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Hairspray
by San Diego Junior Theatre  The Show:Big hair, big dreams, and big belly laughs collide in Hairspray
– an outrageously funny and at times powerful musical that won a whopping eight
Tony Awards last year including Best Musical. One of the few musicals that
truly succeeds at all levels from great music, dancing, both a fun and
inspiring story. A story set in Baltimore during the early 1960s and centered
on Tracy Turnblad, a teenage girl who dreams of dancing on The Corny Collins
Show, Baltimore’s own television dance show. But she’s meeting some resistance
from a mom-and-daughter prima donna pair who poke fun at Tracy’s weight. And
she’s getting even stiffer resistance when she wants to integrate the
television show, eliminating the one-day-a-month “Negro Day” and making every day
“Negro Day.” The Production: San Diego Junior Theatre’s summer production is as big as
the hair (Francia Cohen on hair)
featuring fancy and splashy sets (Jay
Heiserman) and costumes (Lynn
Choplin), serving up a feast for the eyes. While the ears get wowed by an
all-star cast of local talents, many of whom making their swan song Junior
Theatre performance in Director Desha
Crownover’s terrific production. Kate Jamison is
our lovable heroine Tracy Turnblad, knocking out the big opening love letter to
Baltimore (which wraps up in a flourish that includes the flasher next door
flashing the backstage), and bubbling with unrelentingly positive determination
to get the boy (the likable Fred Strack
as Link) and drag her mom and the entire city into an enlightened new decade of
the 60s. Jordan Bunshaft is her amusing
mom-in-drag Edna who is horrified (but can’t stop listening) to creepy fashion
crank calls, and whose lack of self-confidence and abysmal self-image get a
hefty boost by her bold daughter and doting, joking husband Wilbur (played with
creative physical comedy by Morgan Stanley Gambucci
is the cool Seaweed who can lead a mean Run
and Tell That but can’t figure out the knots Penny’s mom (quirky Paige Pendarvis) used to tie up her
daughter, while Nicole Athill is Seaweed’s
mom Motormouth who leads the big, powerful I
Know Where I’ve Been. Their carbon copies are Casey Jaquez as a spoiled and vain Amber growing increasingly
frustrated with her love life, and her mom-from-hell Velma featuring a very
venomous and vindictive and racist Maddie
Shea Baldwin trying to keep those checkerboards in check. Keeping things hip and lively is Johnny Martin as charismatic Corny Collins, the dance show emcee of
a show that’s a sure hit with its ensemble of top-notch dancers, actors, and
singers who pay attention to every moment and opportunity for fun as they nail scene
after scene including the Steve Anthony-choreographed
numbers The Nicest Kids in Town, Welcome to the Sixties, The Big Doll House, Without Love, and the exhilarating finale leaving no doubt that You Can’t Stop the Beat. Performed July 29 - August 14, 2011 Photos by Ken Jacques Rob Hopper ~ Cast ~
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Hollingsworth), with the two delivering a charming duet of Timeless to Me. And as her best friend
Penny Pingleton, the hilarious Nicki
Elledge always has Tracy’s back even if she seems a little touched (like
saying “hi” to Tracy on her TV set with sweet, genuine, mentally unbalanced
affection) or a little distracted (ogling at Seaweed as she becomes a “checkerboard
chick.”)
Tracy Turnblad: Kate Jamison
Kayla Solsbak