Feature: 10 Questions with MAMA, I'M A BIG GIRL NOW! Star Laura Bell Bundy at The Lexington Opera House

MAMA, I'M A BIG GIRL NOW! is running May 7th at 7p at the Lexington Opera House. Read our interview with one of the show's stars, Tony Award-nominee Laura Bell Bundy!

Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now! has had quite a journey! After a successful run in New York, you’re on the road. What keeps it fresh for you, and how has the show evolved?

It’s easy to keep it fresh with these two, Kerry and Marissa are constantly surprising me and making me giggle. While our show has a set structure, there’s still room for us to play and find new things. We’ve been refining it since our very first show in January 2024. We've changed things up, added new songs and jokes, taken some away, written medleys, incorporated projection screens and multimedia, and even pulled people out of the audience. Every city we visit, we create new lines specific to that place. Plus, each audience gives us something new to respond to, and that keeps it exciting. We keep it so fresh we have to go over new lines before every show!

How has it been reuniting with your Hairspray co-stars in such a big way?

It has been wonderful! First of all, we have remained close for the past 20-plus years, but writing, directing, and producing this show together has truly made us sisters. There really is nothing like “old friends”… they just get you. They champion your strengths and love you despite your weaknesses. We laugh at ourselves together! I guess when they cast us in Hairspray, they saw the chemistry we had on stage… and in this process, we discovered we still have that as more mature, refined versions of ourselves. We fill in each other’s gaps artistically, comedically, and musically. But the coolest part is that we had this IDEA, and then we put energy, creativity, and hard work into it to make that idea a reality. We had no idea this “concert” we intended to do would make it to Off-Broadway, and we REALLY had no idea that it would get nominated for a Drama Desk Award. I know it’s made each of us believe in the power of ideas in a way we hadn’t in a while. But the magic ingredient is TEAMWORK. It’s something I have said to my “Mamas” a lot… this is happening because we each pick up the slack, and that is keeping the train moving.

As a Kentucky native, what makes you the most excited about bringing this show home to where you grew up?

It feels like a very full-circle moment. I am doing a show that includes my origin story, and I get to do that at the first theater I ever performed at—the Lexington Opera House. Bringing Kerry and Marissa to my hometown is also so exciting to me. I’m thrilled that KY audiences will get to see my friends live on stage. Lexington won’t know what hit ’em! And while many KY folks I know came to see my show in NYC, some were unable to… and now we get to bring the show to THEM.

Additionally, my old friend Lyndy Franklin who I grew up dancing with at ‘Town & village school of dance created up the only professional theater company in Lexington after she spent time on Broadway herself… The Lexington Theater Company.. Lyndy is providing a choir and band for our shows from her company. It’s wonderful to be able to work with friends.

As Broadway’s original Elle Woods, you’ve left quite a legacy behind as the blueprint for one of the hardest roles in the musical theatre canon. How does it make you feel knowing that so many women have followed in your footsteps as Legally Blonde continues to be as popular as ever?

It has always felt like an honor to wear Elle’s heels and to pass them on to the next generation. There is so much we can still learn from her journey. The message of the show feels even more relevant today. I love seeing different interpretations of Elle, and I am so glad she continues to Bend and Snap her way into the future.

In 2023, you starred in The Cottage on Broadway, delivering a phenomenally hilarious performance. Are there any comedies you would love to try your hand in?

Noises Off? The Odd Couple… Oh Mary, maybe? But what I REALLY love is working on something original. So I’m always looking for that next new play or musical to sink my teeth into. What else you got, Sandy Rustin (writer of The Cottage)?? ’Cause you make it fun to play!

Do you have any musical dream roles? What show would get you back on a Broadway stage?

At some point, I would love to play Mama Rose… Lola in Damn Yankees… Mrs. Lovett… I did Sweet Charity in LA, and I would love to do it on Broadway. (Obviously, I am a fan of the classics.)

If you were to create another reunion piece with co-stars from another one of your projects, who would it be and what would the concept be?

Highlights and Low Lights—The Roots of Legally Blonde The Musical
Telling the stories, the cut songs and lines, singing the songs as they apply to the personal stories of the cast.

The LGBTQIA+ community adores you and (speaking for them as a part of the community) considers you an icon. How does that support make you feel?

Absolutely FABULOUS. I know and love my tribe. I always joke that I am a gay man trapped in the body of JonBenét. I grew up loving gay icons as well—Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Carol Channing, Tina Turner, Liza… and doing impressions of them at a very young age. My sense of humor has always been campy and best suited for an over-the-top, salty drag brunch. I watched the original John Waters movie with Divine every week the summer I was 8 years old. The majority of my teachers and mentors were LGBTQIA+… honey, I would not have a career, a singing voice, my back handspring, a pot to piss in, a sense of humor or style, my shoe closet, or my best friends in the world if it were not for the gay community. So the affection, respect, and love is mutual. And I will always be there to support them as they have been there to support me. Periodttt.

What advice would you give to the next generation of aspiring Broadway stars?

I have so much! Haha! Sure, I can say “Be prepared—it helps get rid of fear,” or “Make big choices and commit,” or “Never stop training”… But I will say this:
It’s good to identify why you enjoy theater. Is it expressing yourself? Is it escaping yourself? Is it having a community? Is it using your imagination? Is it understanding what it’s like to walk in a character’s shoes who is not like you? Is it feeling free?

Ask yourself what it is at the core that makes you love it. And take that with you to every lesson, audition, rehearsal, and performance. Always remind yourself of the reason you are doing it…

For me, it’s playing. I love to play. I go back to the unabashed, wild, childlike freedom of playing pretend, and I bring that into every rehearsal room and onto every stage or set. That is the feeling I am chasing—not the notoriety. The fun and the play. They call it “a play” for a reason…

Why do you think audiences should come see Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now!, and what do you hope they gain from the experience of seeing it?

Well, it took us 20-plus years to get back on a stage together again… and now we’ve got much more to sing about. That’s reason alone! You’ll get to see me do a jump split and twirl a baton, hear Kerry hit notes that will shatter the marquee lights, and watch Marissa give you Mama Rose like you’ve always wanted it to be done. And that’s not even the Hairspray or the Legally Blonde part.

If you wanna laugh—come. You wanna cry—come. You need a Broadway fix, a girls’ night out, or a Mother’s Day gift for mom—come.

Someone told me after seeing the show that it was a “Joy Bomb”… I think during these times, we need to cultivate and experience joy.
So joy. I hope people feel joy.

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