Meet Broadway's Betty Boop, Jasmine Amy Rogers
Jasmine Amy Rogers plays Betty Boop in BOOP! The Musical, now on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre
Jasmine Amy Rogers will never forget where she was when she learned that she was offered the role of Betty Boop in BOOP! The Musical.
It was the summer of 2023 and she had just left her apartment to get on the six train to take a class at Barry's Bootcamp. 'I was attempting to keep myself busy and was going to try this class for the first time,' says Rogers, who got the call from all three of her agents about the show that would run in Chicago before heading to Broadway.
'They always get on a four-way call. And they were saying, 'you're gonna play Boop.' They were proud of me, and so excited,' says Rogers. They told her to keep the news under wraps. 'The only person I could call was my mother,' she says. 'I remember it being a gloomy, warm, rainy day, but I was just over the moon and it was the best day ever.'
The road to playing Betty Boop had been challenging for Rogers. The musical about the strong and sultry iconic comic book character who debuted in 1930 had a dream creative team attached. That included director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, composer David Foster, lyricist Susan Birkenhead and book writer Bob Martin. For Rogers, who was in her early twenties, playing the title role was a lot.
A musical theater standout, Rogers had already worked with Mitchell in the musical Becoming Nancy. But until that point, BOOP! eluded her. She had auditioned for the role about seven times yet couldn't land it.
'It was clear Jerry and DB Bonds, our associate director, wanted me. But I had to prove to them that I could handle it,' says Rogers. 'I believe it was about inhabiting myself. I was lacking the confidence needed to play the role and carry the show.'
During one work session with Bonds he told her, "You have to go in there and show them what you are doing is worthy.' Looking back, Rogers sees that they knew she was capable of playing Betty Boop before she believed in herself. 'It was basically them trying to convince me that I really wanted this. I had to own it,' she says. 'And when I finally did, that is when I got the role.'
But Rogers got to own the role and more. A tap-dancing triple threat, she has a voice as smooth as honey and a belt that brings down the house. She creates a layered Betty Boop that is vulnerable and sweet, yet very powerful and smart. The company also includes Faith Prince, Ainsley Melham, Erich Bergen, Stephen DeRosa, Anastacia McCleskey, Angelica Hale, Phillip Huber, and Aubie Merrylees.
'I love how full of life and how caring Betty is. She is so smart and vivacious,' says Rogers. She is also drawn to Betty's ability to be so nurturing. "Throughout the story, she goes on a journey to find something that she feels is missing in her life. But along the way, she makes sure to stop and take care of people around her,' she says. 'She never sees this as a burden or roadblock. She is willing to give so much of herself to the people around her. Betty views the world in such a beautiful way, it really inspires me to live my own life just a little bit happier and with more optimism.'
A passion for performing was in Rogers' DNA. She remembers her late father singing jazz tunes when she was a little girl while her mother adored show tunes. 'My father loved to sing jazz music. He would make up his own songs that felt like their own standards,and he always wanted me to sing,' she says. "My mother was a big musical theater girl who loved Wicked and Rent. And those were my two favorite musicals.'
Rogers begged her mother to let her audition for their community theater production of Peter Pan at Milford Performing Arts Center in Milford, Massachusetts, where she was living at the time. (She also grew up in Richmond, Texas, outside Houston.) Playing homage to Wicked, she sang 'Popular' and was cast in the ensemble playing a member of Tiger Lily's tribe. 'Instead of being Native Americans, we were hippies,' says Rogers.
She vividly remembers her mother getting the call that they wanted her seven-year-old self for the show. 'I was so excited, I ran around the house, losing my mind,' says Rogers. 'And ever since, I've been hooked.'
Throughout the years Rogers continued to do theater, and in her senior year of high school, Rogers was cast as the Witch in Into The Woods. The part won her the Tommy Tune award, given to students who excel in theater in the greater Houston area. That also gave her the opportunity to participate Jimmy Awards, which celebrates the best musical theater talent from around the nation. Rogers made it to the finals.
'When I won the Tommy Tune Award I was so shocked. I was so sure that another girl, who I'm still friends with and was amazing, was going to win,' she says. But after that accolade and the Jimmy Awards she knew that this was her path.
Rogers was accepted into the Manhattan School of Music, a conservatory in New York City, to study musical theater. After two years, a professional career beckoned. She was cast in the musical Becoming Nancy, directed by Jerry Mitchell, who would later cast her in BOOP!. 'That is when things really began for me,' says Rogers, who played Gretchen Wieners in the first national tour of Mean Girls.
(From left) Stephen DeRosa (Grampy), Jasmine Amy Rogers (Betty Boop), Phillip Huber (Pudgy)
As much as she always longed for it, she didn't know if playing a title role like Betty Boop would actually be within her reach. 'When I was little, I wondered if one day I would get to be Wendy in Peter Pan, or Cinderella in Cinderella,' says Rogers. 'And here I am doing that. It was always a dream of mine, and the fact that I'm here doing it is really special.'
Rogers hopes people feel that sense of joy that she feels at each performance. 'This show is joy personified. And I hope that we are bringing joy to people in a time where joy feels very sparse sometimes,' she says. 'And I hope people walk away feeling uplifted, loved, ready to love and with a smile on their face.'
The cast of BOOP! The Musical
Jasmine Amy Rogers as Betty Boop
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