Review: Mama I’m a Big Girl Now Is the Girls' Night Out We Desperately Need

After touring the United States, Mama I’m a Big Girl Now has come to New World Stages. The concert — written and directed by Laura Bell Bundy, Kerry Butler, and Marissa Jaret Winokur, all of whom also star — highlights the early days of their careers in the original cast of Hairspray. Performing the songs of their respective résumés along with plenty of favorites from Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman’s score, they explore their childhoods as determined theater kids, their up-and-coming careers in the early aughts, and all the years that followed.

The show is chock-full of parodies, impressions, and callbacks to all the best-known moments of the leading ladies’ careers, as well as stories even bona fide Broadway fans might not be familiar with. Some songs feature original lyrics, while others have altered lines here and there to fit their anecdotes. These stories-through-song all fit seamlessly, with credit due to Bundy, Butler, and Winokur’s wit in writing and assembling the puzzle pieces. As if their stage talent weren’t enough, this clever revue proves their behind-the-scenes lives just as entertaining.

The performances are nothing short of what you’d expect from three Broadway triple threats. Butler cements herself as Broadway’s resident real-life Disney princess, gleefully listing her favorite animated characters and singing their songs one by one while also spinning tales of showbiz. “Colors of the Wind” becomes an anthem about her passion for the environment, and “Part of Your World” becomes an amusing reflection on her first time in Alan Menken’s house, looking at his vast shelves of awards. Even when she’s joking, her sparkling voice beams through the room like sunlight clearing the clouds.

Winokur humorously asserts herself as the only one of the three to ever win a Tony, but it’s a rightful boast, as the originator of Tracy Turnblad herself possesses all the same talent, humor, and heart of the adored character. When she cracks a joke about her cancer battle — which began while she was in Hairspray — the audience hesitates to laugh until she beckons, “It’s okay, you can laugh!” Her sassy candor is a highlight of the show, serving up even the most sour truths with irresistible mirth (like how she made the same amount of money performing one line a night in Grease as she did playing the lead role in Hairspray), all in her signature metallic voice.

Bundy does not disappoint with her unflagging energy, doing all sorts of jumps, kicks, tap dances, and tricks around the stage. Hearing bits and pieces of her iconic Legally Blonde role is worth the trip to New World Stages alone for any fan craving a revival.

Though perhaps the title of the show gives it away, a theme unfolds toward the end as the “big girls” recount their individual journeys to becoming “mamas” themselves, and hearing their humble outpouring of love and pride was an acutely human moment for three of Broadway’s brightest stars. Between this endearing development and all the heartfelt moments of friendship they recall together, Mama I’m a Big Girl Now feels like more than a mere celebration of their stage careers, but more earnestly, a warm hug radiating from their shared memories through the sea of friends, couples, and mothers and daughters in the audience.

All of this is set to production designer Chadd McMillan’s backdrop of three “backstage” vanities painted in pastel pops of colors reminiscent of the palette in Hairspray’s original cover art and set design. In shimmering sequined costumes, Butler, Bundy, and Winokur dazzle with bursts of choreography. Bringing even more life to the show, backup singers Carla Hargrove, Mitchell Gerrard Johnson, and Margot Plum keep the music flowing with lovely vocals and palpable enjoyment.

God knows we need a girls’ night out this month, and this 90-minute trip down memory lane is a loving and lighthearted reminder of how finding joy and camaraderie in community is essential to braving the world as a big girl.