Blake Hammond Steps Into Edna Turnblad's Hairspray Housecoat May 30
By Kenneth Jones
30 May 2006
Blake Hammond, an actor respected in the Chicago and New York theatre communities for his acting and singing skills — and his larger-than-life presence — will step into the slippers of Edna Turnblad in Broadway's Hairspray May 30.
Hammond has been the understudy Edna/ Wilbur/Harriman F. Spritzer/Principal/Mr. Pinky/Guard in the Tony Award-winning production at the Neil Simon.
His Broadway credits include The Music Man, Kiss Me, Kate, On the Town, plus the Encores! concerts of Carnival and Do Re Mi (Encores!), and Off-Broadway's The Emperor (Promenade) and When Pigs Fly (also in Los Angeles; L.A. Drama Critics Award).
His national tours include Hairspray, The Lion King, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph…Dreamcoat.
Hammond won the Carbonell Award for appearing as Alexander Woollcott in the musical At Wit's End, about the founding of The New Yorker. He starred in Florida and Chicago productions of the musical in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He was Jeff Award nominated for At Wit's End in Chicago.
Writers Cheri Coons and Michael Duff said they wrote the role of Alexander Woollcott for Hammond. For it, he received the 2001 Carbonell Award as Best Actor in a Musical at Florida Stage.
In Hairspray, Hammond replaces John Pinette in the role of a zaftig Baltimore hausfrau who has to change with the time when her pudgy daughter breaks down social and racial barriers.
The current Hairspray company also includes Shannon Durig as Tracy, Jonathan Dokuchitz as Corny, Becky Gulsvig as Amber, Andrew Rannells as Link, Julie Halston as Prudy, Caissie Levy as Penny, Leah Hocking as Velma, Stephen DeRosa as Wilbur, Tevin Campbell as Seaweed and Darlene Love as Motormouth Mabel.
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