Interview: Michelle Jennings Seizes the Day as Valentina in BOOP! THE MUSICAL at Proctors

Prior to their stop here at Proctors in Schenectady, I had the opportunity to connect with Michelle Jennings, who plays Valentina in the national tour of BOOP! THE MUSICAL. Based on the Fleischer Studios icon, the show follows Betty Boop's colorful leap from her black-and-white cartoon world into present-day New York, with Jennings' Valentina, an astrophysicist reuniting with Betty's grandfather Grampy after decades apart, anchoring one of the story's most grown-up love stories. In our conversation, we talked about trading opera's young ingenues for musical theater's women with some life behind them, as well as what she'd tell Valentina about taking chances.

BroadwayWorld: Hi Michelle! Congratulations on being part of the BOOP! tour launch — it hasn’t even kicked off yet, but I see that you’re starting in another upstate city: Rochester! What has it been like getting the show up and running before hitting the road?

Michelle: It's going well. We had a day off today so I think everybody's feeling nice and rested. We're now in tech rehearsals. We actually ran a little bit ahead of schedule, which is virtually unheard of in tech rehearsals. I've never done a Broadway tour like this; the touring I've done is much smaller because I started off in the opera world. Our tours were 2-6 weeks long, not 50 weeks long! The level of everything just feels immense. I'm just like, wow! There are so many people that are involved in this - and necessarily so. It's the first 1st National Tour that I've been involved with. It's just really exciting because all the creative team who were involved in the Broadway show are making sure that it's exactly what they want it to be. To see Jerry Mitchell, our director and choreographer, there, and to talk to him a bit and to see the excitement and the joy. He says, “Love, love, love. This is all about love!” He's just smiling all the time and so happy and it makes everybody smile. Everybody in the room is just grinning from ear to ear. It's so much fun.

BWW: We're excited to have BOOP! at Proctors in October. Is this your first time in the Capital Region?

M: I have not been to Schenectady: I've been as far as Albany. My son went to school at SUNY Albany. It's gorgeous up there. I'm looking forward to seeing full fall outside of New York City!

BWW: Is that where you’re from?

M: Yes, these days. I've been in New York for a long time, but I didn't grow up in the city. I grew up in Virginia and landed in New York with my husband for him to go to grad school, and we never left.

BWW: What first drew you to musical theater, and was there a specific production or performance that made you think "this is what I want to do"?

M: While I was doing opera, I worked with an opera company that also did musical theater and operetta in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Even in the opera world, I don't think a lot of people realize how much comedic material there is in opera and I often landed roles in the more comedic operas. So, I did a comedic opera with this company and was asked to come back and sing Nelly in SOUTH PACIFIC the next year. So that's how I wound up actually performing musical theater. Initially, I just really liked it because there's more dialogue in music theater than in an operetta and I loved stretching my acting chops. Then I ended up having and raising kids and that took me to doing just a couple of shows a year. So, when the kids were older and I was ready to jump back in, I found that I aged out of opera! Most of the characters for women in opera are very, very young. There are not many moms or aunts like Aunt Eller in OKLAHOMA or Donna in MAMMA MIA in opera. So, I thought, there are actually characters in these musical theater shows who are like me, who are my age, who have lived a little. So, I decided to jump ship from opera and jump into the water of musical theater.

BWW: That’s amazing! So, prior to BOOP!, what have been some of your favorite roles?

M: I actually had a busy year this year! It's not always busy, as I'm guessing you know. But, right before BOOP!, I played the mom of Carole King in BEAUTIFUL: Jeannie Klein. It was the second time I got to do it. I basically jumped into the musical theater world right before COVID in fall of 2019. I thought, I'm going to audition and then, of course, the world shut down in 2020. So I feel like I've only been at it for maybe 5 years. So, to do Jeannie Klein twice in the short time I've been doing this has been a real thrill. Then, before that, I got to work with the amazing Adam Pascal, because he was directing a new jukebox show of Foreigner songs that had just been written to kick off a series of new works that they were doing at Long Island University. They use the students in the musical theater program there, as well as high schoolers and their parents and relatives and things like that. They hired in six professional actors and then the LIU kids played the high school kids and that was a really fun time because I'm actually old enough to have been on the planet when Foreigner was big. But this was all new to these college kids. Songs like Feels Like the First Time and I'm saying this is stuff I used to listen to on the radio…when radios were in the world. It was really fun. Then, completely opposite, right before that, I did MY FAIR LADY which was a blast too. I never got to sing Eliza Doolittle because I obviously I aged out of that - but I got to be Mrs. Higgins!

BWW: Sounds like you have been extremely busy, and now you’re working on the national tour of BOOP! For readers who only know Betty Boop from the cartoons – or maybe this is their first introduction to her – why do you think now is the right time to bring this character back?

M: Growing up, I was mildly familiar with the character. I have an aunt who's now passed, but her name was Bette or Betty. She lived far away but, sometimes when I would see her, she would say, “Boop-oop-a-doop” – and I never made the connection. It took me getting cast in the show to realize she was quoting Betty Boop! I knew that she was a cartoon character who had had done several things, but that was basically all I knew. And then, of course, being the good actor I am, I did a little research and realized that she is this woman developed in the 1930s who has done everything from rescuing people to playing a cowgirl to being a politician. For a character out of the 30s, it's amazing that she was given, should I call it power? She was given a voice back then, at the time when women were housewives, and didn't chase people down or tell them what to do with authority. I used to think of her as this adorable character, but she's overdue to be reintroduced to the world – and not just because it's 2026. People just accepted it back then. “Oh, well that's Betty Boop. She's just a cartoon character. So it's okay if she has some authority among people.” In the show she has her own little journey, even though she already was so many things. Additionally cool is that she helps other people see themselves and their potential. Not by telling them, but as a result of who she is. All these characters in the show discover something about themselves and it's all because Betty's doing the same thing for herself and challenging the people around her to not set their own limits.

BWW: And you are playing the role of Valentina in the show. How does she fit into that world?

M: Well, Valentina already knows who she is. The thing I love about Valentina is, like Betty, she is intellectually on par with anybody else in in the story - and specifically Grampy (Betty’s grandfather and Valentina’s love interest), because he's obviously got quite a scientific brain. He's inventing machines and she is an astrophysicist. I have to admit, this is the first time I've ever played an astrophysicist! She's highly educated and she worked for NASA. I just love having a woman who's not only book smart, but also has a lot of common sense and is very well rounded. She's got all of that going for her.

BWW: What's your favorite moment in the show, either to perform or to watch from the wings?

M: I'm going to go with something I'm not in and that's the opening of the show! We get such a great picture of Betty's world, and what the Fleischer Studios must have felt like back in the day. And it's just such an amazing dance show! I've never been in a show before that requires so much incredible dancing. This ensemble is going to blow you away. This is a Jerry Mitchell show, isn't it? What we get in those first five minutes literally sets the stage for the rest of the story and sets it off with fireworks! I think Jerry called it a “love bomb.” It's a feast for the eyes, a feast for the ears. Dancing like you've never seen before, and I get to watch it in rehearsals. I have to. I have to go into the house every time they run it so I can see it.

BWW: That’s amazing! I can’t wait to see it. Last question: if you could give Valentina any advice, what would you tell her?

M: If I could give her any advice, I would tell her to seize the day, because I think one thing she could have done differently was not wait for Grampy. She's obviously a bright gal and could have worked on something to get herself into his world. Obviously that would have changed the whole story! But there were forty years between the time that she last saw him and when they meet in the show. She had her career. She was very busy. But, she was very clearly missing him the whole time. I think I personally can be a little guilty of waiting until things feel just right, so maybe next time I'm not going to. I'm not going to wait till everything is perfect and I’ll just try to make things happen. That’s what I would suggest to her.

BWW: So, it’s advice to her and to you!

M: Oh, I have a lot in common with Valentina. Except for the whole astrophysicist thing, you know, but other than that.

BWW: Michelle, thanks so much for making the time for this interview. Definitely looking forward to the show!

M: Thank you! This story is a great way to take an older character, and show that we can still learn a lot from someone who seems so literally and metaphorically two-dimensional. Even though Betty's character has been around for so long, I just love that we've got a lesson we can learn and joy that we can find in this adorable seemingly simple character. It's really lovely, very contemporary - and we just walk around smiling all the time. It's really a blast.

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