INTERVIEW: Kaelee Albritton on how ‘Hairspray’ offers perspective on the last two years
Photo: Hairspray will play April 29 to May 1 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by the State Theatre with permission.
When Kaelee Albritton and the other cast members of the Hairspray national tour first auditioned for their respective parts, they were living in a different world. It was early 2020 before the pandemic had hit, and they were hopeful to take this joyous and important musical on the road for audiences around the country. Then March 2020 happened, and the theater gods hit the pause button on their dreams coming true.
“So I was in line with everyone else for the open call and waited in that really, really infamous long line,” said Albritton, who plays the part of Amber Von Tussle in the show. “So I’ve been a part of the process really since March of 2020, and once everything went virtual was a part of the audition process until June of 2021. So it took a year and three months to finally get here, and then we started rehearsal in October of 2021. It was truly a wild ride.”
When Albritton and the company members — including Andrew Levitt as Edna Turnblad, Niki Metcalf as Tracy Turnblad, Sandie Lee as Motormouth Maybelle and Billy Dawson as Corny Collins — began performances of the national tour, they were faced with a theater world turned upside down by COVID restrictions and new protocols. Still, they soldiered on and made enjoyable, engaging musical theater. They bring Hairspray to the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from April 29 to May 1.
“It was definitely a different world because it was my first show that I had done in a COVID world,” Albritton said. “Luckily, we have such a great COVID management team here with us on Hairspray that always keeps us informed on what protocols are in place in certain areas so that we are also well-equipped for whenever we’re out and about during our daily lives as well, as well as being backstage with our local crews and everything like that. It’s definitely interesting, but nonetheless it’s still a blessing to be able to bring theater back into our world, whether we have to be masked or not.”
Albritton described her character as a high-energy teenage girl who thinks almost solely about herself. She is seen as the villain of Hairspray, the actor said, but this actually makes playing her a lot of fun. “Being blond myself, I typically get thrown into a lot of the stereotypical villain roles; however, it’s fun to be able to explore that and to make someone who is seen to be this really, really awful person into a real human being,” she said. “Maybe someone who may think the same way that she does can see that she’s able to make change as well.”
Joining Albritton on this theatrical journey is a cast of talented actors, many of whom are making their national tour debuts. She said that because of the events of the past few years, the company has grown quite close.
“It definitely brought a very special bond amongst all of us, and it really does feel like a family,” said Albritton, whose previous credits include regional productions of Chicago, The Wedding Singer and Now Recording. “[With] the Black Lives Matter movement, we have a whole new respect for this work and for each other that makes our community want to protect one another. … Living with each other, eating, sleeping and breathing with one another, and also in COVID times, where we are not able to fully enjoy going out into the world and doing everything, we more so stick with each other. We definitely have a very, very special bond with one another.”
The show, for those who have not seen either the original John Waters film or the Broadway musical or the cinematic adaptation of the musical, centers on a community in Baltimore in the 1960s. The plot follows Tracy Turnblad as she attempts to dance her way to stardom on a popular TV variety show. Along the way, she learns many lessons about family, relationships, race, discrimination, love and identity.
“We do have all of the beautiful, fun moments and all the glorious parts,” Albritton said. “And then we do get to address a lot of the realities of the world and what the story is really about. It’s really beautiful being able to celebrate our different communities within the show and having a different perspective on it than what we may have felt 20 years ago. It definitely makes the show feel a lot more fresh, and it’s really exciting being able to bring that to audiences across the country. But the audience will react to things that I never thought they would have reacted to, but I think with everything our world has been through in the past two years, this show hits a little differently than what it normally does. But it’s a very exciting thing, and it’s so, so overjoying to be able to see that the audience is enjoying watching it as much as we love doing it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Hairspray will play April 29 to May 1 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
