Interview: Jessica Vosk and Kelli Barrett are the Wind Beneath Each Other's Wings in Beaches

Kelli Barrett and Jessica Vosk met for the first time at a swimming pool in St. Louis. It was during a summer stint at the Muny, where Vosk was appearing in Chess alongside Barrett’s husband, Jarrod Spector. They’d known of each other for years, their careers running in parallel, but hadn’t actually crossed paths until that afternoon, when Barrett showed up without a bathing suit and Vosk casually offered her one of her own.

It was a fitting prologue to a friendship that would bloom in Calgary, Canada, when the two were cast as Bertie and Cee Cee in Iris Rainer Dart and Mike Stoller’s stage adaptation of Beaches, the tearjerker that became an iconic cinematic vehicle for Barbara Hershey and Bette Midler. For both Vosk and Barrett, Beaches is more than a movie; it’s a touchstone tied to their real-life artistic dreams and lifelong relationships. And bringing the show to the Majestic Theatre this spring isn’t about chasing nostalgia or recreating magic. It’s about honoring a story that has shaped them to this very day.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

This is a show about two very close friends, but you didn’t know each other personally before this project started.
Jessica Vosk: We knew of each other, but we never worked together. I had been out at the Muny doing Chess with Kelli’s hubs, Jarrod [Spector], and Kelli came out to visit. That was the first time we had ever gotten to hang out together.

Kelli Barrett: I think we were at a pool, and I forgot my bathing suit, and you were like, “You can have one of mine, babe.” That was the first time I ever met you. It was you offering me a bathing suit, and I was like, “Oh, she’s so sweet.”

How do you build a friendship like Cee Cee and Bertie’s?
Kelli: A lot of late nights.

Jessica: We were in the same kind of extended-stay living situation, and either I’d go over there or she’d come over to my place, and we would have dinner and work for hours, reading through stuff, making sure it was grounded, making sure it wasn’t a caricature of what the film was.

Kelli: And then just doing the job, which is to get to know each other so well that we can be there for each other on stage. We talked a lot about our shared history, the passing of our fathers. We got close, and we weren’t afraid to dive into the deep stuff because these two women have known each other since they were little. I was like, “Tell me everything about you since you were a child,” so we can get on the same page.

What role does Beaches play in your life?
Kelli: I’ve seen it 100 times. Any time it’s on, you have to watch Beaches. My husband always makes a joke because when we were introducing each other to our favorite movies, my top five are Beaches, Fried Green Tomatoes, Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias, and Boys on the Side. The sisterly stories, the mother-daughter stories, those are the ones that I was always drawn to. Beaches has always been one of them. And Jarrod is always like, “Is she gonna die again? Do we have to?”

Jessica: It was very cool for me to see a movie about a kid who wanted this dream, and then you watch this little kid be put through the wringer. It’s not like she’s one of those overnight successes. The whole point of this film is that you’re knocking down doors, doing odd side jobs, all the shit that you hate to do, but we do it anyway because the goal is to make it big. And she knows within her heart that she’s not the cookie-cutter, gorgeous girl who’s going to get the roles immediately. She works really hard for it. And then she meets this young girl who was born into a situation already farther ahead than she’ll ever be and becomes best friends with her. It’s one of the most relatable films, in my opinion, in the entire universe.

Now, am I obsessed with Bette Midler? Do I wish I was her best friend? Would I put her skin on mine and pretend to be her? Yeah, maybe. I find her to be the one woman who has broken every glass ceiling and paved a road that I didn’t know I could walk down. In that respect, it’s a role of a lifetime for me to come in and even try to bring half of what I think Bette Midler brings to the role.

Iris Dart has worked with Bette and Cher. Mike Stoller cowrote “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” and “Stand By Me.” Tell me about collaborating with these two people who have had careers that are so insanely historic.
Kelli: These people could be your extended family; that’s how kind and generous they are. Iris wrote this iconic book that became this movie, and she’s so unassuming. Collaborative, open, wants to hear our feedback. Mike Stoller’s music is so tuneful. All these songs are stuck in my head. The way he can write an arc, the way he can write a melody.

Jessica: Something about Iris that I did not know is that Iris was the first female writer on Cher’s TV show. She’s a broad, man. If I want to throw a different type of joke in there, she’s always open to discussing it. Mike, the same. The thing that I wanted to get across to people is—as somebody who grew up with the soundtrack from Beaches—that this is a new musical. You’re not going to hear the soundtrack from Beaches. You’ll hear “Wind Beneath My Wings,” because, of course, but everything else is new. Mike has brought something special. I can sing you all the songs right now, and I haven’t done this show since 2024. That’s special.