Disney Star Meg Donnelly Is Ready to Act Her Age in Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Age: 20

Hometown: New York, New York

Current role: Meg Donnelly is swinging from the chandelier as Satine in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. This marks her Broadway debut.

Previous roles: Donnelly's breakout screen role was Taylor Otto in the long-running ABC sitcom American Housewife. In 2018, she starred as Addison in the Disney Channel original movie musical Zombies, which has spawned into a popular franchise with four films, two animated series and a concert tour. Donnelly is also known for playing Mary Campbell in The Winchesters, a Supernatural spin-off series. Recently, she made history as the youngest contestant to make it to the finals on The Masked Singer. Donnelly has released two singles and an EP. 

La Vie Bohème
Thanks to her parents' determination to take advantage of all that New York City has to offer, Donnelly was exposed to live theater at a young age. "My parents are not artists or performers by any means, but they're huge music lovers," she said. "It was an event for us to see a Broadway show." Although not destined for the stage themselves, their parenting style allowed Donnelly to experience the long-lasting impact of live theater. "The first [Broadway show] I remember seeing was Rent when I was five, I was way way too young," she laughed. "I was obsessed with Angel. I didn't really know what was going on, but I knew that when Angel left the stage I was crying because I did know it was sad. Rent's my favorite musical to this day." 

I Hope I Get It
While on a kids soccer team, Donnelly spent a majority of her time doing cartwheels on the field and singing on the sidelines. She ended up trading in her cleats for song books and joined Broadway Kids, a local community theater program, and Annie's Playhouse, a performing arts school in New Jersey. Those programs quickly introduced her to the world of auditions. "There was a manager that represented a bunch of theater kids and when I was nine or 10 I started auditioning for Broadway: Billy Elliot, Matilda, Mary Poppins. You name it and I was at the open call with the number on my chest," she said. "I experienced so much rejection, it's especially cut-throat in the theater world." Although she didn't make her Broadway debut as a child, the audtion experiences taught Donnelly to dream. "Disney Channel and Nickelodeon were my everything, especially the Disney Channel musicals," she said. "It was always a big dream of mine, and I auditioned for Disney Channel so much as a kid. When Zombies came around, it was a really cool moment."

Walking Dead 
Having spent most of her teenage years on the set of American Housewife, Donnelly was ready to step into the spotlight when Disney came calling. "I can't even remember a time that Zombies wasn't in my life," she said of the uber-popular movie musical franchise where Donnelly stars as a cheerleader falling for a zombie (played by Milo Manheim). "When Milo and I worked on the first Zombies, we had literally no idea what it would turn into. He's also a major theater kid so we got along right away and always talked about how we wanted to do theater. So the fact that we're both doing that now is so surreal and really cool." Movie musicals about star-crossed lovers have their audience, but adding zombies and high school cheerleaders into the mix felt like a gamble even to the biggest supporters. "We had no idea if the movie was going to do well or not. We just had so much fun and were literal children making it. Never in a million years did I think we would be here now," she admitted. "Zombies 4 was especially special because we got to introduce a whole new generation of kids, and I think that it's such a unique situation where we get to teach them what we've learned and reflect on the past almost 10 years."

New Girl in School
After close to a decade with the franchise, Donnelly's Zombies co-stars felt more like family. Now, slipping into Satine's swing for her Broadway debut in a close-knit company has her feeling like the new girl. "Going from a very comfortable environment on Zombies to a very, very, very, very new environment on Moulin Rouge! was wild, because everybody except [ensemble member] Christian Probst—who I rehearsed with—has been there for years," she said. "Going into it was terrifying because I haven't done theater in a while. With live theater, there's so many things to think about, so many insecurities that you have. Having to go through all of that, especially during the rehearsal process, was wild but so fulfilling. It's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm so happy because I feel like every show I just learn more and more." Donnelly is now two months into her run and feeling stronger than ever before. 

A New Era
It's no easy feat to transition from child star to portraying an in-demand courtesan, but Donnelly is happy to be stretching her wings and bringing her fanbase along for the ride. "I think this is a perfect way of branching out and doing more things my age," she said. "I think being a part of the Disney family, people can kind of put you in a box of kids' entertainment. I'm so grateful for it because on one hand, it's associated with so many people's nostalgia and their upbringing and you can't put a price on that at all, but with that there's a feeling like you can't grow. It takes a second for people to remember you're an adult." Although her character in Zombies has grown up and is in college in the most recent film, Donnelly is using this opportunity to own her maturity. "I think [Moulin Rouge] is a really cool way of expressing my sexuality too, as a woman," she said. "I feel like finding that is always really uncomfortable, especially with having a kid audience, but this role is so great because it all balances out really well; it's all for a reason. Satine is just such a special character and I really love playing her."

Broadway Baby
With her time as the Sparkling Diamond coming to an end on March 1, Donnelly finds joy in reminiscing on her early days on stage. "My first role was Miss Hannigan in Annie," she said, laughing at the memory. "I also did Curtains, which is such a niche show, at a community theater with Helen J. Shen." The longtime friends are currently making their Broadway debuts blocks apart as Shen prepares for her final performance in the Tony-winning Maybe Happy Ending. "Thinking about my younger self who loved and lived and breathed theater, and being able to be here now, is just so surreal," Donnelly said. "I don't know how to describe it, but when I'm on stage singing and we're having so much fun, I cannot believe I'm doing this right now. I think little me would be ecstatic and would not believe it. If I think about it too much, I'll probably cry." 

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