New York-Conventional wisdom holds 
that heavyset women shouldn't wear 
white because it accentuates
their weight.

Marissa Jaret Winokur,5 feet(1.5 meters)
tall and an American size 11-12,wore
white to the opening-night party of
"Hairspray" on Broadway.

Heavyset women are expected to wear
their clothes long and loose-fitting.
Winokur likes her skirts short and her T-
shirts tight.Heavyset women are often
presumed to hate their bodies,to have
low self-esteem,to want to hide.

Winokur appears relaxed and confident
and perfectly comfortable as the leading
lady in the new musical "Hairspray",which
opened to effusive reviews this week at
the Neil Simon Theater. "I feel like I'm
sexiest in my horizontal prison-stripe
dress,"she said.

As Tracy Turnblad,Winokur plays a
plump,enduringly hopeful teenager who
wins a spot on a pre-Beatles television
dance show rule by her peppy,well-
proportioned peers.She leads the charge
to racially intergrate the show,and she
get the guy.The musical is based on the
1988 John Waters film,which starred
Ricki Lake as Tracy and Divine as her
mother.

In person,Winokur's curly long dark hair
is not as poofy as the bow-adorned wig
she wears in the show.Her body seems
more compact than oversize.But her
personality is in some ways bigger than 
the one she portrays onstage,which is to
say immense.

Sitting in her dressing room before a
recent evening performance,wearing an
explosive-yellow flower in her hair and
adding chocolate to her coffee because
she is afraid of losing weight in the role,
Winokur spoke excitedly and openly about
her life.One almost worried that she
would tire her valuable vocal cords or
deplete the carbonated energy that 
propels her performance.

Winokur showed no signs of wilting,
despite having just come from
Bloomingdale's,where she belted out a
song in from of that store in the summer
heat to promote a new line of "Hairspray"
clothing.In just a couple of hours she
would be giving it her all in the opening
number,"Good Morning Baltimore."

Winokur was the first person to audition
for the role of Tracy,back in 1999.As if
they couldn't quite believe they had found
their leading lady on the first try,the
show's creators kept auditioning.

Winokur recalled saying to herself:
"They're looking for Tracy again?But I am
Tracy!"Winokur said that having to hold
onto the role was also galvanizing;she
started taking voice lessons twice a week
to refine Tracy's high-pitched '60s sound.

Jack O'Brien,the director of "Hairspray,"
said he never doubted that Winokur was
right for the role,only whether she had
the stamina for it.Tracy is onstage almost
nonstop during the show,which is set in
1962 and features a steady stream of
high-energy songs by Marc Shaiman and
Scott Wittman,lots of bebopping dances
by the choreographer Jerry Mitchell
and multiple costume changes,care of
William Ivey Long.(The book is by
Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan.)

Mitchell said he saw Winokur grow into
the role,especially in Seattle,where the
show had a short run before coming to
New York."She started to attack,"he said,
"and blossomed like I've never seen
anyone blossom."

This what she has been working
toward ever since her parent took her to
a dinner theater performance of "Meet Me
in St Louis"when she was abou 8.
Winokur was the kind of child who got
detention for stealing away to the stage
door to catch a glimpse of Gregory Hines
after a Broadway matinee of
"Sophisticated Ladies"while her
classmates were waiting for the bus."I
was not going to leave until I meet the
man,"she said.

While "Hairspray" is her biggest break,it
did not come out of the blue.During the
last decade Winokur has had a solid
career.She played Jan in "Grease" on
Broadway,moved to Los Angeles and
won roles in the movies "Teaching Mrs.
Tingle" and "Never Been Kissed,"as well
as roles in several television sitcoms.
She gained a certain kind of fame for 
saying,"You are so busted,"as the
character Janine in the Oscar-winning
movie "American Beauty."

Tracy is 16 and wide-eyed about the
world.Winokur,29,has been around
enough to know that her current success
is wonderful,but not everything."At the
end of the day it's your job,"she said."You
know what's important in your life.I think
that's what's helped me."

Important to her now are her family,
friends and her beau of four years,Judah
Miller,a writer who lives in Los Angeles.
Winokur said Harvey Fierstein,the veteran
stage actor who plays her mother,Edna
Turnblad,in "Hairspray",has been a 
grounding force in reminding her about
what matters."When Harvey says to me,
'Relax,calm down enjoy this,'I'm old
enough now to know he's right,"Winokur
said.

Winokur felt good about her body as the youngest
of four children growing up in 
Bedford Village,New York.Even through
high school,when girls often obsess
about their bodies,Winokur emerged
unaffected,she said.She was not teased
by her classmates.She did not diet.She
was a cheerleader and captain of the
soccer team.She got plenty of attention
from boys.And she wanted to be on Broadway.

"She was always so confident and happy
with what she was,"said Winokur's father,
Michael,a retired architect."She never
tried to be a Britney Spears-size person.
She was always full of fire,always full of
spirit."

Winokur said that he would allow his
daughter to skip school on occasional
Wednesdays to accompany him to
Manhattan for a matinee."All of them
enjoyed the theater,"Winokur said of his
children."She reveled in it."Sometimes,
they even took in an evening performance
of something else.Winokur recalls crying
at curtain calls because she yearned
so badly to be up there herself someday.
her grandfather,Julius Winokur,was a
prominent Broadway accountant.At home
she listened to Ethel Merman records.

Winokur and his wife,Maxine a retired
teacher,recently moved to New Mexico
both came to the opening night of
"Hairspray"along with the rest of their
immediate family.Her special guest was
her middle-school teacher Don Walter.

"She always had a presence onstage,
she was almost fearless,"Walter said.
"She was jsut a trouper right from the
begining."

In her career Winokur has succeeded in
steering clear of fat-girl roles and instead
played character parts that have tapped
her comic side.In the film "Scary Movie,"
she got stuck in a dog door."I was full-out
committed to getting through that door,"
Winokur said.The scene was shot in one
take,she said,and the director had to
leave the set because he was laughing
so hard.

"I don't take jobs that are about the poor,
pathetic fat girl,"she said."I think that's
really important.Fortunately my agent
agrees with me."

She has never had to wait tables to
support her acting.When saleswomen
bring her oversize clothes to try on,
Winokur said,she protests,"No,I want
clothes that fit me."

She added:"I always wear tight clothes.I
don't want them to cover up my body."

Perhaps if things had not gone so well,
Winokur said,she might have turned out
differently."If I didn't have a boyfriend,if I
hadn't had a career,I don't know how I would
be,"she said."I might have dyed my hair blonde
and lost 50 pounds.

"I have friends who have made themselves really
sick to lose weight,friends who go liposuction,"
she added."I get frustrated."

Inevitably,since "Hairspray," Winokur has
been touted as a role model for large girls
who might want to follow in her footsteps,
and she said she felt the burden of 
breaking new ground."This is a role that
has never been done on Broadway before,"she said.

"Here I am,the young character actress," she added.
"I'm the lead this time."