At 6 years old, Nick Cortazzo turned to his grandmother during the intermission of his first musical theater show and said, “This is what I want to do with the rest of my life.”
The Baldwin Borough native knew what he wanted and quickly started taking steps to achieve that dream. He acted in theater productions at J.E. Harrison Middle School and Baldwin High School, participated in Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s pre-college program and, even after leaving the Steel City, came home often to do Pittsburgh CLO shows like last year’s “Wizard of Oz” at Heinz Field and “A Musical Christmas Carol” at the Byham Theater.
Next week, Cortazzo will be back in Pittsburgh for the first time as part of a nationally touring production. Yinzers will be able to catch him as Link Larkin in “Hairspray,” the peppy 1960s-set musical about a group of Baltimore teens dancing their way toward a better society, at the Benedum Center Jan. 3-8. Tickets are available via trustarts.org.
“If you would’ve told me then that at 23 I would be leading a national tour going through my hometown, I would’ve said you were crazy,” Cortazzo told the Union Progress. “To be here and coming home this close to graduating college is wild.”
“Hairspray” follows Tracy Turnblad (Niki Metcalf), whose main ambition is earning a permanent spot as a dancer on “The Corny Collins Show.” That local dance showcase is ruled over by producer Velma Von Tussle (Addison Garner), who is all about spotlighting Baltimore’s young talent — as long as they’re thin and white. Tracy’s moves are not to be denied though, and her bursting onto that segregated scene prompts a series of changes that threaten the Velmas of the world.
Cortazzo’s Link Larkin is a teenage heartthrob and dancer on “The Corny Collins Show” who quickly becomes Tracy’s love interest. He starts out as a well-meaning but sheltered kid whose eyes are slowly opened to the unfair treatment many Baltimore residents face on a daily basis.
At this point, Cortazzo has played Link more than 100 times during this “Hairspray” run. He knows that some folks will write “Hairspray” off as a “bubblegum pop of a show” due to its upbeat tunes and brightly colored ’60s trappings. But in his mind, there’s more to both the show and Link than their glossy surfaces.
“I think if you just look at ‘Hairspray,’ the easy thing is that some of the roles can be very two-dimensional,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun to dig deeper and really dive into the arc of Link. He goes from being a puppet of the Von Tussles into finding his voice and place in the world, especially in the ’60s and what that means.”
Original “Hairspray” director Jack O’Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell have been “heavily involved” in this touring production, Cortazzo said. Though the show has been around for two decades now, he thinks there’s still a lot to recommend about this version of “Hairspray.” He shouted out Metcalf, who he feels “really was born to play Tracy.”
“You get the big Broadway production numbers, but there’s also the heart and the message,” Cortazzo said. “I think we’ve done a great job of updating the show and updating some of the lines that weren’t really appropriate. … Also, this cast is not to be missed.”
Also playing an important part in this take on “Hairspray” is Ralph Prentice Daniel, a 2003 Point Park University graduate who’s psyched “just to hit the stomping grounds and rekindle some memories” upon his return to Pittsburgh with “Hairspray.”
Daniel plays Wilbur Turnblad, Tracy’s father and the husband of Edna Turnblad (Andrew Levitt, whose drag name is Nina West). Wilbur runs a joke shop and is generally supportive of his daughter’s dancing. He ends up getting involved in everything going on at “The Corny Collins Show” along with the rest of his family.
Most of the roles Daniel gets offered are villains, so Wilbur “wasn’t always on the radar” as an option for him. After landing the part of Wilbur, though, Daniel grew to admire what a “simple guy” who’s “full of heart” the Turnblad family patriarch is. He loves getting to duet with Levitt on “You’re Timeless to Me,” a vaudevillian duet that tends to melt audience hearts and leave them gasping for air in equal measure.
“They’re a quirky, odd family, but they are a loving family,” he said. “He’s a little out there and just trying to get a laugh, that’s his way of making people feel better. But at the heart of it, he’s all about the love, he cares and he does what he can for his family.”
Like Cortazzo, Daniel appreciates that behind the loud outfits and Broadway glitz, there’s a “a solid message behind this piece.” They both think Pittsburghers will have a blast while also absorbing timely themes of tolerance, peaceful rebellion and the notion that no matter how hard some folks try, no one can stop the beat of progress.
“We could all invest in the heart of this story,” Cortazzo said. “I’m really excited to share this with Pittsburgh.”
Joshua covers pop culture, media and more at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Contact him at jaxelrod@unionprogress.com.