When Katy Sullivan was in second or third grade, she went to a children’s theater production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” in her hometown of Tuscaloosa, Ala. She was stunned when, halfway through the show, a girl from her elementary school appeared on stage as the gum-chewing kid who turns into a blueberry, Violet Beauregarde.
“My head exploded,” Sullivan, now in her 40s, recalled. She couldn’t believe she knew a bonafide actor. “To me, it was just extraordinary.”
Sullivan begged her parents to let her audition for a play, too. If someone she knew could do it, why couldn’t she?
“In my delusional child mind, immediately all of the things — movies, television, Broadway — it all became possible,” Sullivan told The Post. “Even though at the time, I had no one to point to that looked like me.”
There still aren’t too many people on film, TV or the stage who look like Sullivan. She is a bilateral above-the-knee amputee and walks on prosthetic limbs — shapely, sleek legs in shiny black that make her look a bit like a bionic superwoman. The fashion fan loves to accentuate them with short skirts or dresses with high slits.
And the ebullient redhead, who was born without the lower halves of her legs, has never let her disability stop her.
She booked her first audition at 12, as a “townsperson” in a local children’s production of “Sleeping Beauty,” studied theater at Webster University, and starred as Hedda Gabbler in Chicago. Sullivan took up running in her 20s — and competed in the London Paralympic Games in 2012, where she set an American Record and finished sixth in the world.
The actress even line–dances in the Showtime reboot of “Dexter: New Blood.”
“I’m not a triple threat,” Sullivan said, laughing, when asked about her dancing skills. “I hope to never do the electric slide again in my life.”
Now, she’s making her Broadway debut in the Pulitzer Prize winning play “Cost of Living,” as the foul-mouthed, feisty and very funny Ani, who ends up paralyzed and in a wheelchair after a car accident. Sullivan originated the role back in 2016, and has played it at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Off Broadway and in London, picking up accolades along the way.
It’s a powerhouse performance — hilarious, raw, vulnerable, true — that’s already garnering considerable Tony buzz.
“It is a dream come true,” Sullivan said. “To me, Broadway is kind of like the Super Bowl … You either win or you lose, you fly or you fall. It is so exciting and so exhilarating.”
It’s also a historical occasion: The last time an amputee was on Broadway was when David Connolly starred in a revival of “Shenandoah” in the 1980s. And Sullivan is the first female amputee to grace the Great White Way.
“You kind of can’t walk around with that — it’s too much,” she said of the honor. She’s part of a recent group of performers with disabilities making waves on and off Broadway, including Madison Ferris (who has muscular dystrophy and appeared in “The Glass Menagerie” several years ago), Evan Ruggiero (who describes himself as a “one-legged tap dancer”) and Ali Stroker, who won a Tony in 2019 for her crackerjack performance in “Oklahoma.” Sullivan’s co-star in “Cost of Living,” Gregg Mozgala has cerebral palsy.
“It feels like we’re at this really cool tipping point for representation, authentic representation for individuals with disabilities,” Sullivan said. “And I think we have a responsibility to not just have this be a one and done but to ask what does this bring next? That’s my hope.”
Sullivan started wearing prosthetics when she was 1. “I started pulling myself up, and my parents were like, ‘OK, she’s gonna walk, we’re gonna do this,'” she explained.
As a young kid, her limbs “weren’t that natural looking,” but that didn’t matter to Sullivan, who, with her parents’ encouragement, did whatever she wanted. Still, they initially seemed concerned when she declared she wanted to act.
“They were like, ‘Dear Lord, our disabled child!’” Sullivan remembered, laughing. “My dad was like, ‘Just because you audition [doesn’t mean you’ll get the part], don’t be disappointed.”
But she did land her first audition, and made her theater debut at 12. Her role consisted of standing in the background repeating “peas and carrots” and “watermelon” over and over to look like she was conversing with the other pint-sized background players.
“It was very humble beginnings, but it was just so exciting and so invigorating,” Sullivan recalled. “You got to dress up and you got to do your makeup and put on crazy clothes. It just was like, ‘Yeah, this is all I want to do.’”
For a while, Sullivan took pains to hide her disability. “I really wanted it to be about my ability as an actor — and not because of this gimmick,” she said.
She disguised her prosthetics with cosmetic covers or wore jeans over them, even in the sweltering Alabama summer. “I didn’t own a pair of shorts or a skirt or anything like that,” Sullivan recalled. After college, she ended up in Chicago, where the local theater community embraced and cast her in classic productions.
“When I’m playing Hedda [Gabbler], and I’m in a corset and a giant dress and a bustle — who knows what’s going on underneath that dress? It didn’t matter,” she said.
When she was in her late 20s, a doctor asked if she would be interested in trying “running blades,” attachments that look a bit like skis and allow the wearer to go fast. “It was a period of time where there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for performers with disabilities,” said Sullivan, who by this point had moved to Los Angeles. She decided to give it a try — and ended up winning four US championships and competing in the London Paralympics, repping Team USA.
“Running is like acting,” Sullivan said. She approached running like she would a part, creating a character: Katy Sullivan, the athlete who woke up at 4 a.m. to work out and ate an apple instead of chips as a snack. “A race is a performance; track practice is like rehearsing. It’s timing. There’s costumes, there’s lighting, there’s a set, there’s other characters … I think that’s why people love [watching sports] so much — they’re so exciting, like a theatrical event.”
The attention led Sullivan to stop trying to hide her disability and openly flaunt it, showcasing her sleek gams and taking pride in her body. And it’s led to work that highlights her disability — such as a memorable “NCIS: New Orleans” spot where she jogs off in her prosthetics after a conversation. Still, when she read the script for “Cost of Living,” in 2016, she had never seen anything like it.
“I was struck by how authentic it was,” said Sullivan, who is divorced and dating actor Scott Aiello. “I was like, ‘This woman [playwright Martyna Majok] has either needed care or given care to someone because this is too accurate.”
Majok actually did work as a caregiver to a man with cerebral palsy, and based the play loosely on the experience. “I’d never seen [a play about disabled people] done in this way — where they’re not talking about disability, none of the characters are like, ‘So a spinal cord injury is this.’” Sullivan said. “It’s not educating the audience about disability or anything like that. It’s people from this point of view, managing their relationships. That’s what’s so groundbreaking about it.”
Sullivan wanted the part of Ani so badly that she borrowed her friend’s wheelchair for the audition. “She sat in my car, and I stole her wheelchair and then went into my callback.” The character has recently suffered a spinal cord injury, and can’t move any limbs, save for a couple of fingers on one hand, and Sullivan had to learn to operate a mechanical wheelchair — which she likens to dance choreography — and stay completely still.
She also forgoes her prosthetics for the show, adding an extra layer of vulnerability.
“It’s just as physical as moving around like a crazy person,” Sullivan said. “You should see me backstage before [the curtain rises]. I’m shaking out my hands, shaking all my fingers. I stretch for a long time before I go on. Because asking tense and tight muscles to hold still, they immediately start to shake.”
Despite the physical demands, Sullivan keeps returning to the part, which she’s played in all four of its productions, and she’s looking forward to taking it to Broadway. As for what’s next: she’s currently trying to get a comedy series about a double amputee living a normal life in LA off the ground, and she continues to advocate for actors with disabilities.
She credits her resilience to that same “delusional” child back in Tuscaloosa, who didn’t see any reason why she shouldn’t be in the spotlight, prosthetic limbs and all.
“That’s the kind of attitude I’ve always carried into my career,” she said. “There have been successes and failures — and an ebb and flow of busy and not. But I’ve never given up on that feeling of, ‘Why not me?’”
Photos: René Cervantes; Stylist: Emily Bogner/Honey-Artists; Hair: Madison Sullivan/Honey-Artists using L’oreal Professionnel; Makeup: Virginia Martin/ABTP using Charlotte Tilbury; Location: Midnight Theatre, 75 Manhattan West Plaza