In June of 2019, the curtains of the historic August Wilson Theatre on Broadway spread to reveal its newest superstar, equipped with blond, bouncy curls and breathtaking vocals.
Reneé Rapp, barely two years out of high school and a 2018 winner of the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, joined the cast of “Mean Girls” as plastic Regina George June 7, 2019 in her Broadway debut, taking over from the original star and Tony nominee Taylor Louderman for a limited summer engagement and later a full-time role beginning in September.
But as Rapp belted out the lyrics to Regina’s villainous melody “World Burn” night after night into the new year, the world indeed did burn. Spotlights darkened and stages went idle without the bounds of dance and song beginning March 12, 2020, by order of the Governor of New York amid rising concerns about the global coronavirus pandemic.
On Jan. 7, 2021, it was announced that the show would not reopen.
Despite its rocky start, the world burning did not stop Rapp’s career, as she is now gaining mainstream popularity from her music career and reprise of the Regina George role in 2024’s “Mean Girls,” based on the 2004 comedy and succeeding musical of the same name. A singer, songwriter and actress, Rapp is becoming a force in the industry, and she is making her presence known.
A North Carolina native, Rapp was cast in a number of productions following her high school graduation including Wendla in a regional production of “Spring Awakening” by Theatre Charlotte and Monteen in Roundabout Theatre Company’s reading of “Parade.” She also participated in a number of other live performances. She sang at BroadwayCon’s 2019 Star to Be Event, Feinstein’s/54 Below 54, The Green Room 42 and the Supergirl Pro Surf and Music Festival throughout 2018 and 2019.
In 2020, Rapp was cast as Leighton Murray in Max’s comedy series “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” co-written by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble. Described by Rapp as “sarcastic and cunty,” Leighton is a legacy student at the fictitious Essex College who comes out in the season one finale, not wanting her sexuality to define her as a person. Premiering in November of 2021, the show did well both critically and commercially, but after two seasons, Rapp’s exit from the show as a series regular was announced in July of 2023.
The end goal for her is to release original music, and that has carried much of her success since 2023.
It didn’t come easily though.
“[I thought], I can do music on the side, like, I can just hustle. And now I’ve just kept acting, because it keeps supporting the music … Acting was my way into tricking everyone that I warranted attention,” she told Variety in 2022.
Despite her success in acting, Rapp was told that to be in the music business, she had to wear certain things and her body needed to look a certain way. She signed with Interscope Records, and said that she finally felt industry support and respect.
“I was just immediately like, ‘Holy shit, you actually want to listen to me.’ I was also really proud of myself because it worked. I acted, I made a platform for myself, I commanded a little bit of attention, and now people give a fuck. So I was also like, slay. I kind of ate with the plan,” she told Variety in the same interview.
In November of 2022, Rapp released her debut EP “Everything to Everyone.” The seven-track project was, as she told MTV in 2022, “a healing form of self-reflection.” She completed her first tour, “Everything to Everyone: The First Shows” in December of 2022, whose eight shows sold out.
More recently, she released her full-length studio album, “Snow Angel,” in 2023, which was the biggest solo debut album for a female artist that year. The album sold 18,000 units and debuted at number 44 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album also debuted at number 7 on the UK Albums Chart. In June of 2023 she announced her “Snow Hard Feelings Tour,” which she embarked on later that year.
Rapp took some time off from her musical endeavors and performances to film “Mean Girls,” which released Jan. 12 and made waves with its subsequent press tour.
It started with some comments about putting the apparent owner of a bus tour company, who she called Buddy, in her “Burn Book,” after she had issues with the way he spoke to her friends and mother.
“If you’re watching this, I can’t stand you and I hope your business burns,” she said to the camera in a press interview. “You are so disrespectful and misogynistic, and I hate you.”
She also made taunting gibes at co-star Christopher Briney, who plays Aaron Samuels, for not staying up to date with the ongoings of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé.
“You’re not cancelled! No, it’s OK! You’re just straight,” she said.
On Seth Meyers, promoting the release of “Snow Angel” deluxe, she quibbed about “decrepit,” old, white men who seemingly had a problem with her “I Hate Boston” billboard.
Her candid, frank comments and blasé attitude on the press tour have rocketed her to the top of Twitter feeds and TikTok “for you” pages. She is described as “real” and “relatable” by her fans, called “mother” online and some have even compared her to Jennifer Lawrence in terms of her “media training,” or lack thereof.
Lawrence’s frankness in interviews in the mid-2010s was also refreshing and endearing to fans but a nightmare for her publicist when she revealed perhaps too much.
Rapp’s current attitude and how she speaks and holds herself seems to be a reflection of an increase in confidence throughout her career. Like her character from “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” Rapp has surely come into her own over the past few years as her music began to reflect her person more and more. And at the end of the day, she was just a regular girl who was talented enough to make it big in Hollywood; this relatability appears to be one of the reasons why she’s gotten so much support.
While some aren’t as impressed with Rapp’s “media training,” the negatives surely do not overpower her growing prevalence and fans, primarily teenagers, young adults and the LGBTQ+ community.
Rapp told Vogue she was bisexual in 2022 and in the past couple months has expressed her identity as a lesbian.
Queer singers are usually always embraced by the LGBTQ+ community and now more than ever, their presence is growing more and more mainstream. But Rapp is not what we think of as the “traditional” queer trailblazer. In this case, Rapp’s career and popularity reflects the impact of queer trailblazers and how far society has come. It’s reflected in the way she nonchalantly mentions her female exes and tells stories of her romantic endeavors on social media. It’s reflected in her fashion choices and her pop culture references. It’s reflected in her music and the characters she portrays on screen. It’s reflected in who she is and expresses herself as a person.
We don’t need every artist to be a “trailblazer,” especially now, but normalizing queerness and embracing it fully is perhaps more important to society to understand the presence of LGBTQ+ singers, actors, dancers, performers and of course, fans. In a way, Rapp’s seemingly nonchalant attitude toward her sexuality has a trailblazing effect simply because it familiarizes LGBTQ+ existence.
She’s said that her openness is partly because she “suffered in silence for so many years” and partly because of her young age, according to People.
“My generation and the generation that will follow mine is much more open — especially women, non-men, queer people. I do think I’ve been afforded more opportunities than women before me, men and queer women before me,” she told The Guardian. “This generation is still super mean to each other. But we are more outspoken — and give less of a fuck.”
She’s also spoken openly about struggling with an eating disorder, while at the same time being body-shamed on Broadway.
Between her recent performance on “Saturday Night Live,” maintaining her chaotic social media and preparing for the international leg of the “Snow Hard Feelings Tour” in February, Rapp seems in no hurry to hit the brakes on her unbothered, rebellious attitude. It’s clear her audience will be waiting patiently to see what “mother” does next.