Peters Loses To Newcomer

“Seldom on Broadway does a kid topple an icon, but Bernadette Peters, musical theater’s top female box office draw, lost the top prize to newcomer Marissa Jaret Winokur, the bubbly fat girl who stars in “Hairspray.” In the past, Peters has usually bested the competition, once even picking up a Tony for “Annie Get Your Gun” in which she was hilariously miscast. But in the case, the kid benefited from the icon’s enduring difficulties playing Momma Rose, the ferocious stage mother who turned her mousy daughter into the celebrated stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee.”