In 2001, Kristen Bell was attending New York University to major in musical theater and was a few credits shy of graduating when she decided to leave school after being cast as Becky Thatcher in a new Broadway musical version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The role even led to her first television exposure, as she got the chance to perform one of the songs on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. Alas, the show turned out to be a massive flop which closed after less than three weeks, but Bell’s career did recover in the long run.