‘Part of something special’: ‘Hairspray’ co-stars will reprise their Broadway hits
“Hairspray” was Laura Bell Bundy’s Broadway debut, a fact that was not lost on the Lexington native. But to her, it also felt like something else.
“I was the youngest adult in the cast,” Bundy says, recalling the 2002 production. “It was kind of like college for me in a lot of ways, and I think for a lot of the younger actors. It was that big break, was the first time that a lot of those young actors had originated a role on Broadway. And we all were like, young and slightly naive, but also just so alive and vibrant and excited about all the possibilities.
“The show was so funny and subversive, but poignant and important, and the energy was infectious — we knew we were a part of something special.”
The possibilities grew for many in the “Hairspray” cast, including Bundy, who went on to create the role of Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde — The Musical” in the midst of building an extensive resume in stage, film, and recording.
Now Bundy returns to Lexington on May 7 with something of a college reunion.
She will be joined by her “Hairspray” co-stars Marissa Jaret Winokur and Kerry Butler for “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now,” a show that riffs on one of the musical’s showstoppers and celebrates it as well as many other turns in the performers’ careers including Bundy’s time in “Wicked.”
After “Hairspray,” Bundy’s next Broadway role was as Kristin Chenoweth’s stand-in for Glinda in the original Broadway production of “Wicked.”
“I just got to watch her in the audience for 200 shows,” Bundy says of Chenoweth, who she did go on for, numerous times. “How impressionable that was for me at 22 years old, to watch this brilliant comedic actress who had a lot of creative freedom with the role she played.”
Seeing last year’s Oscar-nominated film version of the first part of “Wicked” was particularly special for Bundy, who watched it with her son, who recognized Glinda’s signature song “Popular” as one he had heard his mom sing.
“He goes, ‘Mommy, this is your song.’ ‘No’ — oh, it’s so sweet,” Bundy recalls — “‘Mommy played that part.’”
If you are wondering what Laura Bell’s “Popular” is like — which she says is “totally unhinged,” like Chenoweth did it — you can see in “Mama,” which includes that, at least one other “Wicked” tune and other signposts from her, Winokur’s and Butler’s careers.
The whole story of how the show came about has an element of screwball comedy that reminds you Bundy has an affinity for mid-century comics like Lucille Ball.
Bundy and Butler were presenting a fundraising concert for a performing arts group in Layton, Utah, outside of Salt Lake City and came up with the idea of a concert with Winokur, who played the lead role of Tracy Turnblad in “Hairspray.”
“One of us said, ‘Yeah, we could call it, ‘Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now,’ and we were like, ‘Oh my God, that’s a great idea,’” Bundy says.
So, she and Butler called Winokur with the idea, left her a message and ... crickets.
Six months later, that same Utah theater asked Bundy about getting Winokur for a similar fundraising concert. Winokur wasn’t wild about the idea of doing a show on her own and said, “I’d do that if you and Kerry did it with me.”
“And I was like, ‘Wait, did you get our message?’” Bundy recalls. “‘We got this idea for a show with the three of us called ‘Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now,’’ and she was like, ‘that’s the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.’”
It was the classic message never received.
They started putting it together in the Summer of 2023 and debuted at the Utah theater and have since taken it all around the country, including a New York engagement that let them refine it with input from some close colleagues.
“The whole year really was spent making this show while we were paid to perform, and there’s nothing I love better than being paid to create,” Bundy says.
These days, a lot of Bundy’s creative energy goes into the farm she and her husband, veteran TV executive Thom Hinkle, have in New Jersey. After years in California, Bundy says she is enjoying being much closer to home, and now bringing her current show and friends home, to a stage she is very familiar with.
“If you like musical theater and you like comedy, it’s a great review of all of that, intertwined into personal story,” Bundy says of “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now.” “And then you get everybody doing their greatest hits.”
“Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now” with Laura Bell Bundy, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Kerry Butler
Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short St.
When: May 7 at 7 p.m.
Tickets: Lexingtonoperahouse.com or 859-233-3535.
