On the same day Mackenzie Meadows (’20) made her Broadway debut in January 2025, she stepped up as understudy to perform the title role in & Juliet. A reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the modern-day jukebox musical considers what might happen if the story doesn’t end in tragedy.
Meadows, who is cast as Juliet’s mother, Lady Capulet, and as ensemble character Nell, is one of two understudies for the role of Juliet. Since that first day, she has starred as Juliet several more times. “It’s exciting,” Meadows said. “Not a lot of people can say that they have or will ever be on Broadway, and I feel very, very blessed for the opportunity.”
Meadows loves the musical’s hopeful message for young audience members. “[It] gives them a great example of how to stand up for themselves,” she said. “I think it’s a great show for young women, young little girls of color, to see, because it’s so rare — at least when I was growing up — to see a show being led by a young Black woman who is really taking control of her own narrative. And then on top of that, it has songs that not only a young generation loves and knows, but also [their] parents.”
Before touring the JMU campus, the Richmond, Virginia, native had expected to attend an out-of-state school. “And then I went to visit, and I was like, ‘This place is awesome.’ I thought it was stunning. I thought it was beautiful. I don’t remember who my tour guide was, but I thought they were great. I ended up becoming a Student Ambassador, so they must have made a great impression.”
A lifelong dancer, Meadows pursued a degree in Musical Theatre. During her studies, she experienced two pivotal moments that cemented her passion for acting.
First was securing the role of Whatsername in the rock musical American Idiot. “Before that, I didn’t think of myself as a lead,” Meadows said. “I thought of myself as a supporting or ensemble character.” But Broadway actress, guest director and choreographer Nancy Anderson encouraged her to think bigger.
“I was in rehearsal with her, and I just was like, ‘Whoa, I’m actually good at this, and I’m enjoying this,’” Meadows said. “I never saw myself as an ingenue, I think because I’ve been told so much that that just wasn’t for me. It really started to be my identity. And [Anderson] was like, ‘No, you are all of those things and more.’”
In her second defining moment, Meadows realized her love for acting was far greater than expected. Though passionate about singing and dance, she hadn’t prioritized acting until taking a class with associate professor Wolf J. Sherrill that was required for Theatre majors but not Musical Theatre majors.
“It was supposedly very, very hard ... and most Musical Theatre majors opted out,” Meadows recalled. “It was the hardest material I’d ever worked on at the time as an actor, and it pushed me to my limits as an actor. ... From there, I was just so excited about auditioning for plays at JMU.”
Over winter break of her senior year, Meadows was accepted into The LINK Program — an intensive workshop at Manhattan-based The Growing Studio International. Part of the second of six cohort groups, Meadows attended master classes and met with agents, choreographers and casting directors.
“You’re working for, like, 12 hours a day with other students, mainly seniors from different colleges,” Meadows said. “We had a showcase at the end of it, and I was lucky enough to have 30-plus meetings with different agencies, which was just super, super shocking. I didn’t see that coming. I was really crossing my fingers, just that one person wanted me, and I was super lucky to have a lot of interest.”
The first two months of the Spring 2020 semester saw Meadows traveling back and forth to meet with agents before signing with CGF Talent.
In March, she performed at 54 Below, a Broadway-themed dinner club in Manhattan, alongside the JMU Senior Alumni and Cabaret showcase for students also looking for representation. “We were in New York at the start of the pandemic,” Meadows said, “the week that the world shut down.” She stayed in New Jersey with a friend from JMU to wait out what she hoped would be an extended spring break. “And then we never went back.”
Completing her college career during the pandemic was deeply disappointing, but she counts herself lucky to have already finished her Musical Theatre courses and only needing to take a couple of classes online. For a year, she lived at home in Richmond. Then, finally, in the spring of 2021, she was able to make the move to New York.
Now living in Manhattan, she has kept busy performing on stage around the country and touring with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Recently taking to the small screen, she’s appeared in Fantasmas on Max, Elsbeth on CBS, and Season 3 of the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That...
But her “dream role” came in the summer of 2023, when she played Maureen in RENT at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. “RENT is my favorite show of all time,” she said. “It was the first musical I ever saw on stage in Washington, D.C., when I was, I want to say, 9 years old. ... I loved the story, I loved the message and it’s still my favorite show to this day. ... It meant so much to me to be able to play that role, which is not typically played by a Black woman.”
Though excited for the future, Meadows is trying to take it slow and focus on where she is.
“I want to enjoy Broadway, something that I worked incredibly hard for, and I want to soak up every minute.”
