Mean Girls Broadway cast member Stephanie Bissonnette has died after a years-long battle with brain cancer. She was 32.
The production shared news of the dance teacher, choreographer and performer’s death on Twitter Monday morning, writing in a statement that Bissonnette “filled our theater with her laughter and friendship.”
Bissonnette had publicly shared her experience with a form of brain cancer called medulloblastoma ever since she was diagnosed in 2019, after she originated the role of Dawn Sweitzer as Mean Girls opened at the August Wilson Theatre in New York City in 2018.
Our hearts are broken as the Mean Girls community mourns the loss of Stephanie Bissonnette.
Our original Dawn Sweitzer, Stephanie was part of our Broadway company from our first performance to our last. pic.twitter.com/JKCATGVhMi
— MEAN GIRLS on Broadway (@MeanGirlsBway) December 18, 2022
In 2020, Bissonnette told SurvivorNet that she first noticed something was off when she felt a “twinge” while performing a dance move during a Mean Girls performance in 2019.
After doctors removed the performer’s tumor in February 2019, treatment for the disease kept Bissonnette away from appearing in Mean Girls for nine months.
