Sarah Jessica Parker Credits A Chorus Line With Igniting Her Stage Ambitions

Sarah Jessica Parker may be synonymous with Manolo Blahniks and Manhattan brunches, but long before she became television’s Carrie Bradshaw she was an Ohio school-girl whose destiny changed during a single night at the theatre.

Appearing on the 16 July episode of the pop-culture podcast Las Culturistas with hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, Parker recalled attending an early preview of A Chorus Line in the mid-1970s while in New York to audition for a Broadway revival of The Innocents. She was ten years old—and, she told the hosts, the experience “completely changed my life.”

Parker described feeling the world “shift beneath her feet” as she watched the ensemble of hopeful dancers bare their souls for a coveted spot in a fictional Broadway show. The musical’s themes of devotion and vulnerability, she said, crystallised the idea that risking heartbreak for a dream was more rewarding than choosing a safer path. Within months she had made her own Broadway debut in The Innocents, launching a stage career that would later expand to screen classics such as Hocus Pocus, The First Wives Club and HBO’s Sex and the City.

During the hour-long interview, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor spoke candidly about balancing her real-life wardrobe with fans’ expectations of Bradshaw’s fashion, raising two children in New York City, and the enduring lure of live performance. She also praised A Chorus Line for expressing “an unmatched necessity to care, to be completely devoted” to craft—an ethos she still follows nearly five decades later.

Parker’s appearance on Las Culturistas comes amid a busy year that includes filming the third season of And Just Like That… for Max and preparing to return to Broadway in a forthcoming revival (details remain under wraps). Host Matt Rogers noted that Parker’s story exemplifies the podcast’s mantra of “being passionate about passion,” highlighting how a single production can steer a life and, ultimately, shape pop-culture history.

Full episodes of Las Culturistas, whose recent guests include Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Amy Poehler, are available on the iHeartRadio network and all major podcast platforms.

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