“This is the best show ever!”  I said that several times during Mama I’m a Big Girl Now at The Wallis in Beverly Hills.  After saying it the third time, I was sure of two things: 1) I had to open my review with those words and B) If this show becomes a big hit, my quote will be in every ad!  You would think seeing Marissa Jaret Winokur, Laura Bell Bundy and Kerry Butler (the original stars of Hairspray) would be a little stroll down memory lane.  But how wrong you’d be.  Every number is a major hit from a major show – it’s like a collection of 11 o’clock numbers!  This is a fun-filled, jam-packed, 90-minute love fest of three divas who have chops, belts, and receipts.  They might have taken Broadway by storm 22 years ago, but each of them has more than enough credits to fill a solo show.  OK, maybe not Marissa, but she was on Dancing with the Stars, Celebrity Big Brother, and fired from The Talk – so she’s got plenty to talk about.  The love between them is genuine and the “let’s put on a show” attitude is uproarious.  And we learned things.  For instance, Britney Spears was LBB’s understudy in Ruthless, Kerry won a whole lotta beauty pageants, and Marissa wants to play Mama Rose so badly, she can taste it (she’d be sensational).  Yes, I already knew all of that already, but maybe you didn’t.  Either way, it’s all presented in such a delicious way, I could see it again and again.  And I very well might.  This one-night-only LA gig was just a warm-up for off-Broadway’s New World Stages.  They kick off shows on November 2^nd for a limited run – “run” being the operative word.  RUN – don’t walk – and get your tickets at MamaImABigGirlNow.com.  Tell ‘em Billy sent ya!

Kerry and LBB brought down the house with a high-voltage performance of “For Good” (LBB has played Glinda on Broadway, while Kerry hasn’t taken on Elphaba…yet).  Their performance reminded me of a story I didn’t get to in last week’s column.  To avoid the head-to-head competition that happened at the Tonys, the powers-that-be behind the film of Wicked will be submitting Cynthia Erivo as Best Lead Actress and Ariana Grande as Best Supporting Actress for the Oscars.  So when Ariana doesn’t win anything, she can’t blame Cynthia.