NEW YORK — In high-school choir,Jasmine Amy RogersdiscoveredAudra McDonald, the six-time Tony-winning Broadway legend. "I cried the first time I heard her voice," recalls Rogers, 26. "I was seeing a Black woman do something I don't think I'd ever seen before and it changed my life. I was able to look at myself in a different way. Now she's right next door, which is out of this world." The powerhouse performers are starring just steps away from each other on 44thStreet: McDonald in "Gypsy" at the Majestic Theatre, and Rogers in "Boop! The Musical" at the Broadhurst. They are also both nominated for best leading actress in a musical at theTony Awards, airing June 8 from Radio City Music Hall (8 ET/5 PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+). "I'm just the luckiest girl in the world," says Rogers, who is making her Broadway debut as Betty Boop, the spit-curled, baby-voiced flapper whose visage has become a familiar staple of American pop culture. The unlikely musical comedy imagines if Betty traded her black-and-white, pen-and-ink world for the hustle and bustle of present-day New York, where she falls in love with a dashing trumpeter (Ainsley Melham) and brings down a corrupt mayoral candidate (Erich Bergen). Betty made her first appearance in 1930 in Fleischer Studios' "Dizzy Dishes." Many of her earliest cartoons centered on Bettybeing chasedandpreyed uponby creepy men, although the stage show helps bring the sexpot into the 21stcentury, showing how she has always been asubversive,feminist icon, with varied careers and an unwaveringmoral compass. "She has such a strong sense of right and wrong, and loves other people," Rogers says. The character's popularity peaked nearly 90 years ago, meaning many audiences seeing "Boop!" will be introduced to her for the first time. "It's liberating, because we've gotten to take so much ownership of her. It's really, really special to get to bring new life to Betty." For Rogers, "it's been a long, long road" to playing Betty on Broadway. In early workshops of the show, she was originally cast as Trisha, a teenage Boop superfan now portrayed by actress Angelica Hale. But when the youthful character was reconceived, she went back to the drawing board and auditioned to play Betty herself. Initially, "I kind of blew it," Rogers says. "I was so nervous to the point where I couldn't get any of the dancing down. I was just a wreck." But after finishing her stint on the "Mean Girls" national tour, Rogers was eager to take another crack at the role. "I contacted my agents and was like, 'I need to get back in. I just have this feeling.'" After a half dozen rounds of auditions, Rogers was eventually cast as Betty, and led the musical's out-of-town tryout in Chicago in late 2023. To inhabit Betty, "the physicality was very nerve-racking for me," she admits. The newcomer enrolled in tap classes, and trained fastidiously with associate choreographer Rachelle Rak, figuring out how an animated siren might walk and stand. She also perfected Betty's high-pitched voice, which sits quite comfortably in the soft palate of her mouth. "It's almost effortless; it just flies out," Rogers says. "The way I speak day-to-day is probably more harmful for me than Betty's voice." Rogers is a "a triple threat," saysDavid Foster, who composed the musical's score. "She has charisma and that's something you just can't buy. She's so confident, and every microsecond that she's on stage, she's Betty. Her facial expressions, her body movements – she completely transforms into that character and doesn't let up for one split second. It's pretty phenomenal." Rogers was born in Boston and started doing theater in Milford, Massachusetts. Her very first show was "Peter Pan," where she memorably out-sang the girl playing Tiger Lily. "I had no sense of, 'This is her song and maybe don't scream over her,'" she remembers. "I was just fully belting at 7 years old in the little chorus of tribe members. But I just fell in love with it from that moment and never stopped." Her first professional gig was in the 2019 musical "Becoming Nancy" in Atlanta, helmed by "Boop!" director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell. She followed that with Dion DiMucci bio-musical "The Wanderer" at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. "I got to act in a way that I hadn't yet in my career," Rogers says. "That solidified for me, 'Oh, I'm in the right place and doing the thing I love. This is just meant to be.'" Between jobs, she supplemented her income as a babysitter, as well as a hostess atJacob's Pickleson New York's Upper West Side. She worked there for two months before booking "Mean Girls" in 2022. "That was a little side hustle I had for a while," Rogers recalls, laughing. "It's a good restaurant, but I hope I never have to be a hostess ever again. It was not for me!" "Boop! The Musical" is now playing at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 W. 44th Street). This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jasmine Amy Rogers talks Tony-nominated turn in 'Boop! The Musical'
