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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Philo’s having fun in Baltimore

IT’S obvious from the gurgles of joy that the director Jarrad West and co-choreographer Amy Fitzpatrick are having a disgracefully good time on the coming Canberra Philharmonic Society production of the musical “Hairspray”. 

Originally made famous as the 1988 John Waters cult comedy film, it was later made into a Broadway musical. Waters was mortified when it turned into something so mainstream.

“It has to be 1962, it has to be bubbly, bright and colourful,” West tells me, but he also reflects on a time when black and white relationships in the US were being tested, seen here when the main character, Baltimore teenager Tracy Turnblad, stands up against racial segregation.

It’s one thing to cast “Hairspray” in Sydney or Melbourne, but West and Fitzpatrick were worried as to where the necessary black cast members might come from. As West reports, “they just appeared and auditioned”, many of them students from Francis Owusu’s community arts organisation Kulture Break.

If you don’t know the story of “Hairspray”, don’t worry too much. Pleasantly obese Tracy is dying to dance on the Corny Collins TV show. She succeeds, falls for the hunk Link Larkin (Zack Drury) and vice versa, and defeats her detractors.

Max Gambale gets to play housewife Edna Turnblad, originally created for the late drag star Divine and once played by John Travolta. Will Huang (“the best male voice on the Canberra stage”, West says) plays Corny Collins and the musical direction is by Rose Shorney.

As befits the time and the title, the hairdos will be huge.

As for the set, “we’re pushing the Erindale Theatre to its limits,” West says. “It has to show the streets of Baltimore, inside a house and on a TV set.

Krystal Innes, who plays Tracy, is trained in jazz and opera. She was one of the five shortlistees for the role in the 2010-2011 professional production.

West and Fitzpatrick have inserted a lot of “in” jokes into the action, but at this point the gurgles of amusement take over. West does give me one hint – “watch out for the three gay sailors,” he warns.

“Hairspray”, Erindale Theatre, August 16 to September 1, bookings to www.philo.org.au or 6257 1950.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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