Kerry Butler (born June 18, 1971) is an American actress and singer known primarily for her work in theater. She is best known for originating the roles of Barbara Maitland in Beetlejuice, Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, and Clio/Kira in Xanadu, the latter of which earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.
Born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, Kerry Butler began acting in commercials at the age of three. She notes that growing up, "When I saw Annie ... I knew that was what I wanted to do." After a four-year hiatus imposed by her mother, Butler started acting again at the age of nine and has been at it since.
Butler graduated from Ithaca College in 1992, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre.
Early Beginnings, Broadway and Off-Broadway Debuts
Butler toured with the musical Oklahoma! in Europe in the role of Ado Annie. Other New York roles included Vicky Hollins in the workshop of Bright Lights, Big City, Barrow in The "I" Word and Claudia in The Folsom Head. She also has done work on various commercials.
Butler made her Broadway debut in 1993 in the role of Miss Jones in the musical Blood Brothers, where she also understudied the role of Linda. In 1995, Butler originated the role of Belle for the Toronto production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and she was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Leading Actress for her performance. Butler eventually transferred to Broadway as Belle, and, after playing the role for over two years, she left the musical in September 1997 and was replaced by Debbie Gibson. She then moved over to Les Misérables to play Éponine Thénardier.
In 2001 Butler played the love interest Shelley Parker in the acclaimed Off-Broadway original musical Bat Boy: The Musical. Though the show had a "fanatical following", Butler noted that "We were really building an audience before Sept. 11. And after that we never recovered. People didn't want to go out at all, let alone downtown." Bat Boy closed in December 2001.
In February 2002, Butler was cast as Penny Pingleton (a role she had originated in workshops) in Hairspray, the musical version of the John Waters 1988 film of the same name. After an out-of-town tryout at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Hairspray opened on Broadway in August 2002 and "became an immediate Broadway smash." Even in a star-studded ensemble cast, reviewers singled Butler out for her sparkling performance as the wacky best friend. The show won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical at the 57th Tony Awards. For her performance, Butler was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical and an Outer Critics Circle Award and received a Clarence Derwent Award.
While Hairspray went into pre-production, Butler played the free-spirited performance artist Maddie in the limited run of the intimate Australian musical Prodigal at the York Theatre. In March 2002 Butler also appeared on the TV show Sesame Street as Ms. Camp, a letter carrier. During her run in Hairspray, Butler filmed a TV pilot for Fox entitled Twins, but it was not picked up for the season. After starring in Hairspray for a year, Butler left the cast in July 2003 and was succeeded by Jenn Gambatese.
Following the end of her Hairspray contract, Butler was cast as Audrey Fulquard in the Broadway revival production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Butler revisited her long-lost childhood Brooklyn accent to play Audrey, the love interest with a sadistic dentist boyfriend Dr. Orin Scrivello and a heart of gold. A fan of Little Shop composer Alan Menken, who also wrote the music for Beauty and the Beast, Butler received an Outer Critics Circle nomination for her performance.
After leaving the show in the summer of 2004, Butler traveled to San Francisco where she created the role of scheming, foul-mouthed teenager Dedee Truitt in the new musical The Opposite of Sex, which had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre that fall. The musical is based on Don Roos' 1998 film starring Christina Ricci and Lisa Kudrow.
In the fall of 2005, Butler appeared in the original Off-Broadway musical Miracle Brothers at the Vineyard Theatre. She played Isabel, a mother made miserable by the rebelliousness of her son as well as her unhappy marriage.
In the summer of 2006, Butler reprised her role of Dedee in The Opposite of Sex at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and followed that by taking on the role of Kate, the Ayn Rand-loving runaway bride, in the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Party Come Here.
Butler also portrayed the manipulative heiress and recovering alcoholic Claudia Reston on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live from January 2006 until January 2007, when her character was written off the show.
From May 2007 through September 2008, Butler returned to the Broadway stage to star in the new musical Xanadu, based on the 1980 roller-disco film starring Olivia Newton-John. She played the dual role of Clio/Kira, a Greek muse who inspires and falls in love with Sonny Malone, a struggling artist. Butler mastered roller skating for the role and spent nearly the duration of the show on skates. Widely expected to be a flop, the musical opened in July 2007 to extensive critical acclaim and was the surprise hit of the summer. For her role in Xanadu, Butler was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical at the 62nd Tony Awards and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.
In February and March 2008, Butler appeared as Reese, the thieving assistant to fashion designer Victory Ford (Lindsay Price), in the first season of the television series Lipstick Jungle on NBC.
In May 2008, Butler released her first solo album on the PS Classics label. The album is entitled Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust and features some of Butler's favorite songs from Disney films and shows given "intimate, acoustic" arrangements. The title is taken from the lyrics of the Jonatha Brooke song "I'll Try", from the film Return to Neverland, which is featured on the album. Of note is the track "This Only Happens in the Movies", an unreleased song written by Alan Menken (for the unrealized prequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit), being given its inaugural recording.
The following year, Butler was again featured as a guest star on major television shows. In May 2009 she appeared on an episode of NBC's 30 Rock, as Lyle, a member of a group of New York ladies of leisure with a surprising secret. The following month, she appeared on the ABC series Cupid as Debbie, a working-class masseuse who attempts to improve herself to impress her wealthy boyfriend Lance Stillwell (Paul Fitzgerald).