While character actor Richard Kind is perhaps best known for his many supporting parts, he will be stepping into a leading role as Edna Turnblad in The Muny’s production of Hairspray, on stage at the Forest Park theater from June 15-21.
Kind has built a career on memorable supporting performances across TV shows (Spin City, Only Murders in the Building, Documentary Now!), films (Inside Out, A Serious Man, tick, tick… BOOM!), and more recently as John Mulaney’s sidekick on the talk show Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney. But in his Muny debut, Kind will take on a leading role.
Stay up-to-date with the local arts scene
Subscribe to the weekly St. Louis Arts+Culture newsletter to discover must-attend art exhibits, performances, festivals, and more.
Fresh off of a seven-week run playing Max Bialystock in The Producers on the West End in London, Kind will be stepping into the large shoes of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, based on John Waters’ 1988 film of the same name. Edna is the concerned-yet-supportive mother of Tracy Turnblad, the show’s lead, who navigates growing up in Baltimore in the 1960s.
Kind can expect a short and intense rehearsal regimen when he gets on the ground in St. Louis, but the actor is excited by the challenge of taking on a role he’s never played before performing it live for The Muny’s massive audience.
“This is everything I want,” Kind says. “Doing a great role in a great musical like Hairspray, and it’s only seven performances, this is fantastic. It’s a dream come true.”
Kind joins a long lineage of great actors who have inhabited the role of Edna Turnblad, including Waters’ eternal drag queen muse Divine, who played Edna in the original film; Harvey Fierstein, the raspy-voiced theater legend who originated the role on Broadway in 2002; and John Travolta, who played her in the 2007 musical remake film; among so many others. In fact, Kind was originally approached about auditioning to replace Fierstein in the original Broadway run, but decided against it.
“They asked me to come in to audition, and I said, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t be better than Harvey. I can’t even be as good as Harvey. I don’t know how they’re going to do it,’” Kind says. “Well, needless to say, many people have done it. Back then, I just didn’t think I could do it. I couldn’t serve the piece the way that I’d like to. I turned the audition down, and I never turn auditions down.”
But now that some time has passed, Kind jumped at the chance to take his own shot at playing Edna.
“When The Muny announced that they were doing Hairspray, I called my manager, and I said, ‘They don’t know me, but throw my hat in the ring and see if they want me,’” Kind says. “And immediately I got a phone call back.”
Kind says that the heart of his performance will come from focusing on how much Edna loves her family—something his friend Michael McKean shared about playing the role on Broadway—and building his take on the character from there.
“Others before me have kinda set the stage for me, and I could just do it with the voice I’m going to do,” Kind says. “I’m not going to do Harvey, I’m not even going to sound like a woman, I don’t think. I’m not going to put on any sort of voice, I’m going to have a little bit of an accent, but I am going to love my family.”
He is quick to note that the venue where he recently performed The Producers was only a 700-seat theater, which is quite a bit more intimate than The Muny’s 11,000 seats.
“I’m not used to performing for a crowd this big,” Kind says. “This is going to be thrilling. It’s a whole different experience. It’s like the difference between being on a telephone and being on a football field and having a conversation. The acting muscles you use are all different. I am so looking forward to it.”
Taking on these kinds of challenges and getting to collaborate with other actors is part of what makes acting so fun for Kind, and why he’s spent decades making a career out of it.
READ MORE: Muny announces 108th season
“I get to go into the sandbox with like-minded people, usually, who say ‘Come on, let’s have fun, let’s play pretend, let’s act like children,’” Kind says. “What a wonderful way to be. And you laugh a lot of the time while you’re doing it. You’re not just taking something, you’re creating. It’s amazing.”
Whether as a character actor on screen or a lead onstage, Kind has had the opportunity to work with so many great comic minds, joking that he rides the coattails of many geniuses. He believes that this kind of collaboration ultimately makes everyone involved better for it, like steel sharpening steel.
Even though it is only a short engagement, Kind sees his time at The Muny as a dream come true. Not only does he finally get his chance to be Edna, but at an iconic institution and for more audience members than nearly anywhere else.
“It’s really checking off two bucket list items,” Kind says. “I get to play Edna in Hairspray, and I get to perform at The Muny. It’s a perfect job. Except that we only have 10 days of rehearsal, and I’m scared.”
