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.
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Early life
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.
Career
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.
2002-2009
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.
2010-2019
In April 2010, Butler made her New York City cabaret debut at Feinstein's at the Regency with a show of songs she has performed on Broadway as well as personal favorites.
In October 2010, Butler starred in the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Pandora's Box, playing the title role of Pandora, a slightly naïve suburban housewife whose life is turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious stranger. She also appeared as Mary Jo Clarkson, an Islamist terrorist, on the CBS television show Blue Bloods.
From March to September 2011, Butler reprised the role of Brenda Strong in the Broadway production of Catch Me if You Can at the Neil Simon Theatre, the same Broadway theatre where Hairspray played. For this role she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.
Also in September 2011, Butler appeared on the series finale of FX's Rescue Me as Marsha, an overprotective mother who argues with Denis Leary's character Tommy Gavin on a playground.
From March through September 2012, Butler appeared in the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man. She played Mabel Cantwell, the Southern wife of a presidential candidate. The production costarred Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, Candice Bergen, Eric McCormack, John Larroquette, Michael McKean, and Jefferson Mays. It was her first Broadway role in a drama, rather than a musical.
On February 18, 2013, Butler played Evelyn Nesbit in a concert production of Ragtime at Avery Fisher Hall. Also that month, she appeared on an episode of White Collar, playing Leslie, a skeptical art dealer.
From March through May 2013, Butler appeared Off-Broadway in The Call, a new play by Tanya Barfield, a co-production between Playwrights Horizons and Primary Stages. In it, Butler played Annie, an urban artist who decides to adopt a baby from Africa.
In May 2013, Butler appeared on an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit as Ariel Randolph, a mother with a secret life whose bad decisions have tragic consequences.
2020-present
Beginning December 2020, Butler launched a podcast called Breaking Broadway, on the Broadway Podcast Network. Described as "an insider's roadmap to making it on Broadway," it features Butler interviewing a wide variety of people involved in the world of theatre.
In April 2023, Butler appeared in an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Tuppance, a woman who has just seen a play with friends and is discussing the show afterwards at dinner.
In October 2023, Butler made her directorial debut by helming a production of Newsies at Rise Above Performing Arts in Sarasota, Florida.
In April 2024, Butler appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Denise Lynch, a mother in search of her missing daughter Sydney Lynch (Amalina Ace).
In September 2024, Butler appeared in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez as Shelley Meyer, the wife of football coach Urban Meyer (Tony Yazbeck).
In January 2024, Butler appeared with her original Hairspray costars Laura Bell Bundy and Marissa Jaret Winokur in Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now!, a concert the three of them conceived, wrote, and directed. The show depicts their origins as performers, careers, experience of being in the blockbuster musical together, over 20 years of friendship, and journeys to motherhood.
In November 2024, Butler, Bundy, and Winokur brought the show Off-Broadway, to New World Stages, for a limited run. Their efforts were rewarded when the show was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revue.
From June 2025 to January 2026, Butler appeared in the revival of Heathers: The Musical at New World Stages, playing the dual roles of Ms. Fleming and Veronica's Mom. The show reunites Butler with composer Laurence O'Keefe, with whom she first worked with on Bat Boy: The Musical.
In October 2025, Butler took a leave of absence from Heathers to appear in the New York City Center Annual Gala production of Bat Boy. In a full-circle moment, she played Meredith Parker, the mother of Shelley Parker, her character in the original Off-Broadway production. The production contained new songs and orchestrations, and once again reunited her with Laurence O'Keefe. For her role, Butler received a nomination for the Drama League Award in Distinguished Performance.
Personal life
Butler is a vegetarian and activist whose concerns include youth mentoring, human rights violations, genocide, and environmental issues.
Butler is married to childhood friend, Muppet writer, and puppeteer Joey Mazzarino. They have two daughters, whom they adopted from Ethiopia. Their older daughter is the inspiration for the Sesame Street song "I Love My Hair".
Credits
Video games
Vape! The Grease Parody
PUCK’D: A Middle-Aged Summer Night’s Dream
The American Football Musical
Angel of Arkansas
Smash
A Very Brady Musical
Broadway Vacation
Seeing Red
Beetlejuice
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Hazel
Clinton: The Musical
Big
Ragtime
Cinderella
Through the Door
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
The Dogs of Pripyat
The Green Heart
Hollywood Lies
The Nutty Professor
The Front
Catch Me If You Can
Baby
Xanadu
One Step Forward
In Your Dreams
The Little Mermaid
Cast recordings
Bat Boy - Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2001
Prodigal - Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2003
Hairspray - Original Broadway Cast, 2003
Little Shop of Horrors - New Broadway Cast, 2004
Anna Karenina - The Broadway Musical, 2007
Xanadu - Original Broadway Cast, 2007
Dear Edwina - World Premiere Cast, 2008
Catch Me If You Can - Original Broadway Cast, 2011
Clinton: The Musical - Original Off-Broadway Cast, 2015
Disaster! - Original Broadway Cast, 2016
Mean Girls: The Musical - Original Broadway Cast, 2018
Beetlejuice - Original Broadway Cast, 2019
The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation: The Musical - Original Concept Album, 2025
Bat Boy: The Musical - New York City Center Cast, 2026
Solo album
Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust - Released on May 13, 2008
Track Listing:
"This Only Happens in the Movies"
"When You Wish Upon a Star"
"I'll Try"
"Call Me a Princess"
"Colors of the Wind"
"It's a Small World"/"God Help the Outcasts"
"Baby Mine"
"Minnie's Yoo Hoo"
"Second Star to the Right"
"The Bare Necessities"
"When She Loved Me"
"Disneyland"
Other recordings
Featured on Sleep Well Tonight: Lullabies for Little Dreamers - "Sleep Safe Tonight"; "Hush Little Baby"; "All The World Is Sleeping"; "Lambs Are Sleeping", duet with Kaitlin Hopkins; "Meet Me on the Other Side"; "Moon Sun", 2002
Featured on Jamie deRoy & Friends: Volume 4: Family - "The Portrait", 2002
Featured on Jamie deRoy & Friends: Volume 5: Animal Tracks - "Lion Tamer", 2003
Featured on Jamie deRoy & Friends: Volume 6: When I Grow Up - "Some Shoes Are Harder Than Others to Fill", 2005
Featured on NEO: New, Emerging, Outstanding - "Any Day", duet with Laura Bell Bundy and "Inside Your Heart", duet with Deven May, 2005
Featured on Guy Haines' New Guy in Town - "Sure Thing", duet with Guy Haines, 2005
Featured on The Broadway Musicals of 1945 - "Here I Go Again", duet with Eddie Korbich; "It Doesn't Cost Anything to Dream"; "Slightly Perfect", duet with Scott Ailing; "What's the Use of Wond'rin", duet with Marc Kudisch, 2007
Featured on Carols for a Cure: Volume 9 - "Away in a Manger", 2007
Featured on Ballroom Remixed - "Bad at Being Good", 2011
Featured on Out of Our Heads: The Music of Kooman and Dimond - "I Think That He Likes Me", 2011
Featured on Album by Joe Iconis - "The Saddest Girl in the World," 2022
