Hairspray is a cut above for Moraz

8 questions with Katharine Moraz

British actress Katharine Moraz, 24, has landed the biggest role of her young career playing Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with a heart of gold, in the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur tours of Hairspray The Musical.

She began acting professionally only in 2010 and her performance at the Esplanade Theatre next Thursday will be part of her first overseas tour.

She says: "Before this, I"ve only toured around the United Kingdom, so I'm very excited to go overseas. I've heard of a very good zoo in Singapore and the butterfly enclosure at the airport is something I really want to see."

Hairspray, which explores racism in America in the 1960s, is an award-winning Broadway musical inspired by the 1988 John Waters comedy film.

The stage hit also produced another film version (2007) starring John Travolta in drag as the chubby Edna Turnblad and Zac Efron as the heart-throb Link Larkin.

Though Moraz has snagged a plum role with Turnblad, she did not always want to be an actress.

She grew up in Kent, England, taking part in plays and performing with the choir and orchestra in school, but she never had the slightest inkling that her hobby would turn into a career.

She says with a laugh over the telephone from London, where she is based: "I was just the confident and outgoing one at school, or what some would call annoying."

The bubbly blonde stumbled into the performing arts full-time only when she was filling in her university application form and was left with one empty slot. On a whim, she selected the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

She says: "I went to audition, never thinking I'd get in and then I did get in and I sort of went, 'Oh, I really want to go now!'. I was lucky enough to be able to go and I really enjoyed it."

Since graduating in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in acting and musical theatre, she has snagged parts in plays on the London stage such as The Laramie Project, which is about the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

She was also part of two United Kingdom tours of the raunchy puppet musical Avenue Q in 2011 and last year.

In her latest outing with the production, which she says is a "fun, colourful show with great character and a really good message", she provided the voice and the puppetry for one of the lead characters, Kate Monster.

While Moraz's star has been rising, she is not very attached to a life on stage. "I've been really lucky so far, but who knows, I might never work again or I might get a job in Hollywood tomorrow, you never know," she says.

1. Can you tell us a bit more about the character that you are going to be playing, Tracy Turnblad?

Basically, she's a big girl with big dreams. She lives in Baltimore in 1963 and wants to dance on this TV show, but everybody tells her, "Oh no, you're too big, you're a bit chunky and girls like you shouldn't be on television".

But she tries anyway, falls in love with this guy and starts mixing with the black community. There's a lot of segregation in the 1960s in Baltimore and she ends up trying to integrate the TV show that she's on. The show as a whole is full of energy, really happy and exciting all the time, but with a really good message.

2. Do you see any part of yourself in Turnblad?

Well, she's happy a lot of the time, which I think is a bit like me. And she's very excitable and I'm quite enthusiastic, so that bit is quite similar as well. But she's a bit more girly than me, I think, she's besotted with somebody who dances on a TV show called Link Larkin. I'm not quite like that.

3. You say that Turnblad is a bit more girly than you. What are some of your hobbies outside theatre?

I write a lot of music because I'm a musician as well. I also like to read a lot. I'm not a tomboy, but Tracy is a lot more girly than me. I quite like running. I started running recently and I like baking cakes. That's quite girly though.

4. Were you a big fan of Hairspray before you auditioned?

Yes, I'd seen the show before when it was on at the West End in London and I also saw the show when it was on tour just before I auditioned.

I'd also seen the film and it was such a feel-good show, really fun, very colourful and vibrant. The songs are so catchy, you go home singing them the whole evening and when you hear them you just want to sing along.

5. What did you think of the movie version of Hairspray?

I like the movie, it's a little bit different from the musical, but it's still really good and it works very well. I loved John Travolta in it, he's hilarious. They've also got some extra songs in there, such as The Ladies' Choice which Zac Efron sings.

But the musical is different because it's an experience, you're there experiencing it live and so you can't help but be infected by the energy.

So as much as I love the film, I really enjoy doing the musical because you just get to have a good time with the people who have come to see the show.

6. You also mentioned that you write music. Can you tell us a bit more about the music that you write?

I'm in a band called Music Sunday and we tend to cover songs, but we always do something different. So if it's a pop song, we'll maybe make it jazz.

We play the instruments ourselves as well and everything is acoustic with the guitar, piano and ukulele.

We're all actors who went to school together and we put on a few gigs and concerts every so often, but it's difficult because we're away a lot of the time.

7. What is it about theatre and performing on stage that makes you keep going back?

What I really like about it is the energy and the rush you get. People talk about the adrenaline and the buzz that you get from doing it and I think that's what's great.

I also find I learn a lot about different situations in the world. For example, Hairspray is set in Baltimore and through researching the show, I also learnt more about Martin Luther King.

I was sort of drawn into that world, which before I only knew bits about, not all the ins and outs.

I really enjoy the history and culture of each of the settings of the shows and plays that I'm in.

8. How would you like to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered as someone who did her best and hopefully made people smile.

WIN TICKETS

Twenty readers will each win a pair of tickets, worth $320 in total ($160 each), to the Sept 30 show of Hairspray. Just answer a simple question.

Question: Yvents! is the organiser for Hairspray The Musical which is being held at the Esplanade from Sept 26 to Oct 1.

True or false?

Send your answer to yvents.info@gmail.com, along with your full name, NRIC number, date of birth, correspondence address, mobile number and e-mail address. The closing date for entries is Sept 24 at noon. Winners will be notified.

Book it

HAIRSPRAY THE MUSICAL

Where: Esplanade Theatre

When: Sept 26 to Oct 1, 8pm, weekdays, 3 and 8pm, Saturday and Sunday

Admission: $60, $90, $140, $160 and $230 from Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to www.sistic.com.sg)

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