"Danny DeVito, I love your work!" - Mean Girls
There are certain actors in the Broadway community that everyone adores, and that you are genuinely excited for every single success they have in this business. Catherine Brunell is absolutely one of those people! I am very grateful to be able to call her a good friend and to have worked with her back in the day. I’m also pretty sure I have a picture of us dressed up as a banana and a honeybee, on tour in San Diego circa 2004. If I find it, I’ll include it at the end of this post.
Catherine was most recently seen on Broadway in Mean Girls! Yay! And for the rest of her impressive Broadway credits let's just look at the first paragraph of her bio:
Catherine Brunell starred in Broadway’s Mean Girls where she played triple duty as Mrs. Heron/Ms. Norbury/Mrs. George. Prior to Mean Girls she starred as Portia in the Broadway hit, Something Rotten. She has performed the title roles in Broadway’s Mary Poppins and Thoroughly Modern Millie and played the role of Eponine in the Broadway production of Les Misérables at the Imperial Theater. Other Broadway credits include Big River (revival with Deaf West Theater), A Tale of Two Cities, and ELF.
If you're a hardcore fan of the 2004 Mean Girls movie or the Broadway musical version then you will not be confused by the "Danny DeVito, I love your work!" line in the title of this blog post. Fun Fact, Catherine is technically the original Danny DeVito in Mean Girls the Musical because she was asked to do the very first workshop of the show which took place for a week in Tina Fey's office. It was a small group of actors that were hired to play all the various characters for Ms Fey so she could figure out what was working and what wasn't. I mean can you imagine workshopping all the Mean Girls characters for a week in front of Tina Fey??! Now that's pretty awesome! Ok, sorry, time to focus. Here's a little bit from my chat with Catherine:
I know that you were in the Broadway company of Mean Girls but what exactly is your history with the show?
I was playing Portia in Something's Rotten on Broadway when Casey Nickolaw, the Director/Choreographer, told me that Tina Fey wanted to turn Mean Girls into a Broadway musical and would I be in the workshop to beat out the script with them. I said that's amazing and yes! I had filmed an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt opposite Tina Fey so I was very excited to work with her again in this capacity. It was an incredible experience.
Eventually the show did come to Broadway with Kerry Butler playing the "Adult Woman" role (which we all called it). Six months later I got a call from Casey saying Kerry was leaving and he wanted me to make a self-tape for Tina in hopes I would get the part. I put my blood, sweat and tears into that tape. I knew I had to get this right for her by nailing all the scene work and landing each comedic beat. Well she liked it so I was called in for an in-person audition with four other women. Afterwards my agent called to tell me it was between me and one other woman. A few days later I was told I didn't get the job. So I thought "Oh Well, guess I'll never be in Mean Girls!" One year later the phone rang and I was offered the Mean Girls job. After a slew of disappointments that past year, including ALMOST Broadway jobs in Dear Evan Hanson and Girl from North Country, I was back on Broadway in 2019. Turns out I did book the job at that in-person audition. I just didn't realize it wouldn't happen for another year. You must trust the journey. I loved that job!
What was it like for you personally when Broadway shut
down in March 2020? And later the news that Mean Girls would not be coming
back?
I knew how good the job was from the very beginning. My
pre-show ritual was taking the time for “visualization” right before each performance.
I would visualize each scene going perfectly: the prop working correctly, the
cross downstage, the vocals spot on. Taking a moment to visualize each moment. Express
gratitude. Saying thank you. I know this job won’t last forever but thank you
for now.
When all of Broadway shut down, we just assumed we’d be
back at some point. On December 10, 2020 Tina Fey hosted the NBC Television
special “One Night Only: The Best of Broadway” and Mean Girls performed there
with many other Broadway shows. But sadly, a month later it was announced that
we would not be coming back to Broadway. The show had recouped its investment
and had already made a lot of money. The costs of keeping the show intact for
another 8 or 9 months while the theaters remained dark led to the decision to
just close now. As sad as it was, I have no regrets. I appreciated Mean
Girls in the moment. That’s all we can do.
What stands out to you the most during your time at Mean
Girls?
My time backstage with the other actors in the show. I love
working out comedy beats with other actors. And if you bomb onstage then it’s
back to the drawing board to figure out different things to make it work the
next time. Theater is a team sport.
I will always remember that Tina Fey and her husband Jeff Richmond (Mean Girls composer) sent me flowers for my opening night. And after Tina saw me in the show,
she gave me her stamp of approval. That was special.
What is the best advice you have for the artists here in
Huntsville that hope to be up there one day doing what you’re doing?
Do the work! Then have fun up there. Gavin Creel is a very
dear friend who I got to play opposite of many times in Thoroughly Modern
Millie back in 2002 on Broadway. And this is something he tells me that I
love: “You’ve done the work. You’ve done the prep. It will be your fault if you
don’t enjoy it!”
Catherine, I swear I could talk to you forever! But I know
you’re a busy lady so here’s my last question. When is the happiest that you’ve
ever been onstage?
I was playing Mary Jane on the national tour of Big River and I was pregnant with my twin boys. I was onstage singing "You Ought To Be Here With Me" and I could feel the boys kicking inside of me. I thought I'm the luckiest girl in the world."
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