SouthBendTribune.com – Karen Rivers
Local actor cast as Edna in national ‘Hairspray’
According to actor Jerry O’Boyle, there is a big difference between a man playing the part of a drag queen and a man playing the part of a woman.
He would know.
O’Boyle’s acting credits include Mother Superior in “Nunsense” and Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
“I seem to get this part a lot,” O’Boyle says, laughing. “Actually, I’m very comfortable with my feminine side.”
As of July, O’Boyle is once again donning a dress onstage — only now it’s in the role of a lifetime.
This May, the Nappanee resident was cast in the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical “Hairspray.” O’Boyle plays the hefty, scratchy-voiced, sweet-natured mother Edna Turnblad, a role made famous on Broadway by Harvey Fierstein.
The show just debuted in Atlantic City, where it will run though September. Then, it hits the road and stops at the Morris Performing Arts Center in February.
The 45-year-old actor is so happy about his sudden, enormous break, he can hardly find the words.
“I’m so excited I can’t stand it,” he says, just weeks before he left to start the show. “I’m absolutely floating on air.”