Interview: From Beauty Pageants to HAIRSPRAY to Woxen of Tomorrow - Laura Bell Bundy's A BIG GIRL NOW

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of HAIRSPRAY, the original Tracy, Penny, and Amber - Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler and Laura Bell Bundy - reunite for Mama I’m a Big Girl Now at The Wallis September 26, 2024. Got a chance to ask a few queries of Laura.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Laura!

What do you remember of the auditions for Amber Von Tussle, the Hairspray role you made your Broadway debut with?

I was 19, and I was called to come in for the very first reading of this new musical Hairspray based on John Water’s Movie from the 80’s. Well, what they did not know is that it was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. The summer I turned 8, I watched it every day at lunch. And my favorite character was “Amber Von Tussle.” So that’s the first thing I said when I walked into the audition room.  All the creatives and producers were there— Marc, Scott, Mark O’Donnel, Margo and at that time the director was Rob Marshall— and I was obviously very enthusiastic. I said, “If I don’t get this, I am definitely coming to see this at least 20 times.”

I sang “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from Grease. And then Lorri, one of the casting agents at Bernie Telsey knew that I had “Hit Me With A Hot Note” in my book and asked me if I would sing that for the team after. Then I did the lines. At that point in my career, I was regularly getting roles as “the bitch” so I felt like I had it on lock. And I had been cast in a workshop of the movie “Camp” by Bernie and his team two years before where I played the villainous bitch… so I think they had a feeling I could do “Amber” before they brought me in.

Have you crossed paths with Marissa and/or Kerry in the twenty years since you all were in Hairspray?

Oh, yes!  We all have been in touch and have been a part of important life events with each other—weddings, babies, our kid’s birthday parties, opening nights, general hang outs, on TV sets, acting in each other’s creative ventures, funerals of people we loved and lost. I’d say that extends to most of the cast as well. We were all a very tight knit group, and we really did create a family… we are at each other’s life events, openings, concerts. It’s unlike any other show I’ve worked on… our connection has been a lifelong one. 

Do you know what songs you’ll be singing from your 13 musicals?

You can expect to hear us sing the “Hits”— the songs you best know us for. We sing songs from Hairspray of course, then I sing from Ruthless, Wicked, Legally Blonde and other shows.  Kerry covers Little Shop, Beetlejuice, Beauty and The Beast and others. We have a number of medley’s we have created to tell our origin stories to Broadway and to cover motherhood.

How old were you when your mother first entered you into beauty contests?

 I was 4 or 5 years old. My mother also ran a local pageant affiliated with Miss America called Miss Fayette County… and I observed, let me tell you!

Did you take beauty contest advice from your aunt Marcia Malone Bell, the 1978 Miss Kentucky and 1979 top ten Miss America semifinalist?

Ha!  Good research! I don’t necessarily think she gave me advice BUT I watched the video of her competing in Miss America at least 100 times, and I would mimic all the contestants movements and the way they would speak. Mimicking is also how I learned to sing, and dance and act… I’m basically just an impersonator and I always have been. 

With your beauty pageant background, you must have pretty poised in your audition for Ruthless which you nailed, right?

Well, I certainly understood the competitiveness of the pageant world. However, I did not audition for Ruthless. I was actually auditioning for Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular when I was 9 years old — which my mother had to beg for me get an appointment for because the casting call said, “seeking 11-year-olds.”  But I digress, after my audition, the musical director, Marvin Liard, came out to speak to my mother. He said, “I am writing a musical based on the film The Bad Seed and I have been looking for a little girl like your daughter for some time, can we exchange information?” Well, I ended up getting the job at Radio City and then developing what would become Ruthless with Marvin and his co-writer Joel Paley for two years until we opened as on Off-Broadway. Call it Mother’s intuition.

What were you doing when you found out you were nominated for a Tony for your role in Legally Blonde?

I was waking up in my apartment on 55th and 6th. I happened to turn on the TV and tune in RIGHT as they announced my category. I started screaming and running around, jumping on furniture like a monkey all alone in my apartment. It’s an interesting thing to be completely alone when the greatest thing in your life up to that point happens to you.

I made sure my husband was by my side when I gave birth to our son… who are both now the greatest things that ever happened to me.

You were the standby for Kristen Chenowith in Wicked. How many times did you go on as Glinda?

I am not sure of the exact amount. But when I was cast, I was made aware in advance of a few weeks Kristin was going to be out for Candide at City Center and then she also did the movie Pink Panther after that. So all in all, I think I went one about 25-ish times. Enough that I got to relax into the role a bit and make her my own where I could.

You’ve released albums, been in movies, television and stage musicals. If financial compensation were not a factor, which field would you concentrate your talents in?

While money is necessary to live, it hasn’t been the primary force in guiding the decisions of my career. Inspiration has. And I see myself more as an artist and entertainer than an actor, a singer or a writer specifically. They all have the same root and that is PLAY. They call them “Plays” or “Playing music” for a reason. It’s that essential ingredient that guides my decisions, and sometimes I want to play on stage, sometimes I want to play on set, and sometimes I want to play in a recording studio. The field I have concentrated my talents in is “the Art of Play.”  To me it’s all the same and each field of play or “sandbox”, if you will, teaches me how to be better at the other… I love it all, and I prefer to never leave all my toys in one box.

What’s in the near future for Laura Bell Bundy?

Always more play! …. With my kid, with my husband, with Kerry and Marissa at The Wallis in L.A. and then taking our show to Off-Broadway in November & December at New World Stages, with my creative team of “Womxn Of Tomorrow” as we create a musical for Broadway, with Eric McCormick as we do concerts together this coming year (we will be in Costa Mesa in October!), and an interactive theater experience I am creating in Nashville.  I guess I just never grew up.

Thank you again, Laura! I look forward to hearing the three of you at The Wallis.

For Mama I’m a Big Girl Now tickets on September 26,2024; click on the button below:

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