Don't Dent Her 'Do!
Jennifer Gambatese has appeared on Broadway in Footloose, A Year With Frog and Toad and in the original and current cast of Hairspray. Her other credits include off-Broadway's Reefer Madness and the European and North American tours of Fame. Gambatese appeared in the Goodspeed Musicals' production of All Shook Up, which is scheduled to come to Broadway in March. Here, she rhapsodizes about what else would you expect from a Hairspray star? hair!
__________________________________________________________
I've never had really long hair. It's been bobbed, banged, even permed--the last was back when my mother thought I needed a little something extra before I walked down the aisle as the flower girl in my oldest sister's wedding. Let's just say the encounter between my naturally wavy hair and the Ogilvy Home Perm was less than glamorous. At the time, it provided my brother-in-law with the opportunity to dub me "Little Orphan Jenny" and has since given my closest friends endless enjoyment in looking at my class photo from that time--with oversized pink glasses, a square almost bib-like collar, and the now infamous 'do. Said friends have entitled that photo, "Ohio's Youngest Real Estate Agent." But back to the fact that I've never had really long hair...
When I was little I actually used to take off turtlenecks over my head and leave them attached to the back of my skull--pretending to have a Rapunzel-like mane. Perhaps this yearning to transform the look of my locks is one of the things that led me to a life on the stage. You can imagine the great joy a girl like me would feel getting to be a part of the mother of all wigged shows: Hairspray.
My journey with Hairspray actually began back when I was making my Broadway debut in Footloose. It was then, in the spring of 2000, that I auditioned for the very first reading of what would become the "big fat gorgeous hit" of 2002. Interestingly, Footloose was a fun hair show for me as well! It was decided that my character in Footloose, Urleen the role originated by Kathy Dietch, who sang the you-know-what out of it!, would wear her hair really curly. So every night at my appointed time, I'd go down to the hair room and boy was I excited to be on Broadway where there was actually a hair department! and they'd put my hair in these tight hot roller rods that had a loop on the end so they sort of folded in on themselves. I called them "worms" and their resulting boingy curls were great fun! I found the curls and the various ways they styled my hair throughout the show informed my characterization of Urleen. I discovered that "boingy" was a really good adjective to describe her! They'd also added some blond highlights into my brown hair to make it "pop" onstage. I'd never "popped" before, and I must say I felt very cool indeed. Even cooler was the feeling when I got to go on as Ariel, the part I understudied normally played by the amazing Jennifer Laura Thompson. Besides the thrill of playing the good girl who's really got this wild streak, I'll never forget the feeling of the first time I went on and came out of the hair room. I had on the most beautiful long fall, and everyone just kept saying, "Wow." I felt different--sexy--transformed really. Little did I know then the transformations that awaited me in Hairspray.
As I said, I've been blessed to be a part of from the show from its very beginning. I was cast in the ensemble and was so excited to be part of such a great project. From the moment we heard the music, we knew we were involved with something very special indeed. In the ensemble, as Brenda--the Corny Collins council kid whose nine-month sabbatical from the show provides Tracy Turnblad with her chance at teenage superstardom, I got to wear a couple of the greatest character wigs ever: the first look was like a pompadour with pigtails and the finale look resembled a large phallus it's called a rocket--pretty clever to put the pregnant girl in that one! I left the show to transform myself into various woodland creatures in the delightful production of A Year with Frog and Toad. Those transformations were made possible by Marty Pakledinaz's fabulous costuming, but hopefully my acting choices helped. Then I got the chance to really test my powers of metamorphosis by returning to Hairspray as Penny Pingleton, the role Kerry Butler brilliantly created. It has been my immense pleasure filling those saddle shoes. What a part! You get to go from awkward gum-chewing geek to sexy soul-singing sistah in practically the blink of an eye. Would that adolescence was really that seamless! And from my good girl flip at the top of the show to "Barbarella" at the end, the hair really does make all the difference in the world.
Now I'm preparing to take on the biggest transformation of my career--originating the role of Natalie, a girl who pretends to be a boy named Ed in All Shook Up. It's terribly exciting and excitingly terrifying all at once. I know from our recent short run up at Goodspeed Musicals that once again hair has helped me out--as we continued to change the script from day to day, if I was at all confused about who I was being in a scene, I could look in the mirror and see if it was my beautiful, long Natalie hair or my Ed stubble staring back at me. Ah, the tricks of the trade!