Melissa Bohon-Webel always knew she was destined to be a theatrical star — and having a number of creative outlets in Columbia was a noteworthy contributor to her landing on the Broadway stage.
Bohon-Webel attended Rock Bridge High School, where her father, Bob Bohon, taught performing arts.
“I had a lot of opportunities to perform at Rock Bridge,” says Bohon-Webel, “but growing up, I also did community theater at places that are still around, like Columbia Entertainment Company, Maplewood Barn, and the Mizzou Summer Repertory.”
In addition to theatrical performances, Bohon-Webel mentions having a local church community she would sing for when needed. She also had access to dance opportunities at Dancearts of Columbia
While it’s not quite in Columbia, Bohon-Webel highlights Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre — a forty-five-minute drive from the city — as the spot where she gained significant theatrical experience in such roles as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird and Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker.
One of the things that stuck out most to her while performing at the Lyceum, known for its Broadway-caliber productions, was that the expectations for her — a community member of Columbia — were the exact same as for an Equity actor from New York.
“When I was playing Scout, a lovely gentleman there asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated. I was like, ‘Well, I kind of want to do this.’ And he looked at me, and he said, ‘You should.’ It was that moment that I was like, ‘I should.’”
By the time Bohon-Webel graduated from Rock Bridge, she had already worked in environments that demanded discipline, consistency, and a level of professionalism that mirrored what she would later encounter on much larger stages. This allowed her to attend the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, one of the nation’s most competitive performing arts programs, where her older brother, a fellow Broadway star, also studied.
“We did trimesters for four years,” says Bohon-Webel, “and in our fourth year, we had two [regular] trimesters, and the third, we auditioned for a talent agent who came to Cincinnati and saw us perform contrasting pieces.”
Bohon-Webel was invited to New York to audition for the role of Ado Annie in Oklahoma! at a theater in Long Island and was offered the role right away. With a job on the books, she moved to New York.
It wasn’t long after that she booked Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, where she played Chava. Her career continued to flourish with the role of Glinda on the first national tour of Wicked, which took her all around the country.
As Wicked wrapped up, Bohon-Webel was ready to slow down a little and spend time with her husband, Corey, from whom she had spent considerable time away while on stage (though she says he was a bit of a Wicked groupie while in grad school). She was also ready to start a family.
“I left the tour and went back to Delaware for his last year [of grad school], and then we moved to Union City, New Jersey,” says Bohon-Webel. “We’d been married for almost five years, and we wanted a family.”
During her pregnancy, she found that living expenses out East were hefty, and while her husband had a good job at Montclair State University, she was mostly doing small jobs here and there. As Bohon-Webel wryly observes, “There’s not a lot of pregnant women’s roles in theater.”
After experiencing the heartbreaking stillbirth of her son, Colton, and the showering of love from family who came to visit, she realized how much she missed being at home and closer to family. The birth of her daughter, Emma, truly solidified a need for change.
“I now had a living baby, and I didn’t want to leave her,” she admits. “In theater, you’re gone a lot, so even when I auditioned for Broadway shows and national tours, I’m just not sure my heart was really in it.”
When her husband was offered a job at MU in the math education department — a job that Bohon-Webel describes as “written for him” — the couple and their daughter made the move back to Columbia. At first, Bohon-Webel wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do once she returned. It would be a major change after living in the Big Apple, and she worried for a time that moving back would make her a “failure” since her Broadway career had ended.
Now, Bohon-Webel co-owns ShowMe Theatricals, a local production company aiming to bring high-quality, accessible theater experiences to Columbia, with fellow star and Columbia native Shelby Ringdahl Cox. Its first musical production, Merry Ol’ Missouri, took the stage at the Missouri Theatre in December 2024 and again in 2025, featuring Rockette-inspired kick lines, experienced vocalists, and photos with Santa.
“We had so many people [from the audience and cast] tell us how much they enjoyed the experience,” Bohon-Webel says. “Shelby and I have always said, ‘It’s people first.’ It has to be, especially in a community like this. I think that’s also what makes this particular show very unique. It has that level of professionalism, talent, crazy vocalists and instrumentalists, and dancers.”
Merry Ol’ Missouri of course gives a nod to the state in its title, but the co-founders make it especially Columbia-centric by collaborating with a number of local groups, such as The Missouri Highsteppers (a Columbia-based drill and dance troupe) and the Fairview Falcon Choir. Bohon-Webel also made sure to include Hallie Rainwater — the new owner of Dancearts, where she had taken classes — in the production as choreographer.
“I really do owe a lot to this city and to this community to be able to even do something like this,” Bohon-Webel says.
In many ways, her journey mirrors the very stories Columbia hopes to tell through its boomerang narrative — that leaving can be just as important as returning. The opportunities Bohon-Webel had here gave her the confidence and skill to thrive on Broadway, while the experiences she gained elsewhere helped her return with a clearer sense of purpose, new perspective, and the opportunity to give back to the community that helped her grow.