By Ernio Hernandez
27 Oct 2004

Kerry Butler in The Opposite of Sex.
photo by Bill Faulkner

Kerry Butler's new musical theatre role is a far cry from the snow-white Belle she once played in Broadway's Beauty and the Beast.

Follow her line of work from Hairspray (Penny Pingleton) to Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey) and you see characters who get progressively looser, leading to really letting down her hair in The Opposite of Sex.

Based on the film of the same name, the Broadway-aimed musical adaptation by composer Douglas J. Cohen (No Way To Treat A Lady) and director Robert Jess Roth (Beauty and the Beast) makes its world premiere at San Francisco's Magic Theatre with Broadway's beloved ingenue as perhaps the raunchiest 16-year-old to ever belt a showtune.

Playbill On-Line: Tell me about how you became involved with The Opposite of Sex. I know you've worked with director Robert Jess Roth before...
Kerry Butler: I had played Belle for Rob and he had said he was working on this and asked me to do the demo recording. They hadn't even finished writing the second act yet. So I read it and I really liked it. I had never seen the movie but it really sucked me in. And I thought this is a really good script for me because usually in a musical it's kind of predictable and you know what's going to happen, but I had no idea what was going to happen. And the second act wasn't written yet, so I wouldn't know for a few months. Then we did the reading — and I never know when I'm in something, I can never take myself out of [the character enough] to see if it's good or not — but it went over really well. The Weisslers [attached producers Fran and Barry] then said that day, that they were going to do this.

PBOL: Had you seen the 1998 film starring Christina Ricci on which the musical is based?
KB: I saw it after we were in rehearsals, after I had already formed what I was going to do. When I saw the movie, I was freaked out because I was doing [the character Dedee] so much like Christina Ricci. I never thought that I was anything like her or I looked like her, but I even felt that I was watching myself sometimes because her hair is blonde in that, not that I'm naturally blonde either [Laughs.]

PBOL: This is a departure from the kind of role we've previously seen you in.
KB: Yeah, it's nothing like I've ever done before. Rob said when he was writing it, he saw me in Hairspray and thought that I was right for it. I honestly don't know [how] because Penny is so far from Dedee.

PBOL: It's an edgier musical than you have done before — well, maybe Bat Boy: The Musical is the exception.
KB: Yeah, but she was more like a teen kind of girl. And I feel like Dedee is one of the oldest characters I've played, even though she's only 16. She's a very old soul and very grounded and very mature for her age. I'm not, and none of my characters have ever been.

PBOL: Do you enjoy breaking from the Disney-type mold?
KB: I'm starting to, it's been such a quick process that I haven't that much time to really enjoy doing it, but yeah, it's fun to be bad. [Laughs.]

PBOL: You do some cursing and are showing some skin in the show. Did you or your husband and family have any reservations about taking on such a role?
KB: It's funny because I was so nervous when my parents came to see the show. They were in the audience, I went out afterwards and I had my head down and everything; I was so afraid to see them. I came out and they were clapping and they loved it. They were like "Kerry, you weren't that bad, you prepared us for you being much worse than that." And when I talked to my dad, he said "Kerry, I know you're going to be saying some bad words, but I was in the army. And I can close my ears." And I said "Dad, you're going to have to close a lot more than your ears."

PBOL: You've done a mix of big-budget musicals (Les Miserables) vs. smaller scale musicals (Prodigal). Is that something you purposely try to balance?
KB: No, I take what I can get. [Laughs.] I mean, this part in particular because I did have reservations about doing the show because of all the stuff you just said because I have a certain image. But then my husband said "You have to do this because it's so unlike you and it will shake things up for you as an actress."

PBOL: You've also been in a number of workshops and readings (such as The Little Mermaid), is that something you enjoy?
KB: I love it because my favorite time is the rehearsal process. I love coming up with stuff and seeing what they're going to do, see where the journey takes you.

Kerry Butler with Opposite of Sex co-star David Burtka.
photo by Bill Faulkner