The "Sas" is back.  Rachelle Rak (better known to the Broadway community as 'Sas'), has had a career as a Broadway dancer to be envied.  Having worked on Broadway for ten straight years in the original companies of Cats, Fosse, Starlight Express, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (among others) and the revival company of monster hits such as Oklahoma!, it seemed Rak had not only "made it," but found a home as the consumate chrous girl. Until 2006.

Following the close of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that year, Rak took a break from Broadway to, as they say, "get back to the basics," enduring the rigors the intense, old school acting training that theater lore is made of.  And now she's back in new form, in a standout role as the scene-stealing 'Cheryl Ann' in Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman and Terrence McNally's Catch Me If You Can, directed by Jack OBrien, choreographed by Jerry Mitchell and starring Aaron Tveit, Norbert Leo Butz and Tom Wopat at the Neil Simon Theater.

BroadwayWorld last caught up with Rak during her "trashy" Scoundrel days in 2005.  To see where she's been, what it was like building Catch Me, and how she found her way back "home," read on.

The last time we spoke to you was in 2005 when you were last on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. First off, welcome back! Tell me about the last five years and where you've been.

Right after Dirty Rotten Scoundrels closed on Broadway, I took a little bit of a pause. I had been performing consistently on Broadway for 10 straight years without a break, and for some reason after Scoundrels, something changed and I couldn't quite figure out what. I was continuing to go out for shows, and just not booking them as I had been. The experience was strange, going back to the very early days of showing every drop of talent that you have and having people say "Thank you, but we're going in another direction" or "You're getting older. It's going to get harder, it's going be different, you're going to be in a different category." I was in denial and did not really believe it.

It was important to me that I not to lose my confidence or sense of dedication and passion for performing, so I decided to go back to my hometown in Pittsburgh and put a bit of distance between myself, Broadway and those exhausting needs, and put my energy into something else. My mother has a dance studio in Pittsburg, which is where I first trained, so when I got back I started a dance group called Va Voom. I had the best time. I had been choreographing some in New York and it was so freeing to be able to decide to put together a show and do whatever I wanted - make something out of nothing. On Broadway it is completely the opposite. You have a script with rules and a director and choreographer telling you exactly what to do when. Va Voom was really successful and we were booked all over. It was one of the best things for me at the time, as I tapped into a whole new side of myself. It was sort of the beginning of a reinvention.

How is that?

After a few months with Va Voom, I felt that it was time to come back to New York. But I came back with the mind of "what do I need to do to be better?" I had been a singer/dancer my whole career and I wanted to get back to the basics to become more well rounded. It was kind of shocking to realize that I really had accept that I was entering into a new phase of my career. But I was also excited. Instead of worrying about getting older, I was more energized to figure out how to make this transition.

What was the turning point?

I needed new territory. My first audition back was for an off-Broadway musical called Sessions. It was playing the small 70 or so seat Algonquin Theater on 24th St, the opposite of Broadway, which was exactly what I wanted. They were looking for a standby for the role of ‘Lila' for two shows a week and I thought, "why not?" It was a big acting role, a big speaking part, which was such a departure from the big chorus musicals. In Cats, Starlight Express, Sunset Boulevard even, I hadn't done any scene work or had the stage time, acting training and confidence that I absolutely know now that I needed.

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