The summer Todd Graff turned 14, his parents saw an ad in The New York Times about a summer camp called Stage Door Manor. Unlike other camps, this one taught the kids to act and perform in musicals, and since Graff had always loved to sing, his parents (both musicians) encouraged him with enthusiasm.

"Actually, it was more like, 'Just go, get out of here!' They were mainly interested in getting me off their backs," Graff said in a recent interview. "This was a different time [1974], and parents were far less protective of their kids. I wasn't a problem child, but I was generating a lot of typical teenage trouble, like drinking beer and riding around in stolen cars. My parents decided we all needed to change our space."

So he went, and the experience literally changed his life.