Shannon Durig

Hometown: Overland Park, Kansas. "They're very into theater back home. They know a lot about Broadway," Durig says. "They all just can't believe that a girl from Kansas is actually here. They're like, 'Alright, go Kansas!'"

Currently: Fighting for her right to dance as trend-setting and hair hoppin' Tracy Turnblad in Broadway's Tony-winning smash hit, Hairspray.

Twinkle Toes: Durig wasn't even walking long before she was dancing in a Kansas City-based childrens' performing troupe that had her performing in Spain and at the World's Fair by age 10. With big dreams, but not much acting experience, she left her Midwestern home after graduating from a small private high school to head to New York City to attend the musical theater conservatory, AMDA.

Get In Line: Nine months after graduating from AMDA and with a lone professional credit to her name, Durig took her spot in a line of girls that, "no joke--wrapped around the block four times," at an open call for Hairspray. "I had never seen the show," she remembers, "but I had heard that I was the right type for it. But there were so many people there! I thought this was never gonna happen." Much to her surprise, she landed a job as the standby for the lead character Tracy Turnblad, where she stayed for two years, honing her skills as a musical theater performer by watching pros like Tony winner Harvey Fierstein on stage every night.

Call My People: Durig credits her 18-plus years of dance training in getting her prepared to eventually take on a starring role on Broadway. "My mind kind of works through dance. I just kind of try to look at the part and photograph it in my memory and then just try to make it real," she says simply. When the hard-working actress received the call that she would be lifted from the ranks of standby to become Broadway's full-time Tracy, she "pretty much screamed and cried for about five minutes…and then we, you know, talked business," she giggles. "This is actually my first lead, ever," she explains. "I was like, 'I have lines? I'm not in the background?'"

Link Up: For many reasons, Durig feels extremely close to the part she plays on stage every night and considers it "the role of a lifetime." "I identify with everything about Tracy," she says emphatically. "I mean, I love dance. That's my main thing. Then also growing up, especially in the dance world, it was always hard being a chubby girl. People would try to discourage me--only to protect me--but I just knew that nothing was going to stop me. It's really everything about her right on through to Link," Hairspray's resident heartthrob. "I have a really cute boyfriend!"

Pepperoni Please: As Hairspray enters its fourth year on Broadway, Durig has become one of a long line of Tracy's who struggle to keep on the extra weight that's essential to play the zaftig teen, while still keeping up with Jerry Mitchell's demanding choreography every night. "It's so strange that I can go eat a pizza and not gain weight doing this role," she laughs. "Since I started the role full time I've lost a lot of weight. I can see it becoming a problem over the next year!" If worse comes to worse, though, Durig could always go the route of a number of smaller-figured understudies who have donned padding to play the role, a casting practice that has Durig slightly skeptical. "I mean, really everyone has certain insecurities that they can tap into to figure out what it feels like to be Tracy," she says. "But then again, no one can really imagine what it's like to be a chubby girl! I really feel like this role is a part of me."

See Shannon Durig in Hairspray at the Neil Simon Theatre, 250 West 52nd Street. Click for tickets and more information.