Mean Girls' Reneé Rapp Says Regina George Wouldn't Be Taking COVID-19 Seriously, But You Should

Reneé Rapp knows what Regina George is doing in quarantine. While the Mean Girls star has spent her time away from the stage traveling to Michigan—with her Broadway boyfriend, fellow Jimmy Awards alum and Jagged Little Pill ensemble member Antonio Cipriano—Rapp said she has a good idea how the infamous bully would spend her time away from North Shore High School. “She would definitely be online shopping,” joked Rapp on #LiveAtFive: Home Edition with Broadway.com's Paul Wontorek. “She would be like, ‘The world is in disarray? Here’s my Gucci gift card.'” Rapp mused George would take pleasure in hiding behind her Twitter handle, too. “I definitely feel like she would be ratting on everyone in her house to the world. She would be one of those people on Twitter who’s tweeting and is like, ‘Hey keep your heads up. Do good things for yourself,’ and behind the scenes be like, ‘And all of you are idiots.'”

While George might imaginably be taking the Broadway shutdown lightly, Rapp, who stepped into Mean Girls to replace Tony nominee Taylor Louderman in September 2019, said the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly disorienting for the cast. “We had a huge turnover recently, and actually made a lot of changes to the show, literally, I think two days before we went dark,” she said. On March 8, only four days before Broadway was forced to close, Sabrina Carpenter, Chad Burris, Olivia Kaufmann and Laura Leigh Turner joined the cast, replacing original Broadway cast members Erika Henningsen, Grey Henson, Barrett Wilbert Weed and Kate Rockwell. With the new cast came a few tweaks too. New song lyrics—including an updated version of “Fearless”—costumes and scenes were added, akin to changes made to Mean Girls when it went out on tour. “There was so much adrenaline and so much good energy behind what we were doing, and then it was like, ‘OK, stop,’” Rapp said. 

Given the closure, Rapp said she and the cast have been particularly keen on keeping in tough with each other. “You know how much they become a part of your life, but you don’t actually realize what an impact they have on your day-to-day until you don’t see them, and that’s really weird," she remarked.

Importantly, Rapp urged fans not to borrow from her character's selfish example—except for the staying inside part. “This whole thing is wild," she said. "It’s about the people who would be really, really impacted by this. So I’m just trying to stay responsible, stay inside and encourage other people to do the same and take care of themselves.” Especially for Broadway, rallying together will make a difference, she said. "This is dangerous, and we all have to band together to stay happy and stay healthy."

In the meantime, Rapp’s been spending time imagining what changes she’d like to make Mean Girls, including a gender switch up à la Broadway’s Company revival. While Rapp said she’d love to play “Regina on the weekdays and Janice on the weekends,” she’d also be keen to play Aaron, Cady’s crush, “but a girl version of Aaron. So, Erin,” she said. “We’ve talked about this in the theater before. One of our dressers came up with this, that Erin and Cady could be gay. I think that would be dope, and frankly it could be done very easily.” Take it up with Tina Fey, Reneé!

Watch the rest of Rapp's #LiveAtFive: Home Edition interview below: