BROADWAY Wig wizard puts hair in 'Hairspray'

Dedicated performers risk their necks when they put on their wigs.
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Natalie Hill is an attractive young woman, but at the moment she looks like the Bride of Frankenstein. Bug-eyed, teeth bared, she glares into the mirror at the object of her fury: a towering clump of hair that resembles a nut-brown forest animal clinging to her head.
"Owwwww! Omigosh, this wig's gonna kill me!" Hill whisper-screams as she springs from her seat, seconds before her entrance cue. "I think my brain's bleeding!"
Hill belongs to a dedicated army of bizarrely bewigged performers that make "Hairspray" a memorably hairy Broadway hit.
Based on John Waters' 1988 film, "Hairspray" transports us back to Baltimore, circa 1962. It's the era of big hair and bigger dreams. Tracy Turnblad, the story's heroine, is a chubby, chirpy teen with three burning ambitions: to star in Corny Collins' popular TV dance show, to break down Baltimore's unwritten laws of racial segregation, and to land her high school's most lusted-after hunk, Link Larkin.
Will she pull it off? This is a feel-good fantasy directed by the Old Globe's Jack O'Brien, someone who knows how to tell a good Cinderella story (he's the brains behind "The Full Monty"). What do you think?
Scads of hair
Hair -- oodles of it, piled to the sky -- is the unbilled star of the show. To create hyped-up Broadway versions of an already excessive chapter in coiffure history, O'Brien turned to the best wig man in the business, Paul Huntley. His resume, bulging with 166 Broadway credits, stretches back to 1973 and includes some of America's most beloved (not to mention hirsute) shows, including "Cats" and "Amadeus."
In person, the soft-spoken, septuagenarian Englishman comes across like a kindly, retired uncle from a BBC series.
"Oh, I don't remember most of them," Huntley said of his creations. The wig wizard and his seven-person New York team spent several months making "Hairspray's" wigs (he can't recall how long exactly -- "we're always working on several shows at once"). He claims to prefer more subtle assignments. "I love it when somebody tells me, 'I didn't even know that character was wearing a wig."'
But Huntley's British reserve melts into enthusiasm when he talks about "Hairspray."
"These styles are very reminiscent of the 18th century in a way. Marie Antoinette wore those high, powdered wigs with huge frames underneath to make them even more exaggerated. That kind of outlandishness was at play in the '60s as well." He laughed. "I was there. I remember."
Half the story
Creating the wigs is only half of the "Hairspray" hair story.
Huntley's designs wouldn't achieve their gravity-defying heights without the aid of skilled hairdressers. That's where Joy Marcelle comes in. The veteran hair and makeup supervisor heads a team of five who spend several hours before each show washing, conditioning, drying, curling, teasing and shaping every wig.
"I'd be lost without this," Marcelle says in her sing-song Trinidad accent as she hefts a thick white binder labeled "The Hair Bible." It's crammed with color photos showing how each wig is supposed to appear from several angles. "Paul is very concerned about keeping the look exactly the same from show to show, no matter where we are or who's preparing the wigs."
"This is a very challenging production," said company manager Steve Quinn as he watched the hair crew perform their sprint lap -- 11 wig changes, plus an elaborate hat, in 14 minutes. They were oblivious to the controlled chaos around them. Stage hands hoisted bulky set-pieces high into the air and glided others soundlessly into position.
"Hairspray" even has its unique hazard, Quinn said.
"We call it wig-lash. When you're dancing and you spin your head, it can really throw your neck and back out. As long as your wig is centered, you're fine."
Rehearsal includes special wig movement classes for the dancers. Despite such precautions, one dancer was forced to leave the tour with a neck injury; her hairpiece was the culprit.
Still, "Hairspray" isn't the wiggiest show Quinn has managed. "'Les Miz' had over 100 wigs. 'Phantom' had almost 140." Quinn heaved a long sigh at the memory. "Now that was a big, big hair show."