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He's set to play hefty Baltimore laundress Edna Turnblad in the Music Circus production of "Hairspray," which opens Tuesday at Wells Fargo Pavilion for 12 performances.
Last year, he had the same role on Broadway.
"I went (to Broadway) with stars in my eyes," Vogt says. "You walk out on that stage, and it's ohmygosh, I'm on a Broadway stage, ohmygosh. I'm going to perform a lead role in a Broadway show, ohmygosh, I'm playing a woman.
"It was interesting to realize that doing it here in Sacramento is really no different than doing it in New York, except for the geography and maybe more money is put into the production in New York. You have to rehearse, you put a costume on, and there's an audience. It's just another show in another theater."
The Music Circus production will boast another Broadway "Hairspray" veteran in Tyler Hanes, reprising his role as heartthrob Link Larkin. In addition, Wilkie Ferguson (as Seaweed Stubbs) had the same role in the show's first national tour, and Inga Ballard (Motormouth Maybelle) was in the Broadway touring company of "Ragtime."
"See, it's like a mini-Broadway here," Vogt says.
Vogt was the sixth actor in six years to play Edna Turnblad on Broadway, replaced last October by George Wendt (Norm Peterson on "Cheers"). Harvey Fierstein was the first and won a Tony Award in 2003 for his portrayal.
The transvestite Divine originated the character in John Waters' 1988 movie, and John Travolta played her in last year's movie based on the Broadway musical. Vogt played Edna two other times, in Las Vegas and Boston.
"I don't know if this will be the last time I play her," Vogt says, laughing. "It may be, but it would be nice to be a guy, a biker guy who kills somebody on stage."
Vogt, who grew up near Buffalo, N.Y., was on Fox's "Mad TV" for three years and played another Edna, Edna Garrett from "The Facts of Life," on NBC's "The Rerun Show" in 2002. In June, Vogt and his identical twin, Peter, performed their improvisational show "Twin-Prov" at director Garry Marshall's theater in Burbank. The brothers are looking for other projects to work on together says Vogt, who will return to Los Angeles after "Hairspray" ends Aug. 28.
It's the final production in the 2008 Music Circus summer season.
The story takes place in 1962 in Baltimore. Edna's teenage daughter, Tracy Turnblad -- whose ambitions are bigger than her bouffant hairdo -- wants more than anything to dance on the televised and segregated "Corny Collins Show." Edna worries that the "cool" kids will mistreat her plump daughter. However, the irrepressible Tracy not only lands a spot on the show but manages to integrate it as well.
Vogt is borrowing elements of previous Ednas for his Music Circus debut but mostly found a muse in his own Aunt Shirley. The way his Edna answers the telephone -- "Yello! -- that's all Aunt Shirley.
"Edna is so much like women in my family," he says during a rehearsal break at the Sacramento Ballet studios. "I think everybody has an aunt or mother or neighbor that is like Edna. She's just a workin' woman who kinda tells it like it is. She had a dream and then realized she couldn't pursue it because she had to take care of her family. She's in love with her husband, who's kind of a crackpot, but that's what she loves about him. The store he runs doesn't bring in enough money, so she takes in laundry. It's the '60s, when it was the woman's job to take care of home and hearth."
If Wilbur Turnblad (played here by Dick Decareau) is the love of Edna's life, her pride and joy is Tracy (Joline Mujica).
Vogt will play Edna as a downtrodden woman at the beginning, leading up to her triumphant moment at the end.
"The show is written so well that, as an actor, it's fun to play her. The worse you look -- her back hurts, she's on her 9 millionth load of laundry, she's trying to protect her daughter -- the more you can let that come out, at the end she becomes the glamour queen of the entire show."
And although he claims that Broadway and the Music Circus aren't that far apart, that a job's a job, he's happier with Edna's bodysuit in Sacramento. It's much lighter and cooler than the 30-pound behemoth he wore in New York.
Custom-made for Vogt, the new suit is padded with Dacron batting, and Edna's ample bosom is filled out with buckwheat hulls, a popular filling for bed pillows.
"It's nice when a big kid gets to wear a fat suit," says Vogt, who is 6 feet tall and weighs "in the late 200s."
"Yep, ya gotta pad even me up to be a woman."
HAIRSPRAY
WHAT: Music Circus production, recommended for ages 14 and older
WHEN: Opens at 8 p.m. Tuesday and continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Aug. 26-27, 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Aug. 28, and 7:30 p.m. next Sunday.
WHERE: Wells Fargo Pavilion, 1419 H St., Sacramento
TICKETS: $41-$53
INFORMATION: (916) 557-1999, www.tickets.com, www.californiamusicaltheatre.com
PARKING: City of Sacramento's Memorial Garage, 14th and H streets. Limited street parking.
COME EARLY: Walk around Capitol Park at the state Capitol, 10th and L streets, and note the memorial grove planted in 1897 with saplings from Civil War battlefields.
DINING NEARBY: Brew It Up, 801 14th St., (916) 441-3000; Mason's, 1116 15th St., (916) 492-1960; The Melting Pot, 814 15th St., (916) 443-2347; Morgan's Central Valley Bistro at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, 1230 J St., (916) 341-4100.
AFTER THE SHOW: Sweets at Rick's Dessert Diner, 2322 K St., (916) 444-0969.
To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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