Backstage with Sandy Kenyon: 'Mean Girls' Broadway star Renee Rapp
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Renee Rapp is less than two years out of high school, but she's already head of the "Mean Girls" on Broadway.
But in real life, she's not mean at all.
"I cannot believe that I am standing on a table in front of a Broadway audience," she said. "I show up for work every night, and I feel like I'm just a fan of everybody. And I'm just having the most fun. It feels way too lucky to be real."
Actually, she made her own luck -- by entering and winning at The Jimmy Awards, a competition for high school performers.
The other winner in 2018 was Andrew Barth Feldman, who is currently starring on the Great White Way in "Dear Evan Hansen."
"I don't think either one of us expected much of anything," she said. "He and I were just talking yesterday, and he literally said to me, 'I just cannot believe that we're both doing this.' And I was like, 'Yeah, me neither.' I wake up every day, and I'm like, 'What!?'"
Oh, it's real alright, and seeing herself life size on a wall outside the theater makes it feel even more so. She took a photo of it and sent it off to her parents.
"I thought it was really cool," she said. "But I wanted to send it to my parents, because their reaction made me more happy than mine could have ever."
Her folks agreed to let their daughter forego college for one year to try and get a job on Broadway, which is where she gets her education now.
"I wanted to find some success in order to prove to my parents that I could work at this age," she said. "And I would walk into casting rooms, and I'd be like, 'Hey, what's up, my name's Renee, nice to meet you.' And they'd be like, 'Oh, you did the Jimmys, you're going to do great things.' I was like, 'Oh, wow. Coming from you, that means a lot,' you know?"
"Mean Girls" is staged at the August Wilson Theatre. CLICK HERE for more information about the show.
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