INDIANAPOLIS — Millions of Americans first met an aspiring 12-year-old actress named Sarah Litzsinger 40 years ago this month.
“Oh my gosh, the math is not mathing,” Litzsinger said.
The Carmel native made her national television debut during Perry Como’s Christmas in New York special.
“I didn't know who Perry Como was when I auditioned,” Litzsinger said. “My mom said to me, ‘Oh my goodness, if you got this part, your grandmother would swoon.'”
Litzsinger landed the gig and got to work with Como inside New York City’s iconic F.A.O. Schwarz toy store.
“Perry Como was such a kind, just wonderful person to be around.” Litzsinger said. “He said, ‘Call me uncle Perry.’ When we were done with the shoot, he sent me a big bar of chocolate.”
Litzsinger estimates her family held on to that chocolate bar for a decade.
“It was a really wonderful experience,” Litzsinger said.
Although she never tasted the sweet success of the candy bar sent by Como, Litzsinger would go on to find success on her own, driven by a determination to be on stage.
I think I'm gonna like it here
Litzsinger says her infatuation with the theater began right here in central Indiana.
“My parents took me to see 'Annie' at Clowes Memorial Hall,” Litzsinger said. “I was mesmerized. I didn't leave my seat during intermission. It was the most fantastic thing I had ever seen and I wanted to be up on stage.”
Litzsinger found the limelight in community theater productions eventually landing the title role of “Oliver!” at Beef & Boards Dinner Theater in 1982.
It would be one of the many characters Litzsinger would portray on stage.
Tale as old as time
Litzsinger lived out every girl's dream when she landed the role of a Disney princess on Broadway.
“I'm the longest running Belle in Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast' on Broadway.” Litzsinger said. “And my husband is the original Gaston, but we never did the show together.”
Litzsinger estimates doing 8 shows every week during her first stint as Belle which spanned 18 months.
"I'm so lucky to have gotten the chance to do it for so long," Litzsinger said. "Long runs are really nice, but then after several hundred performances, you do start feeling a little stale. But that was a really wonderful time in my life and I loved playing her."
It's showtime!
Litzsinger says there's not a lot of stability in show business.
"You just have to be able to have sideline work that you can do because being a creative artist can have its ups and downs," Litzsinger said. "I've actually been out of the game for a few years."
But that changed recently with a simple phone call.
"I had auditioned for Beetlejuice over a year ago,"Litzsinger said. "I got the call, sort of out of the blue, so it really took me by surprise."
That surprise was being cast as Delia Deetz in the first traveling tour of "Beetlejuice the Musical."
"We are pretty much in a different city each week, so I'm acclimating to that right now," Litzsinger said. "It's such a fantastically funny part that I get to play, so I'm really, really looking forward to it."
Although Litzsinger says she never knows the where or the when of it, there's no place else she'd rather be.
"It's my life, it's still my life."
