that one-in-a-million break.

"I knew that the odds were very slim," she said. "I just wanted to go."

But out of all those people, director Bob Avian noticed her almost immediately.

"There's always that person in the crowd, and you go 'Who is that?' and you keep your eye on them and they demand your attention," he said.

Just months ago Goldyn was playing Akron, Ohio in the road tour of "Fosse." But she was back home with her parents in Parsippany when she got the call that she got the part and was really headed for Broadway.

"Everything that I'd worked for my entire life was happening with that one call," Goldyn said. "I feel it on stage every night, every night."

She's gotten reviews actresses only dream of: "Boffo" said New Yorker magazine. "Feisty and funny" said a newspaper. It's a lot for a 20-year-old to get used to.

"I remember the first time they had the barricades set up and it just hit me," she said. "Those are the times I'm like., 'Alright, I'm a 'Broadway star' now and these people want me to sign those Playbills.' And I remember being one of those kids with my Playbill. Those are the times when I pinch myself."

Today he's had to move to New York from Parsippany, which makes it easier to dance eight shows a week — and start looking for her next lucky break.