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Tracey with Motormouth, Wilbur and Edna and the
cast of Hairspray. Pictures: Ellie Kurttz Hairspray The New Alexandra Theatre HAIRSPRAY is a fun musical with a heart -
and with the nearest the Americans have come to a pantomime dame with
Edna Turnblad - and it arrives in Birmingham this week as the Alex’s
Christmas cracker. It has well defined goodies and baddies, a simple
cause, miscarriage of justice, enjoyable songs and, after all the trials
and tribulations, a happy ending so what more could you ask for as a
festive alternative to a traditional panto. Fun, fluffy and pink, the musical is based on
John Waters 1988 film, which in turn is based on real events – racial
integration in the USA was Baltimore’s Corny Collins show in the musical is
based on the city’s Buddy Deane show where the teenagers were all white
– except every other Friday when they were all black, Baltimore’s very
own version of Black Fridays I suppose. Edna was played by long-time collaborator with
Waters, Divine. It was the Baltimore-born, drag artist’s penultimate
film - he died of an enlarged heart three weeks after the film’s
release.
Donning the frock in
the current UK tour is Benidorm’s,
or to be more accurate, Kirkby’s Tony Maudsley, a regular on TV and in
films, and he was at first reluctant to take on the role. “It’s great,
out of the comfort zone for me, I haven’t done musicals theatre for 18
years and I was a bit reluctant at first, through fear mainly, fear
about coming back to the theatre, about whether I still the skill to do
it. “But then it all came back to me, it’s like
riding a bike I suppose and I have been lucky in one way that I have
been working in film and TV for 18 years. It meant and I was never
available for theatre though. “The last theatre I did
was The Anniversary
with Sheila Hancock in the West End and that was 12 years ago and the
last musical was South Pacific
18 years ago with Rusty Lee when we passed through this very theatre.” We are used to men in frocks every year about
this time, oh yes we are and all that, and Maudsley is well aware of
that. He said: “I steer as far away from panto damedom as I can. You
come on in a dress so you are surfing dangerously close to panto dame as
soon as you walk on stage; t His return to live theatre has been an
experience. “The roar of approval at the end every night nearly blows
you off the stage and you go home at night with your ego so inflated . .
. it’s wonderful. It’s like a drug.” Maudsley watched the young talented cast in awe
in rehearsals - and watched the dancing with trepidation. “My body has
finally taken over from my brain but it has been an absolute nightmare,”
he laughed. “I am not a natural dancer”.
“You rehearse in trainers and shorts and then
four days before it opens they slap a 25lb sequinned dress and high
heels on you. A fat suit - and I am a big guy anyway, 20 stone and 6ft
4in - so to have that extra layer was like going to work with a duvet
wrapped round me. “And with the wig on and heels I am about 7ft
against Peter is about 4ft 2in.” Peter is Peter Duncan, ex-Chief Scout and two
time Blue Peter Presenter whose wide and varied career started at the
National Theatre with Sir Laurence Oliver working with some of the
finest acting and directing talent around. Duncan plays Wilbur,
Edna’s husband, it is a hugely varied career which has seen him
producing, writing directing and appearing in panto – a family tradition
at the Oxford Playhouse and mosre recently touring in the drama,
Birdsong. He started off as an actor, had two stints in
Blue Peter and has recently taken up theatre again. “I am loving it.
There is a lot of vitality with a young cast and I am trying to arrange
walks and book club and more mature pursuits in down time. But they
don’t have downtime!” Loudest in the show, by several decibels is
Brenda Edwards who plays Motormouth Maybelle, the owner of the downtown
record store. Edwards came to notice
as the last woman standing in X-factor, 2005, since when she has
developed a West End career but this is a role she has always wanted to
play wit It is the show’s only serious song, a gospel soul
power ballad blowing away all the fluff, froth and fun for a few minutes
with is message or hope. She said: “I have always wanted to play the role.
As the tour goes on it is getting stronger and stronger. You have to
find yourself in the character and be true to the character. “It is a beautiful song and it is all about
delivering the message, when people sit up and see this is what it all
about.” And people are sitting up and appreciating it.
“It is really positive when we see people enjoying it and smiling as
they are going out going out - it makes us feel good. If we know the
audience are loving the show it feeds the energy even more.”
Edwards, with an easy laugh, reckons she has been
blessed with her powerful voice, and if you wanted an example of a voice
born for soul, look no further. “I was brought up in up in the gospel
church and you can’t get better training that that.” It is a voice you can
hear on her CD Bring it Back,
recorded live with her band, a self-penned soul album apart from one
Queen track, Another One Bites the
Dust. She loves live performance, and sees every show
as different – a different audience every night means a different show
every night. “People are paying their money to come and see the show and
I want to make sure my performance is the same as it was yesterday, and
the day before yesterday, I want people to enjoy the show just as much
as I enjoy delivering the performance. “More people should come to the theatre and enjoy
it and there are so many different experiences to be had.” Leading the baddies (boo and hiss) is Velma Von
Tussle, producer of the Corny Collins Show, casual racist and pusher in
pursuit of stardom for her daughter Amber – at the expense of Edna’s
well-upholstered daughter, Tracy, the herioine, played by Freya Sutton. Enjoying being the baddie is Claire Sweeney who
might have been Lindsay Corkhill in Brookside to telly addicts but is a
well-seasoned West End actress and musical theatre star with a host of
hit shows under her belt. She said: “I have done baddy in pantomime but
this is the first time I have played a mum on stage and the first time I
have been completely evil – and racist! It’s the first time I have
played a
“It’s a good part but I have big shoes to fill,
Tracie Bennet won the Olivier for it and she came to our opening night
so I was most intimidated, but it is a fun part. “It is the most talented cast I have ever worked
with. A lot of them are young, straight from college and everything is
exciting to them and to have that freshness and enthusiasm around you is
infectious, it’s great.
Claire Sweeney has a
great fondness for Birmingham – she went out with West Brom keeper Alan
Miller for a while so spent a lot of time in and around the city - and
has toured in the Midlands regularly with her own, one woman show,
Sex in the Suburbs
as well as
Educating Rita with Matthew Kelly,
Tell Me on a Sunday, September in the Rain, Legally Blonde
and so on. Meanwhile Claire is looking forward to another
aspect of the show, or at least the Alex . . . the close proximity of
the new Grand Central shopping complex at New Street Station. Even a
baddy has to shop . . . This is a new production with new musical arrangements and new choreography from rising dance star Drew McOnie and the show is directed by Paul Kerryson former artistic director of the celebrated Curve Theatre in Leicester. It runs to 2 January next year. Roger Clarke |
still a long way away in the 1960s when black and white teenagers could
be seen dancing on a popular TV dance and music show – but not together
nor on the same show.
he
challenge is to win them back, to not go down that road and to give them
some real emotion and hopefully stop them thinking you are a man dressed
as a woman and just see the character.”
h
her emotional rendition of the civil rights anthem 
racist,
which is pretty shocking, but she is just so shocking that she is funny.