Alabama's Lexie Dorsett Sharp in Beetlejuice
If Beetlejuice is a musical about family, then Lexie Dorsett Sharp and her husband Jesse Sharp are definitely the two leads in this touring production! It’s difficult enough for someone to book a National Tour like Beetlejuice but to also book it with your hubby is extra EXTRA special. Although it seems like destiny for Lexie and Jesse who met a decade ago touring together in another dark musical comedy, The Addams Family.
So, let’s all raise a glass to Birmingham, Alabama’s very
own Lexie Dorsett Sharp and her husband Jesse Sharp! Or should I say to Barbara
and Adam Maitland? Or Morticia and Gomez Addams? Well you get the point… Now
let’s chat with Lexi.
How long have you been with Beetlejuice and how
has your experience been with it so far?
I have been part of the tour since the beginning of the
First National Tour. We started rehearsal last October in New York City! So, we
have been out on the road a year… and we are still going! The show has been
very well received. It’s been so exciting to be part of a show that is playing
to enthusiastic audiences across the country.
You are on tour with your husband, Jesse Sharp, who plays
Charles Deetz in the show. What’s that like being on tour together?
It’s been a precious, precious gift. Jesse and I have been
married nine years and together ten and a half years. We met a decade ago on
the International Tour of The Addams Family. Any time we get to work
together it makes the experience that much sweeter. Beetlejuice has been
no exception. We drive most of the tour and travel with our chihuahua, Chip.
Jesse and I are truly best friends and it’s wonderful to have someone to share
the joys of tour with and someone to lean on when touring gets challenging. You
can follow along and see all the steakhouses I love as well as rehearsal photos
and me being a tourist all over the country on my Instagram, @lexiedorsettsharp.
Why should Huntsville audiences come out and see this
show?
It’s hilarious! The show is wonderfully irreverent and a
great time at the theatre. People who love musical theatre love our show. And
people who aren’t usually “theatre people” love our show!
Do you have a stand-out memorable moment(s) that has
happened to you onstage during Beetlejuice?
I am an offstage swing. I cover four different tracks:
Barbara, Delia, Maxine/Juno, and Miss Argentina. My job is to be ready to go on
at a moment’s notice. The thrill of live theatre is that it is just that –
live! We are living, breathing humans onstage and sometimes things happen right
up until curtain or even mid-show. I have swung on and gone on mid-show a
couple of times on this tour when performers have unexpectedly fallen ill. The
adrenaline rush of getting ready and hopping on stage in the middle of the show
is fun. It is also thrilling to find ways to win the audience over and have
them not have their show feel interrupted when you are taking on the role for
the night. It’s about trying to fit seamlessly into the show while also
trusting your own take on the character.
Do you have any advice for the young people in Alabama that would like to take the same career path that you are on?
I would say anything is possible if you believe in yourself and are willing to put in the work. I know that might sound cliché but it’s true. I grew up in the theatre scene in Birmingham, moved to Cincinnati for college and pursued my BFA in musical theater from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and then moved to New York City the day of graduation. It is almost never easy, it is full of rejection, but for me there’s absolutely nothing like being on stage. If it’s really what you want to do and you have that calling inside of you, do it. Go for it! Give it a real go. You have that dream in you for a reason.
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