Inside the Rehearsal Room with BOOP!, the Big Broadway Musical That's Gonna Be the Bee's Knees

Vintage Betty Boop of the 1930s was a hip-swishing, boop-oop-a-doop-ing flapper chick whose colorful personality cut through the greyscale. She even had a coquettish theme song that put words to her allure:

Made of pen and ink
She can win you with a wink 
Wait 'til you get a view of sweet Betty!

Still as coy as the day cartoonists Max Fleischer and Grim Natwick brought her to life, in the new Broadway musical BOOP!, the animated ingénue trades in some of her 20th-century dizziness for a 21st-century sense of wonder at the new life she stumbles into in New York City. 

The Broadway Show spent a day in the rehearsal room with the creative minds behind today's Betty Boop, beginning performances at the Broadhurst Theatre on March 11. Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek talked to director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell, composer David Foster, lyricist Susan Birkenhead and book writer Bob Martin about their vision for a modern-day Betty. He also chatted with cast members Erich Bergen (Raymond) and Angelica Hale (Trisha), along with the musical's pair of comic geniuses, Faith Prince (Valentina) and Stephen DeRosa (Grampy). And of course, he spent time with the stars of the show, a fancy-footed Ainsley Melham who returns to Broadway as Betty's love interest Dwayne, and Jasmine Amy Rogers, who makes her Broadway debut as Betty herself, a likeness as indelible as Coca-Cola. 

Read highlights from some of the interviews, and watch the full video segment below. 

Jasmine Amy Rogers on becoming Betty
"I honestly think we've found a way to stay so true to who she originally is. Bob Martin, the book writer, did an amazing job pulling that 1930s speech and all of that right out of the cartoon and putting it on the page. But she gets to be become a full-fledged human being, and that's something we never saw. The thing that's great about Betty is that she is so universal. She's supposed to be this version that a lot of women can see in themselves, and I really love that it's about her. It’s a woman that they drew with pen and ink on paper and somehow, everybody saw themselves in her. It's going to be so joyful and just so much fun."

Ainsley Melham on playing Betty's sweetheart with golden-age flare
"I grew up watching Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and all of these amazing dancers. That's where I get my influence as a performer, as an actor, as a dancer, and I've been waiting for that show where I can showcase it. So even though Dwayne, in the context of the show, lives in 2025, he has this sort of nostalgia, old charm about him, which I really like to tap into. I love this New York number where we get to be on the Red Steps in Times Square. It's thrilling. Now it's about getting it up to show fit, ready to do it eight times a week."

Bob Martin on pulling Betty off the page
"It really examines the nature of love, because Betty's never experienced that before. She's only been chased by men in cartoons. And now she's actually experiencing love for the first time and understanding what that is. I find it really moving, actually. She literally begins as a two-dimensional character and then comes into a three-dimensional world. We represent that metaphorically, but she does become more human as the show goes on."

Jerry Mitchell on making BOOP! Broadway-ready
"After we left Chicago, I knew I needed a new opening to the second act and I wanted a production number. David wrote an incredible number with Susan, and Bob and I talked about it, and then I went to [costume designer] Gregg [Barnes] and I said, 'Gregg, what if?' He designed an amazing costume. And I showed it to [projection designer] Finn [Ross] and I said, 'Finn, what if?' And so I'm really excited for this. This is a good show. It was a very good show in Chicago, and I learned from that experience how to make it just a little bit better. I can't wait to share it with New York, because I'm really proud of it."

David Foster on transitioning from hitmaker to Broadway composer
"I had a good career as a songwriter, as a producer, and at some point you stop writing hits because that's just the nature of the beast. You get older and you're not relevant anymore. The last 20 years, when those hits stopped, I went to Michael Bublé and to Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli, and that sort of fulfilled that. But then, that sort of changed a little bit. I like to say about Broadway—and I'm not an expert on Broadway—but I think you don't have to write a hit song. You just have to write a good song. And I thought I was still capable of doing that."

Susan Birkenhead on making a cartoon sing 
"[Producer] Bill Haber called me and he said, 'I finally have a show for you.' And I said, 'What is it?' He said, 'Betty Boop.' And I said, 'Betty Boop?' And I thought about it for a minute, and then I thought, 'Yeah, why not?' So many people had been in the mix before, but I suddenly thought you could create anything you want because nobody really knows who she is. Mark Fleischer, who is the grandson of the guy who created her, said to us a very long time ago, '[Betty] is one of two of the most iconic images in the world.' He said, 'The first is Coca-Cola, and the second is Betty Boop.'"