Kerry Butler

If you haven't seen Kerry Butler's performance in the Broadway musical Xanadu, a description of her dual roles as the Greek muse Clio and Kira, Clio's earthly incarnation with a third persona, Tangerine, thrown in—don't ask, won't make a lot of sense. Suffice it to say that Butler manages to be both wickly funny and utterly believable in Douglas Carter Beane's send-up of the 1980 cult film. Channeling Olivia Newton-John with an absurd gleam in her eye, Butler rolls around the Helen Hayes Theatre's small stage on skates as if she owns the place—and the critics loved it. It's no secret, of course, that Butler is a talented comedienne, given her pedigree as Hairspray's original Penny Pingleton, Bat Boy's girlfriend Shelley and Audrey in the Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. But the pre-opening naysaying surrounding Xanadu was particularly harsh, which makes the positive critical and audience response that much sweeter. Though clearly serious about her career, Butler gives off an easygoing vibe in conversation, preferring to emphasize her favorite new role: Mom. She and her husband, writer/puppeteer Joey Mazzarino, adopted Segi, now two, from Ethopia last year, and Butler calls out to her daughter, "I'll be right back! I love you!" before chatting about her life and work with Broadway.com.

Does the positive response Xanadu has gotten feel like vindication in some ways?
Well, it certainly feels good. We were laughed at for a long time, and now people are laughing with us instead of at us.

Did you think from the beginning that the show would be successful?
I knew that it was really funny, but you can never predict whether the audience will go along for the ride. When you're in something, you sort of lose perspective. Honestly, I thought that a few people would get it and those people would love it, but I didn't know it would prove to be [so popular] across the board.

Did anybody advise you not to do it?
No. I thought it would be fun, and it seemed like a good job for a mom—that's really what I based my decision on. It's only an hour and a half, and I'm allowed to bring my daughter in as much as I want. I haven't really had to, because she's usually sleeping by the time I leave.

In any case, the reviews must have been a relief.
I had decided that I wasn't going to read them because I didn't want to get caught up in that stuff. I had such a free experience doing this show, and I think it helped my performance. My attitude is that I'm a mom, first and foremost, and whatever happens with the show is fine. My husband read me a couple of reviews, and people come up all the time to congratulate me, so I know they must have been really good!

You're not only playing two characters, you're doing it on skates. Has that become second nature?
Yes, but I am still super careful because when it's second nature, that's when you get into trouble. You start thinking, "I can do anything." A lot of accidents happen when you're standing still; you forget you're on skates, and then you fall. I'm probably the most careful person in the show. We wear these tiny glitter sparkles on our costumes and our faces, and those can throw you if you skate over them. During the show, I try to inconspicuously pick those little sparkles up off the stage [laughs].

How big an adjustment was it when Cheyenne Jackson had to step in during previews after James Carpinello broke his leg?
It was huge. Cheyenne is great; it doesn't have anything to do with the acting, but knowing that we've had three people with injuries [Carpinello, Kenita Miller and Marty Thomas] is really scary. The people who hurt themselves were the best skaters, and I'm so clumsy. It's like, "If these people are injured, how am I going to do it?!" All I can do is be really careful, and so far, knock on wood, it's working. Obviously accidents can happen, but I feel confident now.

What does Cheyenne bring to the part?
He brings a completely different presence, partly because he's so big, and he plays Sonny as much more confident. It's sort of interesting to see this big guy go through a journey where he doubts himself and his art. You know what else he brings that woke me up? He doesn't push for laughs. He's throws away some stuff, and I thought, "Wow, I should try doing that."

I've heard stories about the cast recording being delayed because the producers are insisting that both Cheyenne and James be part of it. What do you think?
I'm sure a recording will be done. I try and stay out of it, honestly, because I don't want to be put in the middle of the two guys. I have to do the show with both of them, I love them both as people and both of them did great things with the part. It's not that anyone is better than anyone else, it's just different. James affected my performance so much because I went through all the rehearsals with him and he helped teach me to skate. And then Cheyenne came in and saved the day at the last minute and continues to do a great job. So I think it is fair that both of them are on the recording in some way, but I don't want to be involved in it any more than that.

I hear you! How nervous were you on opening night, with Olivia Newton-John in the audience?
I was really nervous. I grew up loving her, and I didn't want her to think I was making fun of her because what I do [as Kira] is done out of admiration. Sure enough, she laughed through the whole show. I may have messed some things up that night because I was so nervous about her being there.

Your gift for comedy has been so important in shows like Xanadu and Hairspray Where did that come from?
I don't know. I think timing is something that comes from within; I'm not sure it can be taught. But I approach comedy the same way I approach acting, and that is something that can be learned. I feel like good comedy comes from being grounded and really believing in what you're doing. Even though it's funny, when I'm up there, I have to really feel like I shouldn't be in love with a mortal and it's eating me up.

You look like an ingenue, but a lot of your parts have been quirkier than that.
Oh, I don't like playing ingenues [laughs]. I would much rather be the secondary character than the ingenue unless I can make the ingenue fun.

The only classic one you've done is Belle in Beauty and the Beast.
You're right. That was my first big Broadway show, playing a lead. I did the original Toronto company first and I got to go through the whole opening; I moved there to do it, and they treated me so well. It was a dream to play that part, and it's such a good show.

You stole so many scenes as Penny in Hairspray.
You shouldn't play favorites with your "children," but Hairspray, for sure, is my favorite show. It was a magical experience. A lot of people didn't know the [John Waters] movie, so it was like we were doing this whole new thing—and from the first night, the audience was screaming after every number. My part was [originally] so tiny, but I loved it. I said, "I don't care if I'm saying one line in this show, I have to be in it." And clearly, it paid off for me.

It wasn't a tiny part by opening night! What did you think of the movie?
I thought they did a great job. I loved "I Can Hear the Bells," with them walking through the school, and I loved the opening. With some stuff, it's hard to capture the same feeling you have in a Broadway theater, like the end of the show ["You Can't Stop the Beat"]. Sometimes a movie can't compare with the excitement you get because you're there with the people on stage.

Was playing Audrey in the Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors a mixed experience for you?
Yeah. I loved being able to sing the music because I'm a big Alan Menken fan. But it's hard to live in a role where you're playing somebody who is in such a fragile state. Audrey had such low self-esteem, and that infused my life a little bit. But I'm glad I did it. It's such a good show. It was mixed critically but the audience loved it.

Let's back up a bit. You grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Where did your desire to act come from?
I just always knew. My mom put me and my sister into commercials when I was four to make money for college and then we stopped because she wanted us to have a normal childhood. My sister was very happy to stop, but I begged to keep doing it. They finally let me audition for Annie and I didn't get it, which is probably a good thing because it made me work even harder. Since I was nine, I've been pursuing it full time. I didn't get Broadway until after school [at Ithaca College] but starting at nine, I did tons of commercials and little parts on soap operas and things like that.

Your mom must have had to give a lot of her time for you to pursue acting.
It was like a second job for her. After school, she would drive me into the city and take me on all these auditions. She was great. Now I appreciate it; then, I'm not sure if I did.

Did you meet your husband, Sesame Street writer/puppeteer Joey Mazzarino, in high school?
We actually grew up down the street from each other and went to the same grammar school, but we weren't friends. We became friends in high school when I played Kim and he was Hugo in Bye Bye Birdie.

How romantic!
Yeah, except he didn't like me [laughs]. I always had a crush on him, but he didn't like me until much, much later.

How long have you been married?
Oh, a long time. More than 10 years.

Tell me about your journey to becoming a mom.
Well, I had always wanted to adopt. We'd gone through the foster care program, but my husband thought it would be too hard because the goal is to get the kids back with their birth parents. Finally we went to Ethiopia and adopted our daughter from there, and we couldn't be happier. My husband loves being a dad, and our daughter is totally his little girl. We're definitely going to do it again.

How old was your daughter, Segi, when you adopted her?
She was 13 months, and now she's two.

What was it like to become the mother of a one-year-old?
It was hard, for sure. First of all, I didn't know how to feed a toddler. We're vegetarians, and we had said, "We'll let her decide later on, but for now we'll raise her vegetarian." Then you have a toddler, and you feel like saying, "Here's the meat! Whatever! Just eat something!" [Laughs.] We didn't actually do that, but the thought crossed our minds.

How did the bonding process go?
The first day we got her, she was crying hysterically. We had just gotten off this long flight and hadn't slept the whole night, and she didn't want anything to do with us. Normally they give the child to you and that's it, but they said to us, "She's having bonding issues. Spend some time with her now, and we'll leave her with you tomorrow." Toward the end of the day, she calmed down a little bit. She would go to me but not to my husband. The second day, they left her in our hotel room and she was just whimpering a little. She took a few naps and every time she woke up she liked us more and more. By the third day, she was completely bonded to us.

And the two of you felt, "This is our daughter."
Oh, definitely. But I was nervous going back to the orphanage with her before we left. People wanted to say good-bye to her, and I was worried that Segi would want to stay there instead of with us. We have a videotape of that day, and I look so nervous! But she didn't want to go to any of the people there. She wanted to be with us.

What do you love best about being a parent?
I love hearing her call me "Mommy." Even if she's screaming it in a tantrum, I still love hearing it [laughs]. And she's so funny; she makes us laugh all the time.

Is she aware of what you do?
I don't think she's aware that I sing, but she's aware that I skate. She thinks that everyone who goes to work skates. That's been funny. Whenever she hears anyone saying that they're going to work, she says, "Skate? Skate?" She will watch the Xanadu video on Broadway.com over and over again. She loves it. But if she comes in the theater and sees me perform, she starts crying hysterically.

How is her childhood different from yours?
I didn't love growing up in Brooklyn. In fact, I hated it. I just didn't fit in. Brooklyn, especially Bensonhurst, was different from Manhattan; it was a huge deal to go into "the city." I always wanted a big house with a yard that wasn't attached. I still don't have that, but hopefully someday I will. But I love being able to bring my daughter to museums and the zoo and the park every day. There's so much diversity in Manhattan, and there wasn't much where I grew up.

How hard is it for a young actor these days to make a career in musical theater, as you did?
Breaking in is the hardest part. Once you get that first Broadway credit, it's like a club. I've been really lucky, but even so, I've gone a year without getting a show. The key is to stay positive during the dry spells. I enjoy it when I'm not working because I can focus on other aspects of my life. At one point, I got a real estate broker's license, which I never did anything with; I've bought and sold a few apartments for us, but after I got my broker's license I did it for about a week and then I got a theater job [laughs].

Did you expect to play Ariel in The Little Mermaid?
No. I have done so many readings and not gotten the part. There was even an article in The New York Times about how I'm the go-to girl for all these readings, which was hilarious. Every time I didn't get one, it was certainly a disappointment, but had I gotten The Little Mermaid, I wouldn't have done Xanadu and I think Xanadu shows me off better as an actor than all the shows I could have done.

What other readings had you done?
I recorded all the demos for Legally Blonde and did the first reading of it. I did readings of The Wedding Singer. Pick a show on Broadway where there's a young, cute girl and most likely I was involved at some point [laughs].

Legally Blonde never become a source of tension between you and Laura Bell Bundy, who played Amber with you in Hairspray?
No, because I always felt Laura Bell was perfect for that part. She is that part. She came to see me in The Opposite of Sex and one of the producers of Legally Blonde was in the audience. I didn't even know she was there, and she went up to him said, "I should be Elle Woods!" That's so Laura Bell.

Did she know you were involved with Legally Blonde?
No, that was the year before I was involved.

Well, you've gotten the last laugh with Xanadu.
It definitely has empowered me as a person. During rehearsals I thought they were going to fire me.

Really?
At the beginning, I couldn't even think about acting because my brain was overloaded with dance steps and skating and blocking and how I was going to get around people on the stage. On top of that, it took me a while to get the voice for my powerful muse. I don't think of myself as powerful, and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it. The fact that I actually did it and got good reviews has given me so much confidence. I'm so critical of myself, but I actually feel like I've gotten graceful! [Laughs.] If I was able to do something this hard, I can do anything.

See Kerry Butler in Xanadu at the Helen Hayes Theatre.