Before Reneé Rapp was a powerhouse pop singer, she was a Broadway star.
The "Pretty Girls" singer got her big break in the Broadway production of Mean Girls, just after she won The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as The Jimmy Awards, alongside Dear Evan Hansen alum Andrew Barth Feldman.
Tonight, Feldman, who recently starred in Jennifer Lawrence's hit No Hard Feelings film, steps into Off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors - which he thought Rapp would have been the perfect co-star for.
At a red carpet event celebrating the long-running Broadway musical last October, Feldman approved of the idea of the "Not My Fault" songstress playing the role of Audrey alongside him as Seymour in the musical.
"I mean, she would shatter the Earth. It would be crazy," he gushed over his old friend. "I'm so proud of her. The music is just so great. It's so exciting."
The role of Audrey belts out classic musical theater songs like "Somewhere That's Green" and "Suddenly Seymour." When thinking of some other potential scene partners, Feldman also threw out the name of one of his former High School Musical: the Musical: the Series co-stars.
"There are so many. There are so so many I can think of. I would love to do it with my friend Sofia Wylie. She is the best. I would love that."
The rising actor revealed that he has been "the biggest" fan of the musical from an early age, looking back on his early relationship with the beloved show.
"I think I saw the movie when I was really young and I was just in love with it. I wore the album out, I had the piano book, I did crew for a production. I love Little Shop of Horrors so much."
Although Rapp is currently in the midst of a run of music festival performances while she writes her second album, Feldman is joined in the musical by another star of stage and screen.
Sarah Hyland, known for her role as Haley on Modern Family, is playing Audrey alongside Feldman as Seymour. Tonight is their opening night at the Westside Theatre Upstairs in New York City, where the musical has been running since 2019. Past stars who have appeared in the musical include Darren Criss, Jinkx Monsoon, Corbin Bleu, and more.
While Rapp is busy pursuing her music career, she is not completely done with Broadway. The Sex Lives of College Girls star says she wants to EGOT, which includes a return to the theater in some form. She has spent much of her career onstage, but reveals that writing a musical has been a recent interest for her.
"I never thought about it but recently, it's been so top of mind. I feel like, especially with like pop girls, pop girls right now are theater kids," she told BroadwayWorld last year. "If you look at Olivia [Rodrigo] or like Lizzie [McAlpine] or anybody like that, like those are theater kids, right? Those are the girls that are writing like incredible, beautiful, almost like Sondheim-storytelling kind of lyrics, right? So like they absolutely are intersectional."
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