Candy

Jonathan Sharp walked into a friend’s house recently weighed down with bags of food and started unpacking them.

“This is a Moroccan stew that I made last night. And I brought a cornish game hen. I thought we could have this too since I already made it.” He had been invited to dinner and had earlier asked his host if he should bring anything. He was told that nothing was needed. “Do you like key lime pie? I had one from Trader Joe’s in my freezer so I brought it  just in case.”

Welcome to The Jonathan Sharp Show.

Sharp moved from NYC five years ago in search of new horizons. After working on the Broadway stage for 12 years, acting in lead  and featured roles as well as in the ensembles of plays and musicals, he needed something new– a new city even, perhaps.

Also in his past was a 6 month stint on the daytime soap Another World and a veritable roller coaster ride in the former Soviet Union as a singing and dancing member of, as he calls it, “The Back Street Boys of Russia.” Don’t ask; he’ll tell you anyway.

Born in Mississippi and trained from the age of 9 in classical dance, he had moved to New York with the dream of dancing for a major ballet company.

Training at the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet, he went on to dance professionally with the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Boston Ballet. From there he moved on to join the original casts of five Broadway Shows; The Red Shoes, Carousel (for which he won a glowing review from NY Times theater critic Frank Rich and subsequently was drawn by Al Hirschfield,) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Dance of the Vampires and Fiddler on the Roof.

These days, Sharp has been performing regularly with LA Opera as a dancer, as well as teaching at USC. He still finds time for acting, appearing on Gilmore Girls and Law & Order: SVU, among others.

What do you love about Halloween in Los Angeles?

Well, actually, if I think about my favorite Halloween since I moved here, it would have to be winning LACMA’s  Most Glamorous Costume contest  two years ago. I was dressed as Frank N. Furter from Rocky Horror. I made the costume with Kirsten Solberg. She was on the costume crew for the Hairspray tour last summer.

What was your costume like? [click to continue...]