Tantallon Community Players
I am a fan of John Waters and I love his classic film Hairspray, which really connected with audience in Baltimore familiar with the afternoon dance TV show featuring Buddy Deane (who cameos in the movie) and the growing Civil Rights movement that was bringing big changes to the country, and The Buddy Deane Show was a sort of microcosm of the United States, where station managers would not allow blacks and whites to appear together, but Deane saw the country changing and he broke away from ‘the norm’ and decided it was time to integrate his show. Quite a serious topic for the ‘Pope of Trash’ to tackle, but he did so with laughs, heart and a little of his trademark humor. As Waters himself noted, the most shocking thing about the movie was the PG rating.
And even more shocking was the idea to turn Waters’ low budget movie about Baltimore into a big Broadway musical. And audiences embraced the show, making it a hit that ran for almost six years with 2,642 performances, earning eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. The movie that became a stage musical then became a movie musical, and the show went on national and worldwide tours and began popping up in community theatres across the country, and was a live TV event on NBC. And now the Tantallon Community Players put their own spin on the musical.
The plot, in a nutshell, focuses on Tracy Turnblad, a chubby girl who wants more than anything to be one of the dancers on ‘The Corny Collins Show’ to get close to her TV crush Link Larkin. Tracy’s mother Edna doesn’t believe they’d put a girl like Tracy on TV, but when they do and she becomes popular, Edna is behind her girl 100%. But fame — and love — takes a back seat when Tracy realizes the injustice facing her newfound black friends, and sets about to change the complexion of the TV show. The musical stays pretty close to the source material (save for a strange scene that finds our heroine Tracy Turnblad alone in jail) and includes much of Waters’ original dialog. The musical also has a collection of terrific songs that stay in your head including Tracy’s signature tune ‘Good Morning, Baltimore’. Other memorable tunes include ‘I Can Hear the Bells’, ‘Big, Blonde & Beautiful’, ‘Without Love’, ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’ and ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat’.
This is my first visit to a Tantallon Community Players production and I have to say I was impressed with the scope of the production. The set consists of a series of large boxes on stage that rotate and open up to transform the stage from one set to the next. It’s a very ingenious idea for a space that doesn’t have all the amenities of a larger theatre. (I appreciated the concept because I had been in a play once that did the same thing.) I can’t say that everything ran smoothly during the press night performance, but I do want to be fair as what we saw was the pre-opening night dress rehearsal. There are a few bugs yet to be worked out but I’m confident everything will be smooth sailing for the two weeks of performances.
One of the issues we faced was sound, with the orchestra often drowning out key cast members and others who didn’t seem to be wearing mics (or they just weren’t turned on) making it impossible to hear some of the dialog. But the cast gave it their all. As Tracy, Theresa Cinatti was as bubbly as anyone can get and she did have a good voice — when I could hear her. But she imbues Tracy with a real sense of purpose, making her transition from lovelorn schoolgirl to Civil Rights activist believable. Kevin Buice has the unenviable task of taking on the role of Edna Turnblad, stepping into the house slippers of Divine, from the movie, and Harvey Fierstein, from the Broadway cast. Edna should be a showstopping role, but unfortunately Mr. Buice often seemed lost, occasionally forgetting lines and not quite up on the choreography. And he didn’t have some of the sarcasm in Edna’s early dialog that Divine brought to the role. He did really give a showstopping performance during Edna’s lovely number with husband Wilbur (Chuck DeLong), ‘Timeless to Me’. To be fair, it must be difficult playing to just a small handful of people in a large auditorium and only hearing a smattering of applause. I’m sure things will get juiced up with a full house.
Justin Carty was a fine Link Larkin, I enjoyed Jayne Zirkle’s Penny Pingleton (really evoking the movie version played by Leslie Ann Powers), and Amanda Dees was an appropriately villainous Velma Von Tussle (and looking like a gorgeous cross of Debbie Harry and Michelle Pfieffer). CJ Faulk wasn’t able to make much of an impression as Seaweed due to almost being completely overwhelmed by the orchestra (and looking much too old for the part), but the show did have a couple of standouts who stole the show every time they had a chance to sing. Sarah Jones, who plays Tracy’s nemesis Amber Von Tussle, has a great set of pipes on her. There was never an issue hearing her whether the orchestra was playing or not. But Jones makes sure you take notice whenever it’s her turn to speak or sing … as it should be for the character who believes she should be the center of attention at all times. Corisa Myers was also fabulous as Motormouth Maybelle, really getting into her first number ‘Big, Blonde & Beautiful’, and then raising the roof with the heart-wrenching anthem ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’. Myers pours all of her emotion into the number and shouldn’t leave a dry eye in the house. I don’t know how the cast manages to sit there and listen to her without breaking down. It’s a powerful song and Ms. Myers does it justice.
Last, but not least, I have to give high praise to director and choreographer Jonathan Jackson. Hairspray is a big show with a huge cast, several set changes and twenty musical numbers. Twenty! In addition to his technical duties, Jackson has also taken on the role of Corny Collins, giving himself a chance to show of his own vocal and dancing skills. The man is a quadruple threat. With his direction, he makes great use of the space and the limited set, he’s come up with some inventive choreography, and he’s getting good performances from his cast. Jackson is full of talent and he’s put it all on stage for Hairspray.
Behind the scenes, Jackson also handled the costumes which were terrific (I’ll overlook Edna’s Crocs). Wigs by Kristina Kelly were inventive but they really could use a bit more finesse and … hairspray before opening night. The show also features a full orchestra under the direction of Paul Rossen that really sounds like a million bucks. They are cranked up to 11, so if the sound crew can get them to maybe a 7 or 8 so they don’t drown out the performers, everything will be perfect.
The Tantallon Community Players’ production of Hairspray may not have been perfect, but there is a lot of potential there and I’m sure everything will be spot on during the regular performances. Even at 85-90%, it’s still a fun show with some great music, a topic that’s just as relevant today as it was in the 1960s, an energetic cast and a great director in Jonathan Jackson. Definitely a show worth your consideration. For tickets visit tantallonplayers.org.
Hairspray runs about 2 hours 15 minutes with one fifteen minute intermission. The show runs June 1 through June 10, 2018. Tantallon Community Players’ next production is The Addams Family opening September 21.
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