Kiss Me, Kate's Stephanie Styles on Writing Starlight Express Fanfiction and Being in a 'Hot Broadway Oreo' at the Tonys

We're always true to Kiss Me, Kate standout Stephanie Styles, and she's true to us! The Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner had a busy weekend performing in the opening number at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards, and she visited Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive to tell Paul Wontorek all about the experience and how she feels making her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated revival. "We were supposed to do a tri-lift like I do in the show but at the last minute we changed it to a T-lift," Styles said of the Tony performance. "We had to go early and rehearse. As they were doing the pre-show Creative Arts Tonys, we were behind the scrim with [host] James Corden practicing; it was so Broadway. When we did the opening number and I got on stage, my immediate decision was to wink and that’s all I remember."

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As a self-proclaimed Broadway nerd, Styles had a difficult time keeping her cool while rehearsing alongside her fellow actors. "There was a moment at the Tonys when I was between the hottest Broadway Oreo," she said. "I was between Patrick Page and Damon [Daunno] AKA hot Curly. In front of me was Jeremy Pope–hot and talented–and Kerry Butler, who is the hottest. I was just surrounded by greatness."

Once Styles was able to watch the telecast, she was taken back to her early days of being a Broadway fan. "The Hadestown performance would have been something I wrote fanfiction about like 15 years ago," she said. "I wrote mainly about Andrew Lloyd Webber franchises. Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express and Cats were big ones. It's characters that are not together in the show but I want them to be, like a Christine and Phantom situation. The other night I watched a 30-minute video compilation of the Phantom final lair kiss just because."

Styles may be currently making her Broadway debut as Lois Lane/Bianca in Roundabout's revival of Kiss Me, Kate, but it's not the first show she's been cast in on the Great White Way. "My first audition in New York was for the revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring James Corden," Styles said. "And I booked it! I sang for [Stephen] Sondheim and did the whole thing. I booked Philia, and then James [Corden] got The Late Late Show so it got canceled."

As for how Styles was able to find her own voice in playing Lois Lane, it was all about finding the truth behind the character. "I love a solid, sexy, B-couple woman," she said. "The thing about Lois is that she's sexy, that’s something you can't deny. She’s a sexually-empowered character and she's flirtatious, but I wanted to find where that came from. For her, I think it's in her optimism and hopefulness. It's like Betty Boop meets Mrs. Maisel."

Be sure to catch Styles in Kiss Me, Kate, playing at Studio 54 through June 30.

Watch the full #LiveAtFive interview below!