BREAKTHROUGH

BROADWAY ACTOR Krystal Joy Brown

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The Merrily We Roll Along star took her first sip of alcohol at the age of 12. She remembers it tasting "horrible" but enjoying the pleasantly numb feeling it gave her. As a teen, she and her friends would sneak wine and beer into basement parties. By the time Krystal became a working actor, in her 20s, drinking just seemed part and parcel of the industry. "We celebrated with alcohol; we commiserated with alcohol," she says. But when Krystal moved from New York to L.A. in the mid-2010s and struggled to make the leap from stage to screen, she found herself relying on