Interview: Kerry Butler on HEATHERS, Teaching, and Channeling Her Inner Teen

Tony-nominated Broadway star Kerry Butler is back at New World Stages, where she recently appeared in Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now, the musical concert she wrote and performed in with her Hairspray co-stars Marissa Jaret Winokur and Laura Bell Bundy. 

With her latest endeavor, she takes on not one but two roles in Heathers: The Musical: Veronica’s well-meaning but oblivious mom and the relentlessly positive Ms. Fleming, who’s determined to turn tragedy into a teachable moment—whether her students like it or not. The veteran of a dozen Broadway shows has a career of experience to draw upon in her current performance. When she isn’t acting, she is a real life teacher, offering classes online.

Known for both her comedic timing and vocal abilities, Heathers is the latest in a long line of movies turned live musicals for the acclaimed actress. Her impressive resume includes Beauty and the Beast, Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can, Xanadu, Mean Girls, and Beetlejuice. In other words, she is familiar with the work of turning a film meant for the big screen into a memorable night at the theater. Yet, every show brings with it new challenges and excitement. 

In our conversation, Butler opens up about how she balances the dark themes of the show with the humor of her character. In addition, she discusses what moved her to be a part of the Heathers revival, and reveals and how she prepared for the show. 

Starting with the one question that is on the mind of every Kerry Butler fan–will you be playing Meridith [when Bat Boy comes to City Center]?

I can’t answer that yet. I don’t know. I would love to. I'm going to just put that out. I would love to.

You’ve worked with [Director] Alex [Timbers] before.

I have worked with Alex. I'm working with Laurence O’Keefe right now. So we'll see. It would be amazing to get to rediscover that part but nothing has been decided yet.

What was it like to work with Larry again?

Amazing, like no time passed. I knew the music from Heathers but I didn’t know it super well. I had coached students on the main songs. But then getting to hear this music, now I love it. I think it's so cool, so complex. The orchestra sounds freaking amazing. For off-Broadway, that he has strings, that he has horns… It's a joy to listen to that music every night.

Sitting at Heathers, I thought about how many movies to musicals you’ve done. Are you always a fan of the movie ahead of time? 

All the shows I’ve done I have seen and definitely have an appreciation for. Like Xanadu—I grew up loving Olivia Newton John. But when I approach a new role, I don’t watch that movie again. Because I have to start with myself and what I can do with it. I can’t do an impersonation-–I’m not Saturday Night Live. I have to find a real depth and an arc. 

I start with myself, then I go back and can rewatch. And that was the main thing with with watching Xanadu was when I went back and I saw, “Oh, I can make fun of all these things. I can exaggerate this from what Olivia Newton John did.” That's how I approach all of all of these movie roles. If I was playing the Little Mermaid, I'd be like nobody wants me to reinvent the Little Mermaid or Belle, I'm not going to reinvent Belle. I'm going to go with as close to the cartoon as I can do, but still coming from myself. 

But I felt like in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is the character you really want to see so I thought I could take more liberties with Barbara Maitland than some of my other roles.

And certainly Tina [Fey, Mean Girls’ writer] gave me so much freedom in creating the three characters of Mean Girls. She would be like: “I think you need to find a deeper voice here” or guide me in that way, but not say anything about copying what anybody did, which was great.

When you switch between the two roles, is there anything you do?

Some of the changes are so fast that I don’t really have time to do anything. But each one has a different vocal register. So I kinda just remind myself of the vocal register. And each one has a different walk. So I just remind myself of which kind of walk I have for each character. But some of them are really really fast. When I was in Mean Girls I played three different characters, I did have a code word for each character.

Did you prepare differently for each role?

I usually do a character biography, so I did character biographies, I made a backstory for each character. And in rehearsal trying to figure out how this person is different from the other person—where does their voice sit and where is their energy.

How do you balance some of the comedic parts of your character with the darker themes of the show?

It is really important that your comedy always comes from a really real place. I could be in a comedy or in a drama and it is just a touch more heightened or the situation makes the audience laugh. It always has to come from a truthful place. So when the Mom sees Veronica hanging herself that has to be very real and very authentic but the audience laughs because I go so far. But it’s real coming from a very real place.

During “Shine a Light,” you interact with an audience member who supposedly is your ex-lover, Steve. What is it like to ad-lib with the audience? 

First, I was petrified. I almost talked to the writers [and asked]: "Are you sure you want to keep this in?" But now it's my favorite. Now I love it. I feel like I'm going to have even more fun once the critics are gone, but now I have all this pressure.

I try to find someone who has something I can riff off of. So I usually look during the number “Big Fun” because that's the only time I can really have time to look out in the audience. I look for someone who is preferably in the front row. I’ve had a bald guy, or a guy with a beard, [or the other night I made a joke based on] “Where’s Waldo?” because the guy was wearing stripes. There are some jokes that I know will kill, and then there are other times, even though it always gets a good laugh, there are other times when it doesn’t go as well as I would hope…. Sometimes I have had people that are hilarious and you can tell that they are actors because they just have another scene going on and the audience goes bananas and it’s really really funny. I’m learning as I’m going because we hardly had any previews so I learned that the audience responds best when I really can find a way to interact with Steve and really can give him something to do. 

Do you feel a little Jackie [Hoffman, who ad libbed each night in Hairspray]? 

100%. I was like: “Oh my god, I'm like the Jackie Hoffman I never thought I would be.” And I remember Jackie having so much stress every day because then people started writing on like Twitter what Jackie said that night.

And I do start thinking about it during the day like: “What am I going to do tonight?” But it's best when it is based on what I find in the audience.

It's hard because our audience is mostly tween girls. One time, I picked somebody who's wearing a baseball shirt and I'm like “Let’s play ball” and all of these baseball references about throwing their ball into my catcher's mitt and when he stood up, I realized he's a child. Then I had to like be like: “Oh, I'm so excited that you're into older women.” It was hilarious. 

You play a teenager in a scene. Does it feel weird?

I wouldn't say it is weird because I do still feel like a teenager. No, It’s fun. It's fine. I don’t necessarily have a specific character except my own version of the cool teenager I never was. That is sort of an improv moment so that is nice. And it is a moment I can look for my Steve. I never thought I would be playing a teenager again. It is nice to think I still got it.

Is there anything that makes this project particularly special to you?

I don't know if you heard the story of how I got it. I was doing a workshop of a new show and... I'm sitting out in Pearl Studios, and I never go there because I don't really audition for things so much anymore, but I just happened to be sitting in the hallway and Larry O'Keefe walks by. He's like: "Oh my gosh, Kerry!" I was like: "What are you doing here?" He was like: "We're having Heather's auditions... Do you want to come in and say hi to everyone?" I thought it was a little strange but I was like, "Sure." So, I go in, say hi to everyone. When I'm in there, they start asking me about my outs for Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now because they knew that we were on tour. And so, I had a great talk with them. I leave the room. I just call my agent and I'm like: "I just had this interesting thing happen" and they were like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've been in talks with them. They want you to do Heathers." And I was like, "Oh."

And then I looked up who I had just met in the room and I saw that it was Bill Kenwright Productions. Bill Kenwright gave me my first Broadway show. I've always wanted to work with him again and he passed away last year and I was so upset because I always wanted to thank him for giving me my first Broadway show. I mean he really took a chance. I hadn't done much at all. So I wrote a note to Larry and said, "Please tell them that had I known that they were Bill Kenwright's people, I would have said something more." I would have talked about him because he is so important to me. So then I ended up getting the offer and in the room they said "Bill sent her to us." Now I get to work with Bill Kenwright again; it was a huge reason why I took the show. Because it's like I get to thank Bill Kenwright for giving me my break.

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