A former contestant from “Dancing with the Stars” recently opened up about what got her through difficult cancer treatments early in her career. Season 6 DWTS alum Marissa Janet Winokur shared her story during an appearance on the October 2 episode of the “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast.
The timing of her cancer diagnosis came as Winokur was pursuing her dream role on Broadway. She leaned into the songs from the show to get her through treatments.
Marissa Jaret Winokur Was Diagnosed With Cancer Before Landing Her Dream Broadway Role
Winokur, 52, explained that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2000. The diagnosis came as she was in the process of auditioning for the Broadway production of “Hairspray,” and she decided to keep her diagnosis a secret.
She explained she was “between the third reading and the fourth reading” of her “Hairspray” auditions when she discovered she was ill. Winokur had set her sights on the character of Tracy Turnblad, the central character in the production.
At the time, Winokur knew she had not yet landed the part. “I knew I had to fight for the role, because they were auditioning [other people] through all of this time.”
As a result, she explained, “I knew I couldn’t tell anybody I had cancer because if I told anybody, they would 100% replace me.”
Ultimately, Winokur landed the part in “Hairspray,” and she won a Tony Award for her performance in 2003. People previously noted that at the time of her diagnosis, Winokur was 27 years old.
She recalled that the producers “weren’t sure I was right [for ‘Hairspray,’]” and she was determined not to “give them a reason not to give me the part.”
Soon after the diagnosis, Winokur had part of her cervix removed. Not long after that, she learned she also needed a hysterectomy. She landed her dream “Broadway” role soon after that. “It was the best time of my life,” she recalled of her experience performing on Broadway.
While Winokur ultimately did not need to have chemotherapy, she did have other treatments and tests that she had to navigate. She recalled, “I would be doing treatments or MRIs, and I would just start at the beginning of ‘Hairspray’ in my head, and I would do the whole show. I would start at ‘Good Morning Baltimore.'”
“I would sing the whole show in my head and I’d be in there for, you know, sometimes three hours, sometimes four hours,” she explained. Winokur added, “I would try to remember what I forgot. I would just, in my head, work on the show.”
The DWTS Alum Believes Her Broadway Role Helped Her Get Through Cancer
Winokur “grew up wanting to be Ethel Merman,” she told People. She explained, “All my dreams, everything I wanna do, my purpose on this planet was to do musical theater. I grew up wanting to be Ethel Merman.”
In retrospect, Winokur shared on the podcast, her role on “Hairspray” is “what kept me healthy and strong and pushing through anything I had to get through physically…I was like, ‘I have to get better.'”
“My eye was on the prize, and everything shifted then,” she added. Winokur acknowledged, “Marissa before cancer and Marissa after cancer are, like, two very different beings.”
Her focus and dream shifted as a result of the cancer diagnosis. “Everything became so much less about being a Broadway star and more about living out my dream [and] purpose.”
Despite the pressure she felt at the time to keep her cancer hidden, she said during her recent podcast appearance that she understands. “Now that I am producing and directing, I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, I would 100% replace that girl if she’s like, ‘I might have to have a little surgery.’ I’d be like, ‘You’re replaced.'”
Winokur’s dreams have come full circle, as she explained to People in September. She is now directing a production of “Hairspray” in Thousand Oaks, California, and the show opens on October 10.
