Goodbye beard, hello Edna: The transformation of Shane Jacobson

Talking points

• Hairspray is a musical set in 1962 Baltimore, where young Tracy Turnblad tries to crash through race barriers on a TV music and dance show.  
• The show premiered on Broadway in August 2002 and spawned a film adaptation in 2007. But the origin was John Waters’ 1988 movie (not a musical).
• Tracy’s mother Edna has always been played by a man: Divine in Waters’ film; Harvey Fierstein to launch the stage show; John Travolta in the 2007 movie. 
• Shane Jacobson is best known as a knockabout bloke who loves cars, but he says he’s been donning dresses since he was a kid. 
• This production will move to Adelaide when it closes in Melbourne, then to Sydney early next year.

The transformation of Shane Jacobson into Edna Turnblad, the housebound matriarch of the stage show Hairspray, is meant to take about 25 minutes, but today runs closer to an hour. It’s the first dress rehearsal for the musical set in 1962 Baltimore, and Jacobson isn’t just going the full Edna, he’s also got to get rid of the full beard before the makeover can even begin.

“There’s a small team of panel beaters that come in and make this happen,” he says while meticulously running an electric shaver over his face to remove every last bit of stubble.

Shane Jacobson emerges as Edna Turnblad at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne, for Hairspray.Credit:Chris Hopkins

Jacobson, who is best known for his knockabout turns as dunny plumber Kenny and pie-munching cop Barry in Jack Irish, as well as his love of muscle cars, will spend a good chunk of the next few months with make-up artists and costumiers in this poky sliver of a room backstage at the Regent Theatre, a building where all the grandness is definitely out front.

“I feel naked without a beard, I really do,” he says as the last of his shadow disappears, until 5 o’clock tomorrow anyway. “If I could grow hair over my eyes and nose, if I could be Teen Wolf, I would.”

Now make-up artist Beth Haywood can start work. First she makes his eyebrows disappear – not for good, just beneath a healthy daubing of wax. Then the foundation goes on, lots of it. Next are the false eyelashes, the eyeliner, the lipstick. Finally, it’s time for the wig – and today it’s Edna’s glamorous outdoor do, the one she dons when she finally manages to overcome her shame over her body size and leave the house.

But even for a natural showman like Jacobson, some things are off limits, and we’re ushered from the room at this stage; apparently being photographed while stripped naked so he can slip into a female bodysuit is where he draws the line. Funny that.

Edna has always been played by a man, from Divine in John Waters’ 1988 film to Harvey Fierstein in the original 2002 Broadway production, to John Travolta in the 2007 film based on the musical based on the film. But according to Matt Lenz, who was associate director on that first Broadway show and is in Australia to direct this revival, which opens on the 20th anniversary of its New York debut, it is not really a drag role.

“I think it’s an acting role. It just happens to be played by a man,” he says. “Over the years we’ve thought, ‘Well, why don’t we just cast a woman?’ But the John Waters aspect of it, that slightly warped perception of the world, would somehow be lost.”

As it happens, the Edna role in the touring US production that Lenz mounted last year is played by a drag performer, Andrew Levitt, who appeared as Nina West on season 11 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. But, Lenz says, “Andrew came in and absolutely said the same thing, ‘I want to play this as an actor’. Though obviously, he already knew how to walk in heels.”

As the dressing room door opens, Jacobson emerges, fully transformed into Edna, heels included.

He’s had some practice, he confesses. As a kid in Avondale Heights, he lived above his mother’s costume hire and calisthenics business, “and invariably I’d end up going to parties with my sisters in a dress and make-up. This is not my first rodeo in a dress.”

But, for all the magic of hair and make-up, “I don’t want to ‘play the wig’. My job is to be Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s loving mother and Wilbur’s loving wife.”

It’s a good rule of thumb, adds Lenz. “You don’t start with the heels. You don’t start with the comedy or the fake boobs. You start with the heart.”

For all the fun and levity and occasional absurdity of Hairspray, it’s a tale with a serious centre. Edna’s daughter Tracy – played in the Australian show by newcomer Carmel Rodrigues – finds herself at the heart of a civil rights battle after trying to integrate the audience at her favourite TV music show.

Though the odd line hasn’t aged all that well and needed to be tweaked, reviving it after a decade offstage as the US emerged from COVID felt incredibly timely to Lenz, and to the audiences who have guaranteed it will tour for at least another two years.

“This is a show that speaks to hope that we can all maybe get along a little better, be nicer and take care of each other, and I’m so happy to be a part of getting this message out into the world.

“As Tracy says, ‘I just don’t understand why we can’t all dance together’,” Lenz adds. “Bottom line, it’s that simple – or it should be.”

Hairspray is in preview now and officially opens at the Regent Theatre on Monday, August 15. It moves to Adelaide in December and Sydney in February 2023. Details: hairspraymusical.com.au

Email the author at [email protected], or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin.

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