Maryrose Brendel stepped off the campus of Penn State University in 2022 and suddenly found herself traveling the world playing one of the main characters in the National tour of the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” Brendel plays Karen Smith, the hilariously ditzy yet lovable member of the Plastics, in the show adapted from the movie by Upper Darby native Tina Fey. “I saw the original Mean Girls movie probably before the age. I should have,” Brendel said. “I loved the funny, brassy Tina Fey writing. I think I saw it when I was about 8 or 9. It probably was a little inappropriate for me the first time I watched it, but I loved it. “Then I saw the original Broadway musical when I was in high school. I loved both iterations of it and I I never thought it was something that I could be a part of when I first saw it in high school. I was a very shy, awkward teen. I didn’t really see myself in the show. “Now, getting to do it is a dream come true.” “Mean Girls” is coming to The Playhouse on Rodney Square in Wilmington, Nov. 15-17. Tickets are available at http://broadwayinwilmington.org. The Broadway version of “Mean Girls” adapts the story from the movie, but it’s not exactly the same. The show tells the story of Cady Heron, who may have grown up on an African savanna but was not prepared for the wild and vicious ways of her strange new home in suburban Illinois. One way the naïve newbie rises to the top of the popularity pecking order is by taking on The Plastics, a trio of lionized frenemies led by the charming but ruthless Regina George. But when Cady devises a plan to end Regina’s reign, she learns the hard way that you can’t cross a Queen Bee without getting stung. The role of Karen Smith has given Brendel a chance to lean into her crazier side. “I like to think I have those elements inside me,” Brendel said. “I definitely have a little bit of a ditzy side, but not to her extent obviously. I think something that I learned when I was shaping the role working with our director and tour director was in order to play Karen, the ditzy, the maybe stupid, quote unquote, part of her is already written in the text. “If you overplay it, that’s not who she is. It’s more so that she is living in a very happy headspace, finding the joy in everything. I think being able to bring myself into that part of her character has been such a great time. It makes it so that even if I’m going into the show, even if it’s been a busy day, I’m kind of tired or maybe I’m not in a great mood, once I step into that role, I always leave the theater in a In a better, happier headspace, and I think that that’s all you could hope for in a role.” Brendel was inspired to get on the stage while watching, of all things, “Spider-Man” movies. “We all loved watching the Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” movies, and because my name is Maryrose, I thought I would love to be Maryjane because we had similar names,” Brendel said. ”In the second “Spider-Man,” she’s an actress. I saw that and I was like, ‘I want to do that. I’m just like her, so I need to do that.” Now in her second year of touring with “Mean Girls,” Brendel will come close to home by taking the stage in Wilmington. “All of my people are coming out to Wilmington,” Brendel said. “I’m very excited. It’s also my mom’s birthday weekend. So she’s like, ‘Great. We’re all going to see ‘Mean Girls.’ So, I’m counting down the days.”