Kelli Barrett Talks Beaches on Broadway, Co-Star Jessica Vosk and Wicked Sisterhood

It's easy to feel like Kelli Barrett is your friend. She has a disarming smile, an adorable relationship with her husband, Jarrod Spector, and an ease about her. Now that she's back on Broadway in Beaches at the Majestic Theatre, it's like settling in for a good talk with an old pal.

The musical is based on Iris Rainer Dart's bestselling novel, which was adapted into the famous weepie starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey (Barrett's role). It follows lifelong friends Cee Cee, a brash aspiring entertainer, and Bertie, her shy, affluent friend, through thick and thin. Barrett sat down with Broadway.com Managing Editor Beth Stevens to discuss her newest role, the Wicked connection she shares with co-star Jessica Vosk and her own chosen family.

“Fried Green Tomatoes, Steel Magnolias, Boys on the Side, Terms of Endearment and Beaches; those were the films that shaped my life,” Barrett says about the tearjerkers of the ‘80s and ‘90s, which focused heavily on female friendships. Each film did well at the box office, proving that touching stories could find an audience.

For fans of the book, film, or both, Barrett says the new show is “more book than film, but this musical stands alone as well.” Along with Mike Stoller’s music and a new book by Dart and the late Thom Thomas, Beaches explores the relatable topic of “what it means for women when you give up so much of yourself for others and you put other people's emotional needs ahead of your own, and where you can end up because of that.”

In exploring female friendship, Barrett says she and co-star Vosk found their own bond. "We share the Wicked sisterhood,” Barrett says, noting that she played Nessarose in 2014, while Vosk took on the role of her sister Elphaba on tour and on Broadway years later. “We found a real natural chemistry. I feel very safe with her.”

That chemistry seems to translate to the new musical, which Barrett says is moving audiences. She doesn’t know “a single person who has left without crying.” Since the story of Beaches details the ups and downs of female friendship, Barrett find it's useful no matter what you're going through: “If you need to get out of a bad relationship, if you need to call your bestie and bury the hatchet, if you need to grieve, you're going to be able to do that,” she says. “We're going to have all the feelings.”

The themes of love and friendship (the tagline is verbatim “a love story about friendship”) hit close to home for Barrett. “I've always said my friends are my chosen family,” she says. “I'm in a lot of ways not like Bertie. I grew up very low income with a single mother on a bartender's salary. My father was in jail when I was born, in and out of jail my whole life. I had to grow up very fast. My friends have always been the most important thing in my life, and this show almost feels like a love letter to them, a tribute to them."

Barrett smiles as she anticipates her besties from high school attending the show. "I feel like I've been preparing my whole life to tell this story because of my best friends," she says. "They've saved my emotional life on more than one occasion. So I'm just really, really excited to share this with them.” 

Watch the full interview below.

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