Hannah Jewel Kohn has a clear memory of hearing Neil Diamond’s music for the first time. It was during a friend’s bat mitzvah party while growing up in West Bloomfield.

“I remember hearing ‘Sweet Caroline’ being played over the loudspeakers and every person in that room loving the song,” she recalls. “I just remember everyone dancing and singing and going, ‘ba, ba, ba!’ It was just, like a huge celebration, so joyful.

“Ever since then, I’ve become such a big fan, and I think it’s really interesting that everyone has a memory tied to a lot of Neil Diamond’s music.”

These days, Kohn, 29, is much more than just a fan.

She’s portraying Diamond’s second wife, Marcia Murphey, in the first national tour of “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical,” which opened in Boston and then on Broadway in 2022, ending its run at the Broadhurst Theatre this past June 30.

A production assistant who became Diamond’s wife in 1969 and stayed married to him for more than 25 years, with two sons, Murphey was a significant force in Diamond’s life and in the musical with Kohn leading performances of Diamond hits such as “Forever in Blue Jeans” and dueting on “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”

“One of the biggest things I’ve learned from doing this show about Neil Diamond is how much women have played a pivotal part in his career, his life, his success,” Kohn says. “His first wife, Jaye (Posner), was believing in him and always pushing him to believe in himself, and then he had Marcia, kept him from his negativity and his doubts and insecurities and pushed him to believe in himself and his gifts.”

Kohn has met Katie McNeil, Diamond’s wife since 2012 (Diamond himself is planning to attend the tour’s upcoming Los Angeles run), and finds her “just lovely.” But the divorce from Murphey still stings in the show. “It’s really heartbreaking,” Kohn notes. “They finish with ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,’ and that’s pretty much where their story ends.”

Bob Gaudio, the former Four Seasons member who went on to produce and write for Diamond and is a co-producer of “A Beautiful Noise,” concurs that Murphey plays a key role in Diamond’s ascent to pop icon status.“Neil and I had the same manager, and Marcia was his Girl Friday and always there,” Gaudio notes. “I like to call her a visionary; she saw things in Neil I don’t think anybody realized, just from his songs. She saw bigger things. I think she was very responsible for helping Neil cross that line from songwriter to performer, and the rest is history.”

“A Beautiful Noise” is a high mark in Kohn’s theatrical history, meanwhile.

She “started tapping my toes at age 2” but started training, in dance first, at 10 years old. A transitional moment was seeing a production of “Mary Poppins” on Broadway as an adolescent. “I looked over at my mom and said, ‘I want to be up there doing what she’s doing!‘” Kohn remembers. “My family are huge supporters in chasing your dreams. She said, ‘Let’s make it happen. …’”

Kohn spent two years at West Bloomfield High School, where a starring role in “Annie” “was the moment where I really started to take it seriously and hone in my craft.” She then moved to a homeschooling program at Dance Dynamics in Walled Lake, which included traveling to New York to network and audition “and see what that life was like and if it’s something I wanted to try out.”

Upon graduation, Kohn moved straight to Manhattan and “gave myself three months to book a job.” The backup plan was studying at Pace University. That wasn’t necessary, however, as Kohn scored a lead role in a production at Bush Gardens, and then on the national tour of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

That in turn led to roles in Disney’s “Frozen” (as Princess Anna on the first national tour) and in “Come Fall in Love,” “South Pacific” and on FX’s “Fosse/Verdon.” Kohn also appeared with the New York City Opera, the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, New York.

“I’ve been really lucky,” Kohn acknowledges. “It comes from a lot of hard work and a lot of rejection. One of the main things I’ve learned through this whole process is how often your castmates can become the people behind the table, producing a show you’re auditioning for or directing or choreographing. That really taught me to be kind to every single person and to really work as hard as I can and do the best I can, because it’s all about connections and networking and who you know and word of mouth.

“I’ve just worked really hard to have a reputation as someone who’s reliable and who shows up and does their job 150 percent, even on the hard days, and who’s kind to people and loyal … and I think that’s paid off.”

Being part of “A Beautiful Noise,” Kohn says, “means so much to me because I’m able to do all three things I love doing, which is acting, singing and dancing.” And her favorite moment of the show comes during its second act.”

Kohn is just three months into her yearlong contract with “A Beautiful Noise” and says a future goal is to originate a role in a new musical.

“I’m really interested in collaborating and building something that feels truthful and meaningful and real,” she says.

Being “on the other side of the table,” which she’s “dabbled in,” is also appealing, she adds, but not in the immediate future.

“I absolutely loved it, and I do plan on doing that in the future,” she says, “but right now I have that hunger to perform every night, to be on stage. It really does fill me up and it’s so rewarding. So that’s what I really want to do.”