When you ask the cast of Hale Center Theater Orem’s “110 in the Shade” about working with Broadway stars, their response is simple: “Life-changing.”

For two weeks, Utah County actors performed in a special engagement of the musical, featuring four-time Tony Award-winning actor Audra McDonald in the lead role of Lizzie, paired with her off-stage partner, Utah native Will Swenson as Starbuck.

Swenson, a Utah native who won a Tony nomination for his role in the 2009 Broadway revival of “Hair,” got his start as an actor in Hale productions, and his brother and sister-in-law run the Orem theater. He is known to local audiences for his roles in Mormon Cinema films such as “The Singles Ward” and “The R.M.”

The fundraiser — two years in the planning — raised some $250,000 for the theater’s nonprofit foundation and offered a memorable experience for cast and crew. “It’s like having Michael Jordan show up at your high-school auditorium or having Andrea Bocelli in my living room,” said Sean Murphy, theater spokesman. “It’s just amazing to see greatness right there in front of you, in your house.”

McDonald reprised the role she played to critical acclaim on Broadway in 2007, while Swenson was an understudy for his role.

The actors arrived three days before opening night to begin working with the Utah cast. “It was the greatest three-day master class we could have ever had,” said Natalie Wheeler, who has taken over the role of Lizzie for the rest of the run. “When the performances started, the cast was lit on fire. There was just electricity surging through the cast.”

Taking over the role after McDonald was no easy task. Before she auditioned, Wheeler and her husband had just planned to attend the show. A musical-theater major with an MFA in acting, Wheeler jumped into the role even though it meant spending the summer away from her husband and caring for their 18-month-old toddler at the same time.

Wheeler poured herself into the role through two months of rehearsals. “I almost forgot Audra was coming,” she said. “It very much became my role.”

When McDonald arrived, Wheeler showed her the blocking on the small circular stage and observed the actor finding her own moments. Tears followed —at first, of awe and joy at the talent before her, later escalating to tears of insecurity. Wheeler took what she saw and applied it to enhance her own version of Lizzie.

“It was incredible to watch her do in one day what I couldn’t figure out in two months,” she said. “What I loved and learned from watching her was to simplify and live in the stillness of that role.”

Provo actor Jared Young said he felt spoiled working with McDonald and Swenson. He has continued playing Lizzie’s younger brother, Jimmy, through the play’s entire run.

“It’s just a different way of storytelling,” he said of continuing the show with different actors in the lead roles. “It’s like I have another sister with the same problems.”

The two-week experience was life-changing for the 26-year-old actor, who plans to move to New York in September to pursue a stage career instead of following his plan to move to Los Angeles to look for film jobs. “I want to continue to be part of quality productions, even if it is in small 300-seat theaters,” Young said.

The theater didn’t have the funds for a live orchestra, plus no room for one on or under its 320 square-foot stage. So sound technicians Dave Zabriskie and Michael Leavitt experimented with an iPod Touch paired with a Nintendo Wii controller. That allowed them to use recorded tracks, with a conductor following the actor’s live performance, altering the tempo and volume of the music as needed.

Ticket sales — even at Broadway prices ranging from $99-$129 — drew anticipated crowds to the small theater. When shows didn’t sell out, theater producers offered special rush-priced tickets.

“Nothing like this has ever been done in Utah County or really in the state of Utah,” Murphy said, referring to celebrity casting at a community theater. “So it was hard to convey what we were bringing because we had nothing to compare it to.”