Spring Awakening is arguably Michele's best-known Broadway credit. She landed the lead role of Wendla Bergmann in 2002 while completing a summer at the performing arts camp Stagedoor Manor. She had to drop out of a production of Sweet Charity there to do Spring Awakening, but when Broadway calls, you answer!
She didn't go straight to Broadway with the show, though — she was initially cast to read for Wendla in early workshops in California and New York. She then performed the role in a 2005 concert version of Spring Awakening at Lincoln Center, and then in the musical's Off-Broadway premiere at Atlantic Theater Company. Finally, in 2006, at 20 years old, Michele originated the role on Broadway, starring opposite Jonathan Groff as Melchior. She earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and she remained with the musical for a year and a half, even turning down a role in a Les Misérables revival to stick with it.
She and the musical had a renaissance in 2022, when the cast reunited for a one-night only concert that became the basis of an HBO documentary, Spring Awakening: Those You've Known. Michele, Groff, and their original co-stars even performed at the 2022 Tony Awards. In hindsight, that was a foreshadowing moment for Michele's long-awaited Broadway return.