What Have You Seen This Week? (Or Recently?) Installment 1

            This week, I’m lovingly stealing the title for my entry from a segment belonging to one of my favorite podcasts, “Broadwaysted”, in which the hosts discuss whatever shows (movies, plays, musicals, or just some cool exhibit, but typically live theater experiences) they’ve seen since the previous episode. Why, you ask? Simply because I had my mind blown when FSU put on their own production of one of my favorite shows of all time: “Hairspray”.

            Listen, “Hairspray” is such a hand-clapping, leg-slapping, toe-tapping good time, I’m rarely going to be disappointed in it, regardless of who is leading the production, but the talent in this show was truly remarkable. There is not a single weak voice on stage—anyone and everyone who opens their mouth commands the attention of every last audience member from start to finish. The set design had to be one of the most well-constructed and transformative I’ve seen in quite some time. This is not an easy show to stage, with scenes occurring all over the city of Baltimore, inside and out, but the team at FSU managed to do so seamlessly and tactfully; it’s so easy to overkill the bright, bold styles of the 60’s, and they captured the style of the times beautifully without visually assaulting the audience. To top it all off, the entire stage was framed as a vintage television, which was brought into play perfectly for televised scenes but was still subtle enough to blend in during the “normal” civilian moments.

            As I mentioned, every person on stage seemed to be acting as though this was the last show of their lives, but I’d like to highlight two in particular who stood out for me: the actors playing Edna Turnblad and Seaweed J. Stubbs. I’d be more than happy to do an actor by actor in depth analysis, but 1) who wants to read that? and 2) I’ve GOT to get going on my errands soon. Alright, without further ado, and with as few spoilers as possible:

The young man playing Edna maintained impeccable comedic timing throughout the show in a role that, I believe, could be quite easy to portray as campy or over the top. He quickly establishes Edna as the loving yet slightly overbearing mother/hermit/housewife who, in this day and age, would probably use the phrase “ain’t nobody got time for that” on a regular basis. Right off the bat, we can see she makes this house go ‘round, and, while she is happy to do so since it keeps her out of the public eye, she is tired, probably has bunions, and has no time for your crapola. But it does not take long either for us to realize this character has some real depth and vulnerability—she’s going to be on this journey with Tracy until the end, and we can’t wait to see where all it takes us. Her dry sense of humor keeps you laughing through the final scenes, and the young man playing her balanced the humor and her vulnerability with the hand of a true artist.

As for Seaweed…the moment this actor walked on stage, you could feel the audience instantly wanted to know who he was. Seaweed’s charm captivated not just Penny Pingleton’s heart, but everyone in the audience. Audible (but politely hushed) comments could be heard regarding his charisma, others asking about the actor himself. But the crowning moment for me came with Seaweed’s opening number, “Run and Tell That”. The actor couldn’t even get the first note out of his mouth before everyone around me erupted into screams and applause that I thought would surely blow the roof off of the theater. To be fair, there was rarely a moment in this show that did not elicit an enthusiastic reaction from the audience—this was hands down one of the most responsive crowds I’ve had the pleasure of being in—but Seaweed seemed to have most everyone in the palm of his hand the night I was there. The actor captured the perfect mixture of a smooth-talking, magnetic personality with the approachable boy-next-door who has a taste for commanding his own revolutionary troops.

I wish I could tell everyone not to walk, but run to go see this show, but, unfortunately (or, fortunately if you’re in the cast/FSU fine arts department), every show is sold out for the rest of the run! Knowing that now, I’m not sure how I got lucky enough to see this show, but it was one of the best I’ve seen in quite some time. As the type of person who has no qualms seeing multiple performances of the same production, (I saw the local production of Newsies three times, local production of “The Wedding Singer” twice, and “Bohemian Rhapsody” in theaters…many times. We’ll leave it at that), I would absolutely spend money to see this show again and again.  

And, despite the lack of available tickets…I’ll still be calling the box office when they open on Tuesday. You know, just in case.