The ‘Shirley MacLaine of the Minnesota stage’ stars in a grown-up role as ‘Sweet Charity’

Eat your heart out, Peter Pan.

Theatrical sparkplug Shinah Hey — whose full name rhymes with China By — has never played the boy who doesn’t grow up onstage. But her nearly two-decade acting career shares evergreen notes with Peter Pan.

From beauty school dropout Frenchy in “Grease” to bright-eyed Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg in “Ride the Cyclone” — from a young Jane Goodall in the national tour of “Me … Jane” to the mayor’s daughter in “The Music Man” at the Guthrie Theater — Hey’s résumé is studded with youthful characters.

Now, at 34, the former competitive cheerleader is doing only her second adult role in her adopted home state. Hey depicts Charity Hope Valentine, the optimistic dance hall hostess who wants to be loved, in “Sweet Charity,” the classic musical that opens Saturday at Artistry in Bloomington.

“What I love most about Charity is that even though she wants love so bad, she’s really self-reliant and has this strong sense of perseverance,” Hey said.

The role has been played by the likes of Debbie Allen, Christina Applegate and Sutton Foster. Hey wants to put her imprint on it.

While nodding to the dance-first approach of Allen and Applegate, and the authenticity and heart of Foster, Hey said she wants to be the total package.

And she might just be tailor-made for the part, said Kelli Foster Warder, executive artistic director of Artistry.

“She’s a true triple threat with top-notch singing, acting and dancing. And she can play both the funny friend and the ingenue,” Foster Warder said. “I like to call her the Shirley MacLaine of the Minnesota stage because she can honestly make you laugh and also make you cry.”

Hey came by that skill set by diligent study inside and outside the classroom. The first person in her family to go to college, the Stephens College graduate grew up in Bullhead City, Ariz., with her beautician mother, railroad manager father and sister. Her childhood dreams were for a very different stage.

“I didn’t just want to be like Christina Aguilera, I wanted to be her,” Hey said before a recent rehearsal. “I’ve always loved singing and dancing and took both in school. I didn’t even know about theater until senior year of high school.”

That’s when she took a class with some theater in it, and she was gobsmacked. She had to make a hard choice between continuing with varsity competitive cheerleading, where she was in line to be captain, or theater. She said yes to the stage, graduated at 17, and never looked back.

That summer out of school, she had no plans for college but instead won a role in the chorus of “Hairspray” in a summer stock company. During a rehearsal, the show’s director pointed to her as an example of commitment and energy for the company.

“Even though I was playing person No. 12, it was awesome,” Hey said.

The “Hairspray” cast included a bunch of New York actors, and they encouraged Hey to give the Big Apple a try. At the end of that show, she did, running all over Manhattan for auditions, including to callbacks for a number of Broadway shows.

“But I kept coming up on the same block,” Hey said. “I would get to final callbacks and not book the role. Any role.”

The problem?

“This casting director pulled me aside and told me that I had a great voice and loads of raw talent but that I needed refinement. He encouraged me to go back to school.”

Hey did, finishing Stephens in a hurry — three years, two summers. She was visiting a friend who was an ensemble member in “A Christmas Carol” at the Guthrie when she heard about an audition for “Philly,” a musical at the Sabes Jewish Community Center, and got cast as the supporting lead.

That was in 2013, the start of building a tremendous résumé by impressing directors and choreographers alike. She played sweet killer Squeaky Fromme in “Assassins” and Little Red in “Into the Woods,” both at Theater Latté Da.

“Cyclone” opened at the Jungle before transferring to Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. Sarah Rasmussen, now artistic director of Princeton University’s McCarter Theatre, directed Hey on both stages.

“Not only does she have stellar skills, she finds this truly vulnerable heart to her characters,” Rasmussen said. “Her humor and poignancy come from an honest, authentic and intelligent place. And she finds all these details and little moments that add up to a deeply memorable character.”

Hey also has become a regular at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, acting in “Holiday Inn,” “Footloose,” “Grease” and, just last year, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”

In “Beautiful,” she killed it playing Cynthia Weil alongside Monet Sabel as the title character. The role revealed not just her musical theater skills but also her dramatic chops. Importantly, it was the first time she played an adult.

“She’s a woman like me so I could just walk like the years that I have on my body and be myself,” Hey said. “That was so freeing to have a character with that energy and spunk that I have in real life.”

“Beautiful” choreographer Tamara Kangas Erickson described Hey as having “a rare gift of comedy.”

The two worked together on several shows at Chanhassen, but one has a special meaning for Hey. In the company’s 2017 production of “Grease,” Hey played Frenchy opposite Andrew Hey’s character Doody. Sparks began developing immediately.

“We would always crack each other up — make each other laugh all the time — and he was just so goofy and funny and such a hard worker, but he didn’t think I would like him at first,” Hey recalled. “But there was a time when we were dancing together in rehearsal and I had to grab his arm and I was like, ‘Ooh.’”

In time, the scene partners would also become life partners. And the two share two children, a 4½-year-old girl and a 5-month-old boy.

Last year, her preschooler saw her perform for the first half of “Beautiful.” Even now, Hey chokes up at the memory.

“She still talks about how mommy is going to work singing onstage,” Hey said. “It’s a tough balance to have a career like this, but then to share it with my kid and show her that you can pursue your dreams, that’s another gift entirely.”

Sounds almost like a line from Charity Hope Valentine.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. with a pay-as-you-can performance Feb. 3, and a 7:30 p.m. Wed. performance Feb. 12. Ends Feb. 16.

Where: Artistry, 1800 W. Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington.

Tickets: $34-$64. 952-563-8575 or artistrymn.org.