Sorry, Tay, but you’ve got nothing on New York City’s real showgirls.
The news of Taylor Swift’s upcoming album “The Life of a Showgirl” has set the country ablaze with excitement, and there are few more thrilled than the true showgirls of the Big Apple — who could teach her a thing or two about what their “glamorous” lifestyle is really like behind the scenes.
Broadway star Mikayla Renfrow of “Chicago the Musical” told The Post that she and her colleagues can’t wait to see how the serial hit-maker will interpret the life of a stage performer, with her theorizing that Swift will use her poetic prowess to try to capture the humanity beneath their flashy costumes and stage make-up.
“When people sit in the audience and they watch, it’s definitely a lot of glamour, especially ‘Chicago the Musical,’ “Renfrow said. “But I would say it’s 50/50: It is glamorous, and it is glitzy, but there’s people behind it, and there’s humans behind it.
“I think that’s the fun part.”
Swift described the theme of her upcoming album as the “exuberant and electric and vibrant” time in her personal life during her Eras Tour, during which she began her whirlwind romance with now-fiancé Travis Kelce.
The songstress performed 149 shows across her nearly two-year tour.
By comparison, Renfrow’s schedule at the Ambassador Theater in Manhattan is six nights a week — including double-features on weekends — when she transforms into Liz, one of the production’s dancing cellmates who famously popped her husband for popping his bubblegum too loudly.
Renfro said that while neither her Vaudeville-style musical nor Swift’s pop-star persona fit the stereotypical mold of Las Vegas’s famed feathered and scantily clad showgirls, including those featured in the eponymous 1995 Elizabeth Berkley movie, her definition is both broader and much simpler.
“I think if you have to put on red lipstick and a fake eyelash or a 3-inch heel every night for your job, that constitutes being a showgirl,” said Renfrow, a self-described Swiftie whose first song she ever played on the guitar was the songstress’s 2010 hit “Speak Now.”
The Ohio native, who previously starred as Jasmine in Broadway’s “Aladdin” and Nessa in “Wicked,” was said her life probably isn’t as glamorous as the one Swift will encapsulate in her upcoming work.
She wakes up at 9 a.m. every day, a time she humbly described as “late,” and instantly kicks it into high gear.
Her current show, “Chicago the Musical,” typically has more rehearsal time on the books than other Broadway musicals because it is almost constantly introducing new Roxie Hart stars.
Renfrow and her castmates are now in the throes of extra practice as they prepare to welcome Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino to the stage this month.
That means that when Renfrow has the opportunity for downtime, she is doing her best to “feel like a normal human being.
“I do grocery shopping. I get a coffee with a friend, and I go into the West Village, and I read a book and eat oysters,” she said.
“When the clock turns to 5 p.m., something in your body’s like, ‘All right, time to go to work.’ “
Every night, Renfrow arrives two hours before showtime to stretch, rehearse and get into the well-worn character of Liz.
This period is also where the true glamor of being a showgirl lives.
“There’s like this magical part of the ritual of putting your face on to be in a show,” said Renfrow, recalling the first time she watched Cher help Christina Aguilera do her make-up in a scene from the 2010 movie “Burlesque.”
“It just stuck with me so much. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I hope that I have this taste of what it feels like, to put a face on every night and put your red lipstick on and this glamorous black eyeliner and put your sparkle fishnets on and you do this huge show,” she said.
Renfrow then dances and sings her heart out to the 1,125-seat theater, alongside other showgirls.
Renfrow said she and her colleagues usually cap their night soon after the curtain closes. For her, that includes crawling into bed with a book or watching television and snoozing by 1 a.m., preparing to do the routine all over again the next day.
But there are some nights when she and her co-stars hit the town, particularly on Tuesdays when she gets her one day off the next day.
“There’s definitely the 25% of our life that looks like that, where you put a fun little black dress on and … heels, and you get ready with the girls in the dressing room — moments where you’re like, ‘Wow, this is like the little life that I pictured with Cher and Christina Aguilera,’ ” Renfrow said.
“It’s this double life sometimes. There are mornings where I’m reading ‘War and Peace,’ and then at night I’m putting on red lipstick,” she continued.
“That’s what I love most: I can be a book nerd of the day and then a showgirl at night.”
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