Sharon Lawrence Goes To <i>Chicago</i>

Television audiences got to know Sharon Lawrence first in NYPD Blue.

Her performances as Sylvia Costas Sipowicz earned her a Screen Actor's Guild Award and three Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress.

Next, her starring role in the sitcom Fired Up gave her the rare distinction of being a performer featured simultaneously on two prime-time series—one drama and one comedy—on competing networks.

Now she stars in the new CBS comedy, Ladie's Man, playing opposite Alfred Molina as his spouse, Donna Stiles, a complex wife, mom, step-mom and daughter-in-law.

But it turns out that there's a side to Sharon Lawrence that her TV audiences have never seen: She sings, she dances! And she's proving it on Broadway, no less, playing Velma Kelly in the hit musical Chicago.

CBS News Early Show Co-anchor Jane Clayson caught up with her in rehearsal. Her role, that of a murderous floozy, is a far cry from the no-nonsense district attorney she played in NYPD Blue or Alfred's wife on Ladies Man.

But the fact is, long before TV found her, Sharon Lawrence was a Broadway baby.

"I love the energy that theater provides," she explains. "I don't mean just the energy that I get to use, but the energy you get back from the audience... You can tell when they are skeptical and you need to pull them in slowly. You can tell when they're almost overly-enthusiastic."

Now a TV star who's a Broadway draw, she's joining the cast of a long-running show. That means no dress rehearsals, no out-of-town run, hardly even a chance to do a run through with her co-star.

North Carolina-born Sharon first hit the streets of New York City right out of college, waiting tables and dancing in the chorus. The stage has always been her first love.

"My dream about doing it was always on stage," She says. "It was never about television or movies. I always wanted to sing and dance. I always liked doing it with the group."

Tuesday night, her opening night, she got her chance – and grabbed it.

"You're working as a unit and you get that energy or you're dancing in a number with everybody around you," she says. "There is nothing like it. It's a powerful feeling. You can't get that alone."

Sharon and Jane sat down for lunch at the kind of trendy theater district restaurant at which she might once have waited tables.

"When I moved here," she recalls, "I definitely was suitcase-in-hand and ready for anything."

The irony of coming back to the theater after having made a name for herself in television doesn't escape her, but doesn't embarrass her either.

"Someone's recognizability, that factor, helps for ticket sales, but I also think that you better have the skill. You can't just assume that because you might sell tickets means that you will be able to do the gig."

Will people be surprised that SharoLawrence can stand up there and wow them?

"They probably will be surprised, but I'm a character actress, really, which means, a range of characters. I will consider this a work in progress. It will be a work in progress until the very last performance. That's the good news about doing theater."

And wow'em she did. Sharon Lawrence will be performing on Broadway through July.