Shires shine in production of Hairspray

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
DUET — Natalie Rush, left, sings alongside Noah Holmes during Houlton High School’s production of “Hairspray, the Broadway Musical.” Additional photos will appear in next week’s issue.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — A little taste of Broadway came to Houlton High School this past weekend with the stage production of “Hairspray, the Broadway Musical.”
    Set to the life of teenager “Tracy Turnblad” and her attempts to break down the barriers of segregation on a television dance show, the production focused on the music styles of the time, moving away from traditional 1950s music into the rhythm and blues of the 1960s. “Hairspray” is the tale of Turnblad, a plump and outspoken girl who lives in 1960s Baltimore. Turnblad attempts to fulfill her dreams of dancing on the Corny Collins Show and makes a few enemies in the process.
    Natalie Rush and Allyson Carmichael shared the lead role of Turnblad on alternating performances and delivered dynamic performances.
    “The production ran better than I could have hoped for,” said Jason Anderson, choral director. “Every aspect of the show went together with few flaws, and these kids brought an A-game that continues to make me incredibly proud. When we first started this process, the kids were very skeptical as to how we could pull off a show like Hairspray without a racially-diverse cast. I believe that focusing on the themes of inequality and social justice — instead of strictly race — made their performance successful, and their quality time and care taken to craft their characters sealed the deal.”
    Instrumentally, the production also posed a challenge for musicians in the orchestra pit.
    “There is so much great music in the show, that it was a fun challenge for our pit orchestra to perform,” said musical director Joe Fagnant. “We were very fortunate to have great musicians come together in a short amount of time to work with a fabulous group of kids.”
    He added the show dictated a large pit orchestra, complete with four horn parts, full rhythm section and three keyboard parts.
    “With such a large group, we knew it would be hard to fit in our location in the balcony as past shows allowed for,” Fagnant said. “I also felt that being closer to the kids would tighten up the musical presentation between the singers and the orchestra. The biggest difficulty is balancing a rock style band with kids’ voices. It was key for our sound person to really work with the microphones to make sure students could be heard. It was also part of our job to not drown out students, but support them musically and provide a ton of energy to the show. The music was a lot of fun, and there were tons of compliments from audience-goers on the high level of musicianship that came out of this show.”
    Following the massive success of last year’s production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” proved challenging.
    “Ticket sales were down a bit from last year, and if I had to speculate, I would say that people were relatively unfamiliar with this show as compared with ‘Beauty and the Beast,’” Anderson said. “This unfamiliarity surprised the cast and crew because of the popularity of the recent 2007 film within their social circles. Regardless of the box office receipts, however, this season of educational theatre was an incredible success, and were it not for my colleagues of like philosophy, such an educational experience could be lost.”
    “Out of the four shows, we had three shows near capacity,” added Fagnant. “Our Saturday matinee was a smaller crowd, but if we only did three shows, we would have easily sold out those shows and would have had to turn away over 200 people. So it was good to do four shows.”
    The cast included Dakota Gramour, Edna/Brad; Maxwell Bradshaw, Corny Collins; Mallory Clayton, Penny Pingleton; Jacklyn Condon, Velma Von Tussle; Mikaela Tuttle, Amber Von Tussle; Noah Holmes, Link Larkin; Phoenix Crockett, Seaweed J. Stubbs; Madelene Anderson, Little Inez; Haven Rhoda, Motormouth Maybelle; Keegan Fitzpatrick, Wilbur Turnblad; Caleigh Sullivan, Prudy Pingleton; Isaac Morse, Mr. Pinky/Harriman F. Spritzer; Tommy Hannigan, Gym Teacher/Fender; Autumn London, Matron/Donna; and students Kierra Carmichael, Erin Keehn, Adam Casillas, Lexi Bartlett, Lauren Hogan, Victoria Codrey, Connor Bulley, Ella Glatter, Tessa Winship, Danielle Provost, Amira Abouleish, Emma Reed, Makala Miller, Jill Howland, Laura Beals, June Choi, Morgan Nelson, Caila Keber and Jillian Moran.
    “Some people look to these kids for a Broadway-touring-production level of quality, but in the end, they’re our kids, and their growing and learning through this process,” Anderson added. “I couldn’t be prouder of the amazing job they did to share the story of Tracy Turnblad’s quest for equality with the theater patrons of Houlton.”