There’s a moment when Jelani Alladin was a sophomore at New Canaan High School that changed the course of his life, a moment frozen in time.

The African-American student from Brooklyn, N.Y., who was part of the A Better Life program that placed him in the Connecticut community, had just finished starring in the school musical “Seussical.” But he found that putting on a show required a lot more than he anticipated. Auditions were coming up for the next show and he was planning on going out for the track team instead.

“I was walking along a hallway about to catch a bus to go home and my friend’s mother — Roberta Stigman — caught me alone in this hallway and put me up against the locker and said, ‘Listen, you mustdo this (audition). If you walk away from this, you’ll be walking away from your future.’

“And I’ll never forget it. I felt, ‘Wow, someone believes in me that much that I’ve got to do this.’”

That set him on path to loving the stage, to studying musical theater at New York University and to star on Broadway, where he will be playing Kristoff, the romantic male lead in the stage version of the 2013 mega-hit animated film “Frozen.” Previews begin Feb. 22 and opens March 22. His casting marks the first time Disney has Broadway romantic leads of different races that weren’t race specific.

During a recent break in rehearsals, an exuberant and poised Alladin, who is in his mid-20s, praised the scholarship organization in definite terms. “Being part of A Better Chance changed my life,” says Alladin, an all-A student of Guyanan heritage, who grew up singing in church and youth groups.

During a recent break in rehearsals, an exuberant and poised Alladin, who is in his mid-20s, praised the scholarship organization in definite terms. “Being part of A Better Chance changed my life,” says Alladin, an all-A student of Guyanan heritage, who grew up singing in church and youth groups.

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