Courtesy 2022 Jenny Anderson
Lindsay Heather Pearce (Janis Sarkisian) and the National Touring Company of Mean Girls.
It’s been a short yet storied career thus far for Lindsay Heather Pearce, who will be performing the part of Mean Girls’ Janis Ian at Bass Hall Performance Hall beginning July 26.
Pearce kicked things off as a contestant on “The Glee Project,” a show that promised story arcs on the hit show, “Glee,” to those who finished among the top four in the singing competition. Following a runner-up finish and rave reviews for her appearance on the TV show, Pearce has taken on several film, TV, and stage roles, including that of Elphaba, the main character in the hit Broadway musical, Wicked. After donning a pointed hat and green makeup for three years, Pearce took her final bow and packed for the Broadway tour of Mean Girls.
Pearce took some time to chat with us over the phone, when we discussed the differences between the iconic characters she’s portrayed; stage versus tour life; and, of course, where she’s going to eat in Fort Worth.
FW: How is the tour so far?
Lindsay Heather Pearce: The company is so great, and the show is so much fun. We’ve been to so many amazing cities, and the audience has just received everything beautifully. I'm only a little under two months in, and I can't imagine there being a bad day at work. Even on the harder days, I keep having these moments where I’m like, ‘I’m tired today, but it’s still a job.’ Every time I get there, I’m so glad I’m here.
FW: I will say that I watched your vlog videos on YouTube, and at the time, you didn’t know what to pack. You said you would give an update. I have to ask, what are your essentials right now?
LHP: Thankfully, I figured it out. It’s a learning journey, but so many people that have been here [before] or are here now, like Katie Morrisey, [have helped me out]. She was so right about packing cubes. I’ve never used them before in my life, but when we have these 18 weeks of one-weekers in each city, you can never fully unpack anywhere. Having the packing cubes is amazing. You zip it open and put it in the drawer, and if you do laundry, you put the clean clothes back in and put them back in the suitcase. It’s unbelievable. It’s like a package within the package, especially in the tour trunks full of heavy shoes or kitchen essentials. Having it in a bag and labeled is chef’s kiss.
FW: Whenever you did the audition process for Janis, what was it like compared to everything else? Was it virtual, or did you go in?
LHP: I was actually auditioning for another project on the day that I got the tape. It was one of those moments in an audition process where we had been doing callbacks for two weeks, being called in at 10 a.m. every day, and I was playing Elphaba in the evenings. It was so tiring but so good because you learn so much about yourself in parts like that. When I walked out of that audition process, I called my agent and said, “I don’t know how I know this, but I don’t think it’s going further, I think that’s it for me.” I was walking home, and the minute I stepped into my apartment, she called me back and said, “Yeah, we aren’t going further with this project, but Mean Girls just came through the pipeline, and they would like you to send an audition tape, but it’s due tomorrow.”
After a trip to FedEx and quickly running through her lines with a friend, Pearce managed to send her audition tape that night and heard back from casting the following day: They wanted to see her for an in-person audition in two weeks.
When you’re in an 18-week Broadway schedule, I kind of forgot about [the audition]for a little bit. I had been auditioning for other things as well and had the mindset of just going in and doing the audition because that’s the job, and if something happens, then it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I went in for the callback, and it was just a big, warm room — which wasn’t surprising because the job itself is full of warm people. I went in for a final callback, and something felt right. It felt right to go from a role like Elphaba to a role like Janis.
At the beginning of the year, I had been saying that I would really love to tour because of being in one place and isolated throughout the pandemic. I missed the get-up-and-go lifestyle as a performer. I did my final callback, and the next day my agent said, “How do you feel about going on tour with Mean Girls?” That’s how she broke the news about Elphaba, too. She called and said, “How do you feel about going to New York and playing Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway?” It’s a dream, and I’m so grateful for being chosen.
FW: So with this being your first tour, how does it feel going from a stint on Broadway to a tour?
LHP: I mean, I think as a whole, the workload is different and yet similar to a show schedule. The added thing of being on the road is that you’re constantly moving, and that’s its own challenge. It’s not a bad thing. You can’t deal in absolutes when it comes to those kinds of things: different allergies and different cultures in every city. We wanted crab cakes and lobster rolls in Boston and got the seafood in. We are in Atlanta next week, and all I’m thinking is about eating every peach that’s in my face. When we’re in Fort Worth and San Antonio, we will have Tex-Mex and barbecue. The greatest difference is that Wicked is just a different type of show. It’s really intense, and it’s a drama, in a way, kind of like Macbeth. It’s very deep and intense, which isn’t to say that Mean Girls doesn’t have its own deep messages. It’s a different kind of timber when it comes to them. It’s not an absolute. When you’re in the chair, it feels very meditative in a good and bad way. It’s the opposite when I’m able to surround myself and feel very connected to the cast as a whole. With Wicked, it was an isolating track, and I didn’t see a lot of people in that track, but that’s part of the job. A lot of other Elphabas have told me, “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done and would sit by myself all the time.” With Mean Girls, I’m in group numbers and in the background of scenes and not in the forefront all the time, which is a good gift to be able to check in with your castmates. I feel very connected in a way that I was missing when I was Elphaba. I’m always going to miss that beautiful, long, black wig. I felt like a star in that wig, like in the “Addams Family.”
FW: Do you still have green in your ears as well?
LHP: I did. When I first flew to the tour, I had done a 3 p.m. on a Sunday on Broadway. We had our goodbye party and went home, finished packing and giving other things away that I couldn’t take with me. Then I was up until five in the morning and couldn’t sleep. It was like a breakup or a death. Once everyone had gone home and my phone had stopped pinging, I was like, “I can’t believe I just did that, and it’s over.” This is something I had been attached to for the last three years and during the pandemic. I was 28 when I got the role, and I’m 31 now. It was like an existential crisis.
I cried and then woke up at 9 a.m. The next day and felt hungover even though I have been sober for nearly five years. I had to go to New Jersey and get on a plane. I was still covered in green, and of course, the shampoo I had packed was in my trunk, so I was green for like two days. Very green. And when I got to South Carolina, the amazing Eric Huffman, who plays Damien, invited me to get dinner and hang out to get to know each other before our first day of work together. He said, “I’ve worked with a few Elphabas but never while they were still green” I put my head in his lap, and he looked in my ears as if he were a doctor, and the green stayed for like two weeks after. I used so many Q-tips trying to get all the green out. You have no idea how many nooks and crannies your ears have until it’s full of paint. I’m a very clean and hygienic person, but I found it in my towels and hairline, and on the back of my neck.
It was nice, and when it was my first day as Janis — when I was officially performing — I still had green in my ears. It was like a nice closing of the circle. I told myself I was just going to keep it and stop stressing about it and let Elphaba guide Janis’s hand and guide me through the first couple of shows. Maybe by the end of the week, it will finally leave me.
FW: What is the process of getting into these characters like for you? Or is it the same every time or a different process?
LHP: That’s a great question. I think it changes who it is you’re playing. I know some people are very distinct about the work of becoming. It depends on the show's context or the kind of show you’re doing. I don’t know if I could pull out things without prepping or being mindful. When you’re playing a role like Janise, so much play comes into it. These are like 16-year-old high school students, so there has to be a bit of like jerky and twitchy energy with the sense of what’s going to happen today. They’re teenagers, so it can be an on-the-day kind of thing. I would say I’m an instinctual performer where, if I’m feeling it at the moment, then that’ll probably be what the context will be, but then for stuff like Elphaba, you sit, and you get green. You literally watch yourself disappear and watch the character take over you. It’s its own experience, and there’s a different kind of intensity for a role like that. At the end of the day, you have to leave that work at work regardless if it’s fun or not. That’s the great thing about Mean Girls. Elphaba followed me home a lot. I think just the pressure of the role is a big job, and you want to respect it and give it the energy it deserves. There hasn’t been a woman who hasn’t done that and given it the time it deserves. But, Janis is very much like that wig, and makeup comes off. I’m like, “Goodbye!” I’m a 31-year-old, not a high school student, so it’s nice to leave work at work and go home.
FW: What’s your favorite Mean Girls quote even before you got the role? What’s your genuine favorite quote?
LHP: I really really loved the confrontation scene between Damien, Cady, and Janis. “Aren’t you having an awesome time with your awesome friends.” I think Janis has the best lines. It was my 12th birthday when that movie came out on April 30, and I went the day or the day after. And I have a full memory of watching that movie and thought it was unbelievable acting. I had a soft spot for anything Damien did because I was in a television show with Daniel Franzese (who played the original Damien in the movie) for a year, and he’s the best human being of all time. I texted him when I found out I would be playing Janis and texted: “I have a silly thing to tell you. I’m going to play Janis on the Mean Girls national tour.” He is iconic and as tender and hilarious as Damien in everything he has done.
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2022 Jenny Anderson
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2022 Jenny Anderson
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2022 Jenny Anderson
FW: What’s your favorite scene in the musical?
LHP: I really love “Where Do You Belong?” It’s such a great opening and such a great juxtaposition in the song where you’re introducing all the cliques in the school, but no, stay with the weirdos. The epic reveal of the plastics and being at the top of the food chain. Eric (who plays Damien in the musical) is so good and special. He gets this gleam in his eye when he’s performing, and I have to remind myself not to smile at him because Janis isn’t really a grinner, but I am.
Then, in Act 2, they find out Cady has been lying to them. It’s such a perfect blend of ‘ouch, I’ve been that person, I’ve been there.’ it makes you want to cry, but you’re also laughing. Your gay best friend is inching his way off the stage with the car because he has to get it back to his grandmother. It’s funny, but you’re also grimacing while you’re laughing. It’s a mix of humor and reality and how the line between love and painful is so gray. It’s just what makes a script as Mean Girls work.
FW: Speaking of just singing, you hone all the shower show tunes. From “Glee” to Wicked, and now this, how does it feel to be on the pedestal where people are singing to you? What do you sing or listen to when you’re not on stage?
LHP: I love hip hop, Rock and roll, classic rock, punk, emo, bluegrass, everything. I’m a soundtrack person and make playlists for every character I play. Janis and Elphaba, I have a Spotify playlist for every role I’ve ever played. Things that make me feel like the character or music that the character would listen to. That is definitely a process thing that I’ve always done and created and listened to while getting ready.
FW: What’s a song on Janis’s playlist? I’d be upset if Avril Lavigne isn’t on there.
LHP: She definitely is. We’ve got Girlie, Demi Lovato, Skin of my Teeth, Gale, the Used, Avril Lavigne, Nobody’s Home, Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, and Hawthorne Heights. That’s definitely a thing that helps me get into the zone, like pregaming music. There’s something about being put into the right headspace with music and what you’re consuming.
FW: If you could be in any part of a musical, gender aside, what role would you love to play?
LHP: The first one is probably the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. It’s such a grim role, and I love roles that are dark, faded, and haunted. I love watching that inner psyche. I would love to play any role where you can swish a cape around for two hours. And then, I would love to play Hades in Hadestown. I just love that character. And Les Misérables and play Fatienne. With Phantom of the Opera and Hadestown, those roles are anti-heroes, like they’re villains, but they’re not villains.
FW: What is the best advice that you live by?
LHP: Not everyone will be happy with you anyway, so just do what you want. You don’t have to be liked by everyone, but you have to be liked by yourself, so always do what’s best for you. And one that I’ve thought about constantly is that we have a start date, and we have an end date, and we don’t know when that is. Everything in between is meant to be savored and enjoyed and do good things, learn, make mistakes, apologize for those mistakes, and get better, and be a better person up until that end date is set to happen.
A comedian once said that the meaning of life is just enjoying the passage of time. And that’s something I’ve definitely been leaning into.
FW: What are you looking forward to about Fort Worth for the short stop?
LHP: Let me know if you have any food recommendations. I’ll eat it all.
FW: Y’all are going to be on Sundance Square. That’s where the theater is. There are so many good things around there. You can’t leave without having margaritas, tacos, or barbecue.
LHP: Oh my God, yes. This is the capital of food. Holy cow. I’ve found my people.
