Following a month of previews, Lewis made her official Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre, on opening night, April 26, 2016, performing the role until the production closed on May 29, 2016.
[2] She attended the Broadway Dreams Foundation's performing arts summer camp where she learned from Billy Porter, Stafford Arima, Tituss Burgess, and Otis Sallid.
Borrowing her mother's pinstriped flat cap, Lewis performed near Central Park and received $15 in tips within five minutes.
[6] In a March 2014 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lewis said her favorite song in Annie is "Tomorrow" and that she dreamed of performing on Broadway in the musical Wicked.
[1] The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's theater reviewer Bert Osborne noted that young, amateur actresses playing Annie frequently are like a "Shirley Temple caricature" rather than a "real-life, hard-knock kid" owing to the character's "inherent preciousness".
[4] She was selected to play Winnie Foster for Tuck Everlasting's world premiere at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, beating out other actors in the nationwide competition.
[2] The New York Times's Charles Isherwood praised Lewis' performance, writing that Winnie Foster was "played with a firm voice and natural spunk by Ms.
[11] After beginning previews on March 31, 2016, Lewis made her official Broadway debut at Broadhurst Theatre in the role of Winnie Foster in Tuck Everlasting on April 26, 2016.
[18] The Washington Post's chief theater critic Peter Marks lauded Lewis for being "technically accomplished, with a strong, clear voice and the fortitude necessary to carry the central role in a Broadway show".
[19] The New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood wrote that Winnie Foster is "played by Ms. Lewis with winning spunk that (miraculously) never cloys".
[21] She was nominated for the Shuler Hensley Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress" in 2020 for her role in Chicago at Milton High School.
[3] During her Tuck Everlasting stint at the Alliance Theatre in 2015, she had a tutor at the theater to allow her to both rehearse and be taught academic material.
[4] On her last day in fifth grade before she moved to New York for Tuck Everlasting, her classmates made her a sign saying "Goodbye Broadway Star!
"[15] While she was in New York, Lewis received her curriculum from an Atlanta public school that focuses on distance education, and her producers paid for a tutor who worked with every child in the production.