Tony Award Winner Winokur Will Return to Broadway's Hairspray

By Kenneth Jones
November 18, 2008

Tony Award winner Marissa Jaret Winokur will re-create the zaftig role of Tracy Turnblad in Broadway's Hairspray starting Dec. 9 at the Neil Simon Theatre. She joins her original Tony-winning "mama," Harvey Fierstein, who has already re-joined the troupe for its final weeks.

Winokur enjoyed recent acclaim as a contestant on TV's hit show "Dancing With the Stars." For her turn as Tracy, the young newcomer won the 2003 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.

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Hairspray to Close Jan. 4, 2009; Fierstein Returns Nov. 11

By Kenneth Jones
October 22, 2008

Hairspray, the Tony Award-winning musical hit that spawned tours and a Hollywood movie version, will close Jan. 4, 2009, the producers announced on Oct. 22. Original Tony-winning star Harvey Fierstein will join the company Nov. 11 and play to the close.

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A Catered Affair to Close in July

By Andrew Gans
June 19, 2008

A Catered Affair — the new musical penned by John Bucchino and Harvey Fierstein, who co-stars — will play its final performance at the Walter Kerr Theatre July 27, the producers of the new musical announced June 19.

When it closes, the wedding-themed musical will have played 27 previews and 116 regular performances.

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At Home, Backstage

Setting the Stage, Offstage

Setting the Stage, Offstage
By PENELOPE GREEN

URSULA the sea witch idolizes Leona Helmsley, Jerry Falwell and Gloria Swanson, which is why their pictures are part of a collage hanging in Sherie Rene Scott’s dressing room at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. Like many stage actors, Ms. Scott, who plays Ursula in the Disney play “The Little Mermaid,” uses her dressing room to get herself in the mood of her character. Unlike most Broadway actors, however, Ms. Scott has scored a dressing room the size of a Manhattan one-bedroom, and it comes with features: French doors opening onto the street and a pink bathtub (put there for Elizabeth Taylor in 1983, when she was in “Private Lives”).

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