Video: Meet the It Girls of Off-Broadway- Laura Bell Bundy, Kerry Butler & Marissa Jaret Winokur

Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge

It has been over 20 years since the iconic musical Hairspray opened on Broadway

And now three of the show's original stars award winners, Marissa Jarrett Winoker

Kerry Butler and Laura Bell Bundy are back on stage together in their brand new show called Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now

and I caught up with them here at New World Stages. I am thrilled to be sitting with the three of you here at your new theater, New World Stages. Yes

And you're back together again. We are. Yeah. What? How does it feel

So fun. So fun. We really have had a good time putting this show together and our friendship is deeper than ever

For sure. Yeah. It's been really nice getting to this time in my life and having two friends that are like, I can call and be like, my son's doing this

My husband's doing this. And like, just, even when it's just, yeah. It has nothing to do with the show to just be like, oh, my gosh, women who are going through exactly what I'm going through is something so valuable that I didn't know I needed

And I'm so grateful to have it. Yeah. So how did the idea come up

Who called who? I know there's something like, how did this all sort of come about

So Laura and I were doing a concert in Utah. And we saw the 20th anniversary here to me

We're like, we should do a concert with Marissa. Called Mom, I'm a Big Girl now

And we sent her a video. And she never responded. She never responded

She didn't get it or I'm gonna tell you something that's her story I didn't get the video

I didn't I didn't get that I didn't get the offer I didn't hear well we called her first we

FaceTime her first and she didn't answer then we made a video all I'm gonna tell everybody at home

listening never just FaceTime without without a little texting I'm gonna face time you I'm never gonna

answer it well you know if you saw if face time if I saw the face time of me I would have

answered you know it's like hair spray people no no I didn't I didn't get the voice memo

I didn't get the message. I didn't. I swear. A year later, Marissa says, let's do a concert and call it my mom, I'm a big girl now

And look what we did. Eight months later, here we are at New World Stages

Yeah, seriously. So how does it feel? I mean, you have the most incredible fans from Hairspray and everything else

The three of you have done. So what's it been like? Take me back to that first performance on stage here at New World Stages

How crazy was it? How incredible? It was, I'm going to say something because the stages, obviously, you're in a very intimate space

So the curtain open, our first show, we marched down singing, Mama, I'm Big Girl now

And I was like, as close as I am to you to the person in the front row. And I was like, oh, maybe we need to take a step back

I was like, oh, calm your face, lady, calm your face. And I was like, oh, weird. Like, it's so intimate. Yeah

But it's, that's what makes it so special. But the first night, I was like, oh, my God, we are so close to that front row

But then it made it like, well, now I'm going to sing, like, I do lines now. I pick audience members to sing lines too

We're best friends with the audience by the end of the next. Yeah, that's true. know exactly where every who everybody is and what like you can kind of like we're like oh do you

see that really cute girl or like oh my god that one woman's living her best life

like it's yeah or this is the person we want to jump up for the link for yeah we'll go backstage

at one point we're like oh I hope this one guy jumps up for link yeah because you have a special bit in the

show where a link larkin comes up yeah I get a link larkin from the audience every night a new person

comes up to play link larkin yeah and if it's a famous person in the audience and we spot them we make

Come on. Yeah. So what was it like putting it together? I know you're producing the show, but you have a wonderful producer with you, right

Yeah, Lisa. Lisa, she's fantastic. She took our vision and took it and helped us get to New World stages

Like, yes, thank God. We started just doing tours. Yeah, just, you know, where you make money

And we're also going to do it here too for fine. But, but how this first started

But how this first started is we're like, well, we knew we were going to do it. And then we had a couple phone calls to be like, what is it

You know, what is the story? And the story is sort of our origin stories to hairspray, how we met our first impressions of each other

our little bit of hairspray careers and lives after and becoming mamas ourselves

So it just flew out of us. Yeah, it flew. And all of our stuff just like piggybacked

It was kind of kismet the way everything worked together. And then every time we did it out of town, we would fix things

So it was kind of like our out of town dryout. Yeah. And funny thing is, so we had two in-person rehearsals before our first concert

One was at my house and where we were writing literally. Oh, that's a good

That's funny. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Let's think about it. And I would tell a story

She's like, okay, great. That's what we'll talk about. Like, yeah. And then we did a rehearsal in Utah the day before the actual gig

And we found a bunch of little bits there and then we put it in

But that first gig was 2.45 minutes with an intermission. The next gig was 60 minutes

No stopping. So it was like best of best of. So then we had to actually go, what's good

What's good? What are people relate to in these things? And so we then pared down the show

The next after that every gig was 90 minutes no intermission. And that's what our show is now

And that's what the audience wants. But we were able to sort of

it, have it be what it is, really give it a critical eye, like a really chop, chop, chop

and then build it back out. We did one, some, like, you know, a theater asked us to come just for like a donor dinner

at one point, and we were able to get it down to 30 minutes. Yes, we did that the best of 30 minutes

And we were like, yeah, we could do 30 minutes. You can get the best of us for 30 minutes

Like, sure, you know, like, we're in. Like, so we've really been able to figure it out

And then coming to this space, obviously, you're going to get, the audience gets different jokes

in New York. They really, like, our stories of, like, our hairspray stories and, you know

Legally Blanc stories or Beetlejuice or just like our back history of us being performers

I think is appreciated in a different way with the New York audience because I love coming out

and being like, raise your hand if you saw the show at the Neil Simon and you're like, wow

20, it's been, I have chills, it's been 22 years, you know, and you saw this show there and

how wonderful is that It so fun to like see because we really see the audience and just to see them all mouthing the words with Legally Blonde It just so fun And you see sometimes like well Carrie will start to sing

and literally an audience, I'm going to go, like, they can't believe she's gonna sing that song

You know what I mean? And we, again, because we kind of are on stage the whole time, too, we're here and supporting each other

But watching the audience watch, like, watching the audience watch my friend sing

it literally is my favorite. Like, when she does Legally Blonde's stuff

and there's, like, young girls, like, singing everywhere, and I'm like, They could never have seen her do it. They know the show

They watch the MTV version, you know, or whatever it is. Or when she does like her Disney music

like sometimes we have little kids that are just like, oh my gosh, I'm so happy to like, it's just I

my favorite part is watching the audience, watch them perform and it's just really special

And to watch you perform too. But I don't watch them watch meak, but I do. Thank you

But see, this is what I love. It's called sisterhood. Yeah. And the point is you all met, you know

I met I knew you from when you were doing Ruthless. I remember her coming to Brad's living room

Her feet would even hit the floor when she was in Ruthless and I've known you two from the very first days you arrived

to New York. Now take me back to hairspray like in that rehearsal room where the bonds start

for the three of you like do you remember that day when you were like I'm gonna be Marissa's friend

I'm gonna fall in love with Carrie I think it was always in mutual respect and thinking each other

was funny like and that still exists right like thinking each other was good on their game

yeah but I definitely think for me for for with me and Carrie we were promised that

we would get our own dressing rooms and our contract and they ran out of dressing rooms and

we've always been scrapping and so the only two people they had the courage to ask whether they

would they would they would be willing to share is me and carry so our bond we were actually like sure

yes i don't want to be alone anyway yeah we i mean we started swapping secrets immediately and

i mean the things she knows about me in the early 20s lord um

So that was the beginning of that really that friendship because you're roommates, you know, you are

And our dressing room was honestly like this. Yeah. This was it was the size of a closet

Yeah. So would you visit her in her big dressing room? No, no one was allowed in my dressing room

Well, we sometimes would knock on the door. I had a sign on my door that was literally like sleeping

Don't, don't come in. I was like so. Where does I really need to be in the zone? I was so, I came into that show and was like, I'm not here to make friends

Like, I mean, I made friends. obviously, but like, I was like, this is like I had just, I mean, not to be like super dramatic

but I literally had just had cancer. Like I was like, I, like, I was in that mind frame of like

I am here because my dream was about to happen and I'm getting allowed, I'm being allowed to do it

And that was my purpose. That was, I am going to stay healthy. And I'm going to stay healthy

I'm not going to get germs. I'm not going to party. I didn't go to one party. I didn't do anything

I didn't have very. There were some good parties. There were a lot of first in that. And I didn't

Yeah, I didn't, so I, my dressing room door basically was like always shut

So the, so Anderson and I were really close because we had all our scenes together. So in all our downtime, yes, she would like, be like, what's happening

Like, you're okay. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah. The sound is okay. You sound amazing

You know, I never mentioned this, but I remember you coming upstairs and bringing us like notes

Do you remember this? You would like, bring us cards. Oh, not notes of like, a lot

Like, no. Not like, not. Not like you're missing your lap on that line. No, they were like notes of love

No, I'm sure. I get a little cut out. You would like stay between shows

and like make nice things for you. No, I did. Because I always had those cards

that you'd pick and like the inspiration things and stuff like that. So I probably was like giving you them

Like that was like, oh, this, I like this one today. Oh please, I remember my post-it's all over my thing being like

like Jack O'Brien would be like, you know, he would tell us like, just trust the words

you're not funny, the script is funny, like, if you think it's funny, then the audience won't think it's funny

I really learned my comedy from Jack. Like, the minute you think it's funny, the audience, then they don't have to laugh

So, like, the straighter you do comedy, the better. And I would post anything he would say, because he would always have these, like

Jack O'Brien had these amazing things to say. And I would have write him down and then I'd put him on my mirror

Like, remember that, remember that, remember that, remember that? I wish you still had those. I know

Yeah. Do you remember Judeine? Every note session, she brought a notebook

And she'd be like, there's a quote. And then she go, look that up in the dictionary, you know, that word

But I remember she had like a book of quotes from Jack O'Brien. She probably still does

I always called him the Buddha of Broadway. Everybody who's ever work with Jack would just sit in the rehearsal room in between

He was listened to the stories. Yeah, yeah. The lore. No, yeah. It's funny because I don't really remember, I don't remember, like, direction from him. No

But I remember direction. Yeah. Like more. inspiration. Yeah, like it was never like walk here and do this direction. It was like guidance. Yeah, yeah, but like in like the big

perfect, like big picture and you'd leave being like we can do anything like that's how Jack O'Brien makes you feel. We're gonna change the world with this show

And you did with hairspray and you did motherhood. Yeah, all of you were mothers. You were the first right. Let's let's let's see about motherhood. You were. I was. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I've the oldest. I think I wanted to be a mom

probably first. Yeah, I remember talking to you about it. I remember talking to you about, like, do you want kids

And you told me then, I'm going to adopt. I always knew I wanted to adopt

And I remember the day you told me that you were going to and you were waiting for segie. Yeah. Yeah

I know that I remember when I could, for your baby shower

I remember just being at your baby shower. And like, it's so funny because

We have pockets in time where, like, we would bump for all of us

I mean, there's always been that thing where it's always been in my orbit, like, what's going on with Carrie, what's going on with Laura

But it wasn't like a daily, like, yeah, because we lived so far away

And we had such different things. But it was always like, oh, my gosh, I have, like, photos of us at different things where I was like, oh, thank God, there's my girls

You know? So, and I think, like, when I was having a child, I had my surrogate and it was like this whole thing

But I was also like focused on I was like shooting a TV show in L and it was like just keep going Like it was kind of like hairspray me with having a child too It was very much like eye on the prize stay focused just have the baby you know just figure it out figure it out

It was like nothing came easy for me ever. So, but like being a mom now and having my friends

it's been real, it's like really nice to text them like, oh my God, I'm at tennis, I want to die

And I'm texting this to them and she's like, well, you're going to miss it next week. And like, I know you're saying that

but I know you love it. You know what I mean? And it's like, and like with Laura having a five-year-old

Tantrums. And we're like, yeah, we've been there. We know. You'll get through it

You'll get through it. And I would never, and I'll tell you right now, when Zev was five, I would not have done this show

And so I look at that and go like, oh, my God, she's going home. She's like, oh, I'm a little tired

I'm like, yeah, because you were a mom all day before you came into this show tonight. So, like, I have a much admiration to both of them

There is a reason we only do five shows a week. Yes. Okay

We got bed times. There's things to do. And that's what's nice about being able to sort of decide what the schedule is together

But I remember, obviously, following Carrie's insane career, you know, through after hairspray and doing over 12, you know, doing 12 Broadway shows, right

So she wins the prize, right? There you go. She wins. I mean, she did that with two kids

She did that. And I remember always being like, well, I can't do a Broadway show until my son gets older

Like, I can't do that. And then I would be like, man, Carrie has two kids

And she's doing another Broadway show. Because I would be like, oh, I can do TV and film because it's just different

You're not worrying about, for me, for me, it's different. I'm not worrying about singing. I can learn my lines on set

Like, it's not like taking over my life. But Broadway to me, like, once I'm in a show, it's like, I can't sing

I can't talk. I'm not talking on the phone. I don't want to talk. I don't want to fight with you. And I remember always watching Carrie and being like, she's in another Broadway show

How is she doing this? I love that what Marissa holds back is fighting with people

I can't fight with people if I'm doing a Broadway show. This is great

But last night I was so mad at my husband last night and I was like

I have to sing tomorrow. We cannot fight about this right now. And then I was like, I'm so mad at you right now

You're like, woo-hoo! I'm like, oh, I can't hear the mouth. Okay, I'm going to go to bed

That's how it went. And he's like, but he was with me during hair spray so he knows

He knows to stop. fighting. Yeah, my husband doesn't. So we, we already were like, oh, we got to talk to Tom

We have to talk to Tom. We need to get our husbands to take Tom out and say, this is the difference

when it's a musical. Yeah. Like, don't ask her to wake up with the five-year-old, let her sleep in

She has two shows. Both of our husbands know. No. They know. My husband, my husband is home

buying flowers right now to deal with something that we have a photo shoot tomorrow. And I'm like, you need to make this house perfect. I am not doing it. Whereas Tom doesn't know that he has to do it

Tom does feed the sheep and the goats and is doing all the things, but he'll send me note like, hey, can you get up with Huck tomorrow? Yes? No, maybe. And I'm like, hell no. I'm going into a five show. What are you talking about? No, I'm sitting in another news. All the girls, they'll tell you why. He met me when I, you know, I was, at that time, I was touring doing country music and I was doing TV. And so like Marissa, it's like TV is like doing a, TV is like doing a drink and a cocktail on the beach. Okay, compared to compare

to Broadway. I'm not going to say that to TV people. We got it. It's hard. I mean

single cameras are harder than the multi. For sure. But, but I will say he's been a part of that

part of my life where there wasn't like the type of I have to sleep or I will lose my voice

and no I'm leaving early. I hit the steam room and I'm vocalizing and it's just a you just

you're really like a trained athlete. Right. So you have to train for it too. You know, so he's like

He got a puppy. Two nights before we opened, he got a puppy

He brought a puppy home two nights before opening weekend. Who's training this puppy

He is. But you are bonding with it now. Oh my gosh, he's so cute

But I mean, that's how green he is. He got a puppy

It's like having another child. Yes. And you know, what we're saying you asked like about our bond

You know, it's grown and developed throughout the years because she's, She was so disciplined during hairspray

And we were like, ah-ha. And when she moved to LA and I moved to LA

then it was like, hey, Laura, I'm having this party or I'm filming this thing, will you be in it

I'm having a party. You got to my thing. We've done TV shows together

I filmed us in your little pilot. You know, so the bond happened for us post-Hairspray

the way that the bond had happened for them during Harris. And how you guys during Hairspray

And then every time I came to New York every time I call Carrie and be like

What are you doing? What show are you in? What am I going to come see you in

What am I seeing you in and do you want to meet after for a drink? Yeah

What is one of the favorite moments that one of the other one of you do in this show

Like what's one of your favorites that Marissa does and what Carrie does? Okay

So my favorite for me that Carrie does is she sings part of your world from Little

Mermaid and it is literally has never been sung better. I'm sorry

I hate to say. No offense. But it literally brings me to tears and who to thunk that that would bring me to tears

There's also another moment that she has that also brings me to tears

So I love those moments. Laura cries a lot during our show. Really those moments

Yeah. Not a lot. And when you say, Hey, Old Friend. I think now that's my favorite thing that you

Aw. I love that. I love Marissa, some people. And I love actually Laura Bell's, like, tapping at all the stuff in some

people. I just, it's so, I just sit there for the most part and just, I'm so entertained every

single time I see it. Yeah, I'll say Laura has a new bit, but I'm not going to ruin it for the

audience. That's my favorite thing. And it's because, oh, because I came up with it. And I literally

said to her, it's my favorite thing because I came up with it. And I said to her, all right

Laura, you're going to do this and you're going to steal the show right from out from me. And she was like, should I? I go, if I'm telling you to steal the show from me

you steal the, and I mean, it's like my favorite thing in the whole show. And she did, and she

does it and you come and you see it and you go that what she talking about Carrie for me so Carrie sings every song flawlessly obviously because it Carrie and that like what she does But Carrie actually takes us has a moment where she talks about meeting her husband and her life

And I don't want to say it's like a seven-minute, like, stand-up act because it's not

But it's like, but she has this great storytelling that's, like, so perfect

And I love that. I love it for her, but I also love it for the audience to get to know

because we know her voice, but to get to know more. about Carrie Butler, not just the like singer on stage

Like I think she takes the most time in our show to like actually share more personal stuff

because I think I'm someone who people know a lot about me personally and are like, oh yay, she sings

I know everything about her life. So I love that Carrie gets to really show

who Carrie Butler is, not just the singer. So that's, I like that the most

Yeah, I love that moment too. It's so funny. So finally, what are you each enjoying the most

You are spreading so much joy with this show. being back together again what do you join the most I think I think being together and also I

think there is something to like right now we do need to experience joy and you can feel it

and from us as much as the audience like for us it's this is an escape and for us it's bringing us so much

joy yeah yeah yeah I think like the thing like I keep saying well no one asked us to do this

but here we are doing it and it like gives me chills because it's almost like it's so empowering to be like

believing in each other. I wouldn't have done it by myself. But I had them believing in me

me believing in them. And I'm like, oh, we can do this together. If we get together, we can do

anything. And I've been loving that, like, there's a lot of moms coming with their daughters

And there's, you know, a lot of people just, like, loving it or saying, like, I saw you 20 years

ago. But, like, I'm loving that people can see the three of us together after 22 years

and supporting each other and loving each other and being strong, and working and being moms and kind of like

and I can cook too. Like, like, we're doing each other shine and show how tough the business is

and we're not jealous of each other. And we talk about that, like things, like, how hard it's been

Even like, so I love like young actors seeing like, I want a Tony Award and I'm still gonna come up here

and tell you like, it wasn't, this wasn't easy and this was weird and I think that's like

it's good for people to see like, when you see people who you are like

inspire to be like to be like, oh wait, I'm having a struggle. they had a struggle or they thought they were doing that show and they didn't get that show and then but then they got that show and it's like inspiring I think yeah yeah we definitely talk about our struggles and very embarrassing moments yeah and I think that is that is an important thing for people who are aspiring to hear right like you're like if they failed it's okay if I failed too and I the good news is we've failed up yeah and I do believe that's how failure works because there are no

real failures there's only just lessons learned and and different opportunities but and that's

how we definitely look at it we all look at it that way like one door closes another window

opens and and and then you just jump out of the window yeah with your two best friends

or paints and vanities exactly literally and there is something to we just had a freaking idea

we reached out to our other friend took her a little time to call back but but

But then once it got going, it got going fast and seriously

And I do think, like, in teens, you can get things done more in community than you can by yourself

Like, they definitely push me. I definitely push them. Like, it's... We all do in different ways, too

We're all drop a ball, the ball gets picked up. Or, like, if someone else drops the ball, the vanity still get painted

You know what I mean? Like... But I mean... Don't be a bad

Just torture on the phone of how it's done and it gets done. Yeah, yeah. But I think, but that's kind of how

And it is like that across the board. Like, because like people have been really loving our social media

And like, if I could just stay home and never do social media, I wouldn't. And like, Carrie's like, we're doing our TikTok

We're doing our social media. I'm like, oh my God, Kerry, I've got 10 more minutes. And then I'm like, oh, my God, this one was so much fun

I'm so glad we did that one. You know what I mean? Like, oh, we'll like be at Laura's house. She's like, I have this idea

And I'm like, oh my gosh. And then we put, like, we pull, we force each other out of our comfort zone to make things even more comfortable

I was so nervous when you guys, oh, I don't want to learn anything new

Oh. I was so nervous when I, when I decided I was going to change all the words to go songs and make a parody

She wrote some medleys. And we said, we're not, we're not doing any medley. We're like, we're too old

We're too old to learn new music. I'm not doing it. She wrote two phenomenal medleys

And they stopped the show. Yes. And they're, oh, we learned the first one so fast

We were like the first time they gave it to us. And we sang it and we were like

oh, well, that's our best number. Like literally, we were like, oh, this is why I want to do this show. Yeah

When I sent you, when I send you anything, like even. I just write back no

No, you don't. You don't. I wait. When you first say no, but then when I send it to you

what in then initially, I was like looking at the phone, like are they responding

Are they responding? Are they responding? I remember being like, oh my God, we have to respond

It's so good. I responded. I do remember that first one. Go, go, go, go

I know, because you want to listen to it. You're like, wait, am I crazy? Is this good? If I tell her it's good, then we're doing it

So I have to really make sure I want to do this. No, we have this, Laura and I have this thing

where Laura will ask me something. And I'm like, I'm not really into that

And then like, I would say, and then she, it's like, she waits like for me to, and then I'm like, all right, I'll give it a try

I'll give it a try. And then I'm like, well, that worked out perfectly. Yeah, it's like, yeah

Because we are directing each other and producing it. And being like, oh, you're, you know, maybe if you try this

And it's like, it's a weird, like it's, you have to be very careful, obviously, because we're so close, but we also, like, we're all, we all know, like, if I see it

I'm like, I know how to help fix that more than, and I always want their help to fix my stuff

Yeah, I think they are more initially discerning. I'm more like, what am I

I could talk to you forever. This is a 22-year friendship. Like I said, this is, it's full circle moment

you are back on stage together in New York with your Gloria show. Thank you for taking the time to sit with me

at Broadway World. Thank you so much. Thank you