partial review of *Hairspray*

“Welcome to the ‘60s”: It may sound quaint, but Hairspray‘s anthem isn’t just a return to Beach Boys innocence. As shimmied and shouted in director Kirk Mouser’s Coeur d’Alene production, it’s a party-whoop celebration of freedom from prejudice and the sheer joy of living. The plus-size mother-daughter team, Edna and Tracy Turnblad (Roger Welch and Lindsey Hedberg) may have personified Dowdy and Dorky until now, but a revolution is underway, and the big girls, the black girls — and especially, the big black girls (like Deidra Grace’s Motormouth Maybelle) are going to get some respect and get it now.
The Dynamites (think: the Supremes) start harmonizing, some of those crazy kids from The Corny Collins Show start cavorting all over the stage, and soon Edna and Tracy are popping out of Mr. Pinky’s Hefty Hideaway in matching outfits: They’re here, they’re heavy, and they don’t give a hoot. “Welcome to the ‘60s,” like the show it encapsulates, is a joyous bitch-slap to the faces of snobs and bigots everywhere.
And that’s why people enjoy Hairspray so much: the unloved, unpopular, put-upon kid in all of us … she gets to stand up and sing! And dance! And make out in the backseat with that dreamy Link Larkin! Go, Mama, go-go-go!
With creative choreography, inventive direction, a tuneful score, plenty of energy and an anti-discrimination message, Hairspray (through Aug. 21) is clearly CdA Summer Theatre’s best production this season.

{This is the first half of the review that will appear in the 8/12/10 Inlander; photo by Young Kwak -- from left: Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad, Keyonna Vene Wright as Little Inez, Deidra Grace as Motormouth Maybelle, and Gabe Lawson as Seaweed J. Stubbs}

Hairspray welcomes you to the ‘60s on Thursdays-Saturdays, Aug. 12-14 and Aug. 19-21, at 7:30 pm, and on Sunday, Aug. 15, at 2 pm at NIC’s Boswell Hall, 1000 W. Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene. Tickets: $39; $35, seniors; $25, children. Visit cdasummertheatre.com or call (208) 769-7780.

*Hairspray* photos

Michael Tramontin as Link Larkin and Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad in *Hairspray* (by Mark O'Donnell, Thomas Meehan, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman), directed by Kirk Mouser at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, Aug. 7-21, 2010


Matthew Wade (center, with microphone) as Corny Collins, Michael Tramontin (left) as Link Larkin, Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad (next to Wade) and some of the Corny Collins Dancers in *Hairspray* at NIC's Shuler Performing Arts Center in Boswell Hall


Deidra Grace as Motormouth Maybelle (left), with Gabe Lawson as Seaweed J. Stubbs and Kasey Nusbickel as Penny Pingleton, in Kirk Mouser's production of *Hairspray*



Lindsey Hedberg as Tracy Turnblad, surrounded by the Dynamites, emerges from Mr. Pinky's Hefty Hideaway

(through Aug. 21 at NIC in Coeur d'Alene)

partial review: *Miss Saigon*

at CdA Summer Theatre through Aug. 22

... None of this kvetching, however, should deter viewers from taking in Mia Yoshida's transcendent performance in the title role. (She's even better than she was last year at Lewis and Clark High.) In addition, the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre production (through Aug. 22) features Kirk Mouser's directing skill along with some powerful singing voices and strong design elements.
Mouser directs a sleazy-decadent opening scene, set in a Saigon strip joint with plenty of hip thrusts and cigarette smoke. He wisely isolates Yvonne Same in a spotlight, caught amid all the strip club hubbub, for a simply delivered “The Movie in My Mind.” The other Saigon prostitutes and the Engineer — all they want is to escape to America, to the promised land where their idealized "Movie” keeps playing over and over. Kim is the only one who insists on escaping with honor and dignity.
Yoshida shows great acting range in the role: virginal shyness in the opening scenes, followed by dawning passion and maternal protectiveness later on. She wants a better life, but only on her own terms. In the "Sun and Moon" love duet, her voice is tender and yearning. Both in movement and in song, Yoshida portrays Kim’s anguish, wonder and determination. We’re always pulling for her — which, of course, only makes the final tragedy even more somber. (As Chris, Kim’s American lover, Dane Stokinger expressed his character’s tragic dilemma well in the climactic hotel-room confrontation. But Stokinger’s Chris seemed self-focused: less attached to Kim than worried about his own problems.)



Mouser opens Act Two with a simple staging of “Bui-Doi,” the humanitarian plea on behalf of all those Vietnamese children abandoned by American soldiers; the contrast to Chris’s compassion is subtly hinted at. The action scenes bustle with energy; the satiric set-pieces, full of over-the-top glitz, are both amusing and a bit sad. In a heart-tugging show, Mouser’s direction showed restraint in the right places. Still — and despite those ugly American tourists in Bermuda shorts and knee socks — he didn’t tease out all of the show’s humor. ...

... In the thankless role of Ellen, Chris’s American wife, Jessica Skerritt handles extreme emotions with subtlety. Statuesque but not remote, she transformed the hand-wringing of “Now That I’ve Seen Her” into a genuine dilemma.

(For the full review, pick up a copy of the Aug. 16 Inlander.)

(Photos by Young Kwak; second photo: Dane Stokinger as Chris and Mia Yoshida as Kim)