Which Broadway Star are you most closely connected to?

Question

This week in the Connection Finder, we're featuring big names of Broadway, starting with Stephen Sondheim, who recently passed away.

Featured alongside him are other Broadway and musical theater stars:

• Desi Arnaz
• Irene Bordoni
• Bob Fosse
• Oscar Hammerstein II
• Audrey Hepburn
• Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Richard Rodgers
• Sir Patrick Stewart
• Miyoshi Umeki
• Florenz Ziegfeld

Which Broadway Star you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 24.5 million of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them? Your Relationship Finder Quick Links page (see your profile pull-down menu under "Relationships") has quick links for several notable groups.

Special feature: Check out how you're connected to other stars of the stage by using the green MyConnections button in the upper right hand corner of the category page. Browse related categories like Lyricists, Choreographers, and Composers.

Let us know how you're related below! If you want to share your connection on social media with cousins and friends, click the "get shareable image" below the results, e.g. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Then just upload it along with the URL of your direct connection. (Please refrain from sharing your connection on the featured profiles themselves, though. It clutters conversations on research and collaboration. Thanks!)

Help us with next week's feature: Explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic. Help us choose and improve profiles for it.

Answer 1

Andrew Lloyd Webber is 19 Degrees from Christina McAusland

Coincidentally, we were watching Phantom of the Opera earlier today on Sky Arts and he appeared on stage after the main performance with Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford and many others. 

Answer 2

I am 12 degrees from Oscar Hammerstein. Apparently a third cousin married his brother.

Answer 3

Desi Arnaz is the closest, at 19 degrees, thanks to 9th cousin  Lucille Ball. Our MRCA is  Benjamin Lewes

• 19 degrees from Desiderio Alberto (Arnaz y de Acha) Arnaz III (1917 - 1986) (Desi Arnaz)
• 19 degrees from Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II (1895 - 1960)
• 21 degrees from Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (1867 - 1932)
• 22 degrees from Andrew Lloyd Webber 13C 2r
• 23 degrees from Irène Charlotte Bordoni (1889 - 1953)
• 23 degrees from Robert Louis Fosse (1927 - 1987)
• 27 degrees from Audrey Kathleen (Ruston) Hepburn (1929 - 1993)
• 29 degrees from Stephen Joshua Sondheim (1930 - 2021)
• 29 degrees from Richard Charles Rodgers (1902 - 1979)
• 30 degrees from 美代志 (梅木) Umeki (1929 - 2007)
• 37 degrees from Patrick Stewart OBE

Answer 4

This is soooo EXCITING!  I am 23 degrees from Stephen Sondheim.  It may not sound too impressive to everyone else here, but it's the first time ever that I am less than 30-something degrees from any of the connection finder highlighted profiles, although it does go through 6 marriages.

Answer 5

Desi Arnaz is the closest, at 18 degrees, thanks to 7th cousin twice removed Lucille Ball.  The MRCA there is Temperance (Benmore) Adams of New Hampshire.

Answer 6

I am most closely connected to Desi Arnaz at 24 degrees.

Answer 7

19 degrees from Florenz Ziegfeld
20 degrees from Desi Arnaz
21 degrees from Oscar Hammerstein
24 degrees from Andrew Lloyd Webber (14th cousins, 2x removed)
24 degrees from Irène Bordoni
25 degrees from Bob Fosse
27 degrees from Audrey Hepburn
29 degrees from Stephen Sondheim
30 degrees from Richard Rodgers
31 degrees from Miyoshi Umeki
39 degrees from Patrick Stewart

Answer 8

17 degrees Desi Arnaz

19 degrees Oscar Hammerstein, Florenz Ziegfeld

21 degrees Irene Bordoni,

23 degrees Bob Fosse

26 degrees Audrey Hepburn Richard Rodgers

27 degress Stephen Sondheim

28 degrees Miyoshi Umeki

35 degrees Patrick Stewart

Andrew Lloyd Webber 14C

Answer 9

Closest related to Andrew Llloyd Webber, 15th Cousin, 2x removed, assuming all is accurate.

I'm closest connected by marriage to Desi Arnaz, as Lucille Ball is a distant cousin of mine.

Answer 10

I'm not so close to these Broadway stars.

• Desi Arnaz - 20
• Irene Bordoni - 25
• Bob Fosse - 21
• Oscar Hammerstein II - 22
• Audrey Hepburn - 28
• Andrew Lloyd Webber - 25
• Richard Rodgers - 30
• Sir Patrick Stewart - 40
• Miyoshi Umeki - 31
• Florenz Ziegfeld - 20

Answer 11

Andrew Lloyd Webber and I, while 22 degrees, is a distant (practically a phantom) distant cousin: 18/1x removed. 

Other non-related Broadway stars include: 

19 degrees: Desi Arnaz (and be sure to catch Being the Ricardos on Netflix with Javier Bardem as Desi and Nicole Kidman as Lucy); 20 degrees: Oscar Hammerstein; 21 degrees: Florenz Ziegfeld; 23 degrees: Irene Bordoni; 28 degrees: Miyoshi Umeki and Bob Fosse; 29 degrees: Audrey Hepburn and Richard Rodgers; 30 degrees: Stephen Sondheim; and a very distant 40 degrees from Patrick Stewart

Answer 12

My closest connection is 16 degrees between Oscar Hammerstein and Robynne Lozier.

My next closest is 21 degrees between Desi Arnaz and myself, but that goes through my French Canadian spouse.

Answer 13

19 degrees from Flo Ziegfeld.   The others are very high numbers.

Answer 14

I am most closely connected to Florenz Ziegfeld at 21 degrees of separation.

• 21 degrees from Florenz Ziegfeld
• 24 degrees from Desi Arnaz
• 24 degrees from Bob Fosse
• 25 degrees from Oscar Hammerstein
• 26 degrees from Irène Bordoni
• 26 degrees from Andrew Lloyd Webber
• 30 degrees from Stephen Sondheim
• 32 degrees from Audrey Hepburn
• 32 degrees from Richard Rodgers
• 33 degrees from Miyoshi Umeki
• 39 degrees from Patrick Stewart

Answer 15

I am 28 degrees from Stephen Sondheim, 20 degrees from Desi Arnaz, 24 degrees from Irène Bordoni, 24 degrees from Bob Fosse, 21 degrees from Oscar Hammerstein, 29 degrees from Audrey Hepburn, 25 degrees from Andrew Lloyd Webber, 26 degrees from Richard Rodgers, 39 degrees from Patrick Stewart, 30 degrees from Miyoshi Umeki, 20 degrees from Florenz Ziegfeld and 22 degrees from Amy Gilpin. 

Answer 16

Desi Arnaz is 21 Degrees from Miranda Bailey.

Answer 17

31 degrees from Stephen Sondheim, 

24 degrees from Desi Arnaz, 

27 degrees from Irène Bordoni, 

26 degrees from Bob Fosse,

24 degrees from Oscar Hammerstein, 

30 degrees from Audrey Hepburn, 

25 degrees from Andrew Lloyd Webber, 

30 degrees from Richard Rodgers, 

42 degrees from Patrick Stewart, 

32 degrees from Miyoshi Umeki, 

24 degrees from Florenz Ziegfeld 

Answer 18

My closest connection on this list is Desi Arnaz at 19 degrees, with a connection through his wife, Lucille Ball. (She is my 8th cousin, twice removed.)

The only cousin on this list for me is distant cousin Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is my 15th cousin.  Our common ancestor is Sir William "of Milton" FitzWilliam https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/FitzWilliam-250

My CLOSEST connection to a Broadway star is my Tony nominated second cousin twice removed, Mildred Natwick.  I almost suggested her for this list, because I thought she was the Tony award winner for 1972, but I found the page that stated she was the winner was in error.  She was a  nominee for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical--"70, Girls, 70."  (When we do the Emmys, I am suggesting her, because she won that!) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Natwick-16

Answer 19

This was really a fun one. I am closest to Florenz Ziegfeld at 21 degrees but after that surprises started showing up. I am 22 degrees from Desi Arnaz through Lucy. Through Irene Boroni, 3 steps down is Irving Berlin and I am connected to him at 24 degrees through both his first wife, Dorothy Goetz and his second wife, Ellin Mackay. Then moving on to Oscar Hammerstein I am connected to him through Maryland aristocrat, John Eager Howard who is a second cousin 7 times removed to me. Since I am Maryland born and bred this was important to me. Moving on down to Andrew Lloyd Webber, we are connected through my direct ties to the Calvert family, the Lords Baltimore. After that is Richard Rodgers who is 32 degrees from me and buried midway through is Kevin Bacon at 15 degrees. I wonder if they'd let me play a Connections version of "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon"?

Since we are both down with a mild case of covid this helped take my mind off of it.

Marilynn Tobash

Answer 20

Closest to Florenz Ziegfeld at 8 degrees