--Hey everybody! It's me Susan Blackwell and today I'm side-by-side my favorite
Broadway Cindy Lou Who. Look at that Dr. Seussical face. From Mean
Girls on Broadway, it's Erika Henningsen!
--Hi!
--Erika, tell our friends at home where
we are what we're doing today. --Well we're on a beautiful West Side Highway,
gorgeous, and we're at a beautiful car wash. --That has what Erika?
--Donuts --Under
West Donuts. Let's take a bite. --Come with us.
[music]
--Erika, where are we?
--In my home! I brought I brought you all to my home. --This is like
this is really is --This is great
--Make a wish,
like come on. --Yeah this is all I wanted
--I get to be in your home eating donuts with you?
--We were gonna like get in my bed and really
get cozy but there was some difficulty with the cameras. --Easy.
--I'm gonna
put 30 seconds on the clock.
You're gonna tell me your life story in that 30
seconds. Don't leave out the awesome parts. Starting now.
--All right. I was born in California. I grew up with three girls, oh, I was one of
those girls, so two girls plus me. --This is going great.
--This is going really well. We're already at like 15
seconds. Um, I really didn't excel at any sport, so somehow I stumbled into
this, this being singing, acting, dancing.
--You have ten seconds. --Oh no!
--Good Lord, child --Traveled my
way across the United States, made a stop in Michigan with Ashley Park and
Taylor Louderman, um. Life story we got doughnuts this morning. That's the most
recent thing I've done.
Wow you really didn't get any information in that. --Super
bonus. What's the name of that autobiography?
--Can I Pet Your Dog?
[laughs]
[music]
--What the what is it like to star in Mean Girls on Broadway. What the what
is that really like?
--What the what? You know, I will say it's become, in a great
way, what my day revolves around. Cuz it's you know it's it's a lot in the best
possible way. But I also say that with love because the cast has become family,
that theater has become second home. --You fart on each other a lot?
--Present, me the
most. --Are you farting right now?
--Not on you. I don't, you know,
like give me like another day and then probably. Also, it's insane because people
love the show before we've even done anything.
--Yeah! --Like like that's that will
never happen again. We walk out, and they're like YEAH!
--They're like, Brand recognition!
--Right, Brand recognition!
And you're just like,
I could suck tonight! But, you're already excited to be here. --You get carried along
that pink wave of success --Very pink wave that Tina Fey
just like paved for us. --Thank you Tina Fey.
--Yeah bless Tina Fey.
--What the what is your deal with stopping people on the
street to pet their dogs?
--Oh, I have like a three step approach.
--Oh -- Well so first
of all --Patented three-step approach
--Yeah, you have to let them know that it's
coming before your like on top of them. --Okay
--So you see the dog, and you go [gasps]
--So make, from a distance, --Yeah
--You send out an alert
--You send out an alert. And this is
like you sent out an alert, and then you you gauge their response, and if they're
like no shut it down, you respect that. You move on. But --The dog or the owner?
Both. --Both.
--Okay. -- And then if they're both
kind of like, Oh! Hey! Then you get close
and you always start with a compliment. And you just tell the person, You have a
beautiful dog. What's her his name? So, you start you start the conversation. There's
no choice. And then you reach down to pet.
You just go for it? --What the
what is up with your ability to freestyle?
--[laughs] Umm...
--What do you want tell me about
that?
--I mean, can you drop a beat?
--[Susan beatboxes]
--Okay... When I was in school, I thought it was
cool to take some time to make rhyme. So at parties with all my friends, I went to
the ends of the line and they drop a beat, and we'd stamp our feet, and all together
we climbed to the top of a mountain that was built on words. It was fun with lots
of --Turds? Turds!
Turds! [laughs]
--Got it. Oh I got your nose.
--They're so good.
--This is the cinnamon? --The cinnamon's great cuz it's like salty and
sweet. There's like a little bit of salt they put on it. -- And also it covers your lip
gloss, it's beautiful.
[organ]
--I'll bet that you performed in a talent show or two back
in the day . --Sure.
--Can you just favor me with a little bit of an act that you did in
the talent show?
Hard-hitting journalism. --I did umm, the routine from the
Spice Girls song Stop. And I believe I did it with my sisters, and if I didn't
perform it with them, we definitely rehearsed it together. And I I remember
some of it, and I'm pretty sure it was like, Stop right now. Thank you very much.
I need somebody with the human touch. Hey you, always on the run. Gotta slow it down,
baby, gotta have some fun! Whoa-oh --It is in your body.
--It's in my body!
[music]
--The first song I remember singing as a child was....
--[sings] When the sky is a bright
canary yellow, I forget every cloud I've ever seen.
So, they call me a cockeyed optimist.
But it sounded more like, Cockeyed opti—
you know, very like Annie, very forward placement. --What's the first album, CD,
tape, a-track that I ever bought with my own money?
--N*Sync --Answer in song!
--[sings] Thank God it's
Friday night, and I just just just just got paid!
--My go to audition song is
--[sings] You don't own me.
--Oh! --I'm not just one of your many toys.
You don't own me. Nah nah nah —I don't remember the words. What comes after that?
--She booked!
--The Mean Girls ear worm that I can't get out of my [bleep] head is....
--[sings] It's a revenge party, a party that ends with somebody's head on a spike!
Like, so
dark! --Just like loops in your head?
--Yeah. I think it's also like what we use in our
ads, like if anything pops up from the show, that's what happens. It's stuck in my head...
--The song from Mean Girls that I love singing, right now, though.
--[sings] You are so real, you are
so rare. I see you there! I see you. I see stars,
so many stars tonight.
--Yeah. I just love it. You very rarely get to sing to your
whole cast in a show, so I like that song.
[music]
--Name of the game of special skills. You got any special skills at the bottom of
your resume?
Come on. -- I mean,
I got --Don't [bleep] with me.
--I won't [bleep] with you. But I don't want her to take it
offensively. But I was obsessed with the Sunday in the Park with George thing, and I
just love when Bernadette like turns forward and she goes,
[sings] We do not belong together! And we should have belonged together!
Like, it hurts me to
do, and yet she did it eight times a week.
[music]
--God or no God. -- God.
--What happens when you die?
--We become nature. We become the
plants.
--What was your most memorable Halloween costume?
--The Sun-Made Raisin
Girl? The girl on the cover the raisin box. My mom made it for me. I handed out
raisins instead of candy.
--Boo...
If you were a book, what section of the book store
would you live?
--Uh, historical fiction.
--What's your purpose in life? --To live
truthfully. --Emmy, Grammy, Oscar or Tony?
--Oscar! --Cake or pie?
--Cake.
--That's my girl.
--Guess what time it is? --What time...
--It's time for Susan's fantasy jukebox. I have your tiny
little Cindy Lou Who nose. And you can have it back, but first you have to sing
me a song of your choosing. --Okay my favorite song.
--Sing it. --[sings] Slow down, you
crazy child. You're so ambitious for a juvenile. But then if you're so smart,
tell me why you're still so afraid?
Mmmm...Where's the fire? What's the hurry about? You better cool it off before
you burn it out.
You got so much to do --This has been another amazing episode of
Side-by-Side by Susan Blackwell with Erica Henningsen.
Go see her in Mean
Girl on Broadway. You will not regret it.
--Sing
with me. [sings] ...before you even get halfway through
when will you realize. Ba da ba da ba
--[both] Vienna waits for you.
--[gasps] --You can have it back.
--You always had it. All along.
[music]
--You have a pre-show song on Sunday?
--Yeah, it's like a little denominational, but
like we're non-denom— it's like a Sunday song.
It's like a church day song? --What what
the what is that song?
Okay. --We get into a circle and we go, We made this up
one day.
--Great.
--Again, Mean Girls is nondenominational, but for whatever reason on
Sunday we go,
[sings] It's God's day. You're on Broadway. Shout out to the Lord and
rejoice! [whispers] Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice.