Recently TeenVoice sat down with actress Marissa Perry, who may be best known for playing Tracy Turnblad during the Broadway run of the hit musical Hairspray. Marissa is also an original cast member of the musical Princesses and currently stars in The Marvelous Wonderettes at the Seven Angels Theater in Waterbury, CT. TeenVoices submitted over 1,500 questions for Marissa, we picked the most popular and sat down with her on the set of The Marvelous Wonderettes.

Alegra in Houston, Texas wanted to know about Marissa's first time on stage. Turns out Marissa was pulled up on stage at the bright young age of four by her mom, Joyce, who is also a performer. "She pulled me up on stage and asked me if I wanted to sing something for the audience," recalls Marissa. "I decided to sing was 'All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.' Ever since then I've been performing and thankfully I've had my mom and my dad as role models to watch."

Broadway Actress Marissa Perry answers questions from our TeenVoices.

Another popular TeenVoice question - submitted by Nelson in Alexandria, Virginia and many others - asked Marissa how she got started in show business. At the age of 18, Marissa moved to New York City and was fortunate enough to quickly land an agent. This gave her access to private auditions and within two weeks of being in the Big Apple she had landed her first professional job - a reading with a new musical called Princesses. She performed in the world premiere of Princesses at Goodspeed's Norma Terris theater in Chester, CT. She then went on to be a part of the original cast in the pre-Broadway tryout of Princesses at the popular 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, WA.

Many TeenVoices, including Shadaina in Miami, Florida, were interested in how Marissa landed the lead in Hairspray. Marissa explains that she appeared in one of the first regional theatre productions of Hairspray at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont. Someone close to the Broadway production saw Marissa and thought she would be a good fit for the Great White Way.

"I was driving in the car, my agent called my phone and I had just finished my audition with Hairspray," said Marissa. "I knew that the call was getting was either going to be really great news or really bad news. I knew they were going to either offer me the job in Hairspray or tell me that they were going to pass." Perry decided to not answer the phone and let it go to voicemail. Once the voicemail indicator popped up on her phone, she decided to pull over and listen to the message. "I didn't even finish listening to the message. All I heard was 'Marissa, they're offering you the standby role on Broadway in Hairspray' and I threw my phone at the windshield and I burst into tears...it was one of the most incredible moments of my life."

What people may not know is that Marissa first spent some time on Broadway playing the standby for Tracy Turnblad before taking over the lead role for herself. For those not familiar with professional theater, the role of a standby performer is just like it sounds. The standby is backstage at every show, literally 'standing by' to go on for the role they're covering in the event that anything goes wrong with the actor performing the role that night. After spending some time as Tracy's standby, Marissa moved on to play the lead role of Tracy Turnblad eight times a week for New York audiences.

"It was very fun," Marissa tells TeenVoice Summer in Oceanside, CA, when recalling her time on Broadway. Perry enjoyed growing with and developing her character and meeting people outside the stage door every night. She recalls her most memorable moments on stage were with Harvey Fierstein, who originated the role of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. She described him as always being in the moment, very "organic" and her excitement that she never knew what he was going to do next.

Finally, Lauren in Chicago wanted to know what Marissa had planned for the future. "I am going to be here at the Seven Angels Theater in Waterbury, where I grew up, doing The Marvelous Wonderettes with a group of amazing women until the end of October. Then I just found out that I'm going into an Off-Broadway show called My Big Fat Gay Italian Wedding. It's kind of an improvisational play...I'm really excited about it. I haven't done a straight play in a long time and it's a comedy."

We would like to thank our TeenVoices for their great questions and Marissa Perry for taking the time to talk to us. If there is a TeenVoice celebrity interview you'd like to see, let us know by filling out the form on our contact page and submitting your idea.