At a performance in New Haven, Amy Toporek steps out as Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray
June 24, 2008
Amy Toporek of Edison has hit the big time, landing the lead role in a popular musical show. Just over a month ago, the 23-year-old was tapped to play the vulnerable and spunky Tracy Turnblad in the national touring company of the smash musical Hairspray.
Amy and her sister, Rachel, have grown up immersed in Jewish community activities. Their mother, Vivian, is a volunteer involved in a wide range of activities, including past president of the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey. Their father, Jacob, was one of the founders in 1982 of the NJ State Association of Jewish Federations and is now its executive director. The family has belonged to Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains and Temple Beth O’r/Beth Torah in Clark.
The sisters have also grown up on a hearty diet of show biz. “My parents were always saying, “Yeah, let’s go to a Broadway show,” Amy Toporek said, speaking by phone from the family’s Edison home during a brief hiatus from touring.
As her mother tells it, her daughter’s big break has been wonderfully exciting but not a shock. The family has always been enthusiastically supportive of her talent and pretty sure she would make it. She herself was much less certain.
Graduating from Rider University in Lawrenceville in 2006 with a major in communications and a minor in theater, Toporek thought about becoming a casting agent. In her MySpace profile she says, “I have a disease known as Broadway Tourettes; I’m pretty much a walking show tunes library.” Matching others with the right role seemed like a safer route than putting herself out there.
“I always wanted to sing,” she said, “but I didn’t know if I wanted to take everything that comes with it.”
‘Like a dream’
But then she decided that if she didn’t give it a try, she would regret it. This past year, while working at an after-school program, she tried out for every role she could, going to one audition after another, and came near to landing a part in another hit show. “I just knew this was what I wanted. I decided to do everything in my power to make it happen,” she said. She was called back 12 times to audition for the Hairspray role.
And then, in the last week in April, the call came. The actress playing Tracy in the national company had broken her ankle. Toporek met with the casting director and director the next morning, and rehearsals began the day after. A week later she had her first performance, in Toronto.
The company went from there to a theater in Utica, NY, and then to New Haven, Conn. They had a three-week break before flying June 9 to San Francisco for a 12-day run of the show. After that, they will be in Dallas, and after that — Shanghai and Beijing. “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing,” Toporek said.
Summer campers at the JCC of Central NJ in Scotch Plains have enjoyed Toporek’s presence for years — both as a counselor and as the bouncy, sock-it-to-me singer with the JCC’s own band, the Shabbatones.
Mike Goldstein, the JCC’s director of family services and codirector of the camp, has played in the Shabbatones himself and knows Toporek well. “When she’s up on the stage, she owns it,” he said.
Amy Toporek of Edison said she loves the grueling but exhilarating experience of playing the lead role in the national touring production of Hairspray.
As grueling as the constant traveling sounds, Toporek said, she loves it. “When I come out the stage door after a show, there are all these people out there cheering. It’s like a dream.” The cast and crew had already checked out videos of her other performances on YouTube and MySpace, and they were warmly welcoming. “They’ve been awesome, and so helpful,” she said.
But being thrown in at the deep end like that has also meant a lot of hard work, especially with the dancing. “I’m not a technical dancer and it’s been really tough,” she said. “I have to build up my stamina. It’s exhilarating but I’m still out of breath by the time I come off stage.”
On the plus side, the exhaustion has made it easy to sleep in all those different hotel rooms, and getting enough sleep is a crucial part of her plan for staying healthy on the road.
A few things were working for her as she took on the role of 16-year-old Tracy. For one thing, she had seen the show six times and was passionate about its whole ’60s ambience. She had also made a point of learning from those 12 auditions, putting into practice all the “notes” she was given. And for all her apparent confidence, Toporek said, she remembers how she felt in high school, craving recognition and inclusion.
Winning this role in one of the most popular shows around has given her confidence a big boost. “It’s like, ‘Wow, I can do it,’” she said. “Who knows what else I can do!”
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