FROM John Travolta to Michael Ball and North-East star Mark Benton, many male performers have brought Edna Turnblad to life in the boundary-testing musical Hairspray. Now we have the Benidorm connection as Tony Maudsley switches the camp comedy of hairdresser Kenneth to don the dress as Edna for another tour of Hairspray to Newcastle Theatre Royal in January.

On the subject of so many well-known stars taking on Edna, Maudsley says: “There was quite a lot of pressure on me to get it right because there are so many good versions out there. My first task was not to get it wrong because I didn’t want to be the first crap Edna.

“I think I wanted to take the role back to its roots and stay away from the panto version and strip it back to the reasons why she was there and not outside her apartment for ten years. I thought about how she’d become frightened of the 20th Century and the pressure to look a certain way.

“I think in 1962 the world was changing really quickly and I wanted to instil into everyone that Edna had shied away for a reason. There were pressures of change on this ageing woman and it was getting bigger because she was getting bigger. Media pressure had gone up, particularly because of all the Hollywood babes and she was expected to be something that she couldn’t live up too. I wanted to take her on a journey with the audience so that they really see her blossom at the end, and learns to love herself again.”

The musical is based on John Waters’ 1988 film and, in turn, generated a 2007 film musical. Music is by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan.

The 2002 Broadway show collected eight Tonys and garnered three Oliviers for a West End run from 2007 until 2010. Touring versions followed of this fascinating tale of overweight teenager Tracy Turnblad (Freya Sutton) from Baltimore, Maryland, unexpectedly winning a place on a TV dance show and causing an uproar by campaigning for integration of all races.

“It’s a really good family show to begin a discussion about racism, acceptance and tolerance in the society we have today,” says Maudsley.

Claire Sweeney sheds her goodie-goodie image to play evil Velma Von Tussle, who hates Tracy, and Peter Duncan has the fascinating role of Edna’s husband Wilbur.

“Claire is my touring sister. We’re both scousers but our paths had never crossed although we’re both from Liverpool. We clicked immediately and sometimes we even share a dressing room. We have such a laugh together and there are a few places on tour where we’re sharing accommodation. I think it’s becoming a mother that’s turned her into a bit of a lioness and I told her, ‘Sometimes you scare me because you’re so vile’,” he says.

Maudsley laughs about being well into the dress, having been touring since August, “and the heels, the stockings, the make-up and the wig. Who’d be a woman, it’s hard work?”

“I do tend to stand there looking a bit big and hairy in my dressing room and a very nice lady called Jen comes and says, ‘You need to shave again’. ‘Again, I shaved this morning’. ‘No, no you’ve got a five o’clock shadow and chest hair peeping through the top of your dress’. It’s a 24-hour job being a woman. Although I did draw the line at shaving my legs because I felt that if Edna hadn’t been outside her apartment for ten years she wouldn’t have shaved her legs. So, I managed to save my leg hair thank God.”

The actor, who has popped up in Harry Potter, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Blandings and Northern Lights, actually turned down the idea of touring in a musical when the offer first came in.

“I last toured in 1997 (The Anniversary with Sheila Hancock) and I said I’d never do it again. In fact, the last time I did a musical was South Pacific 18 years ago. It takes you away from home and it’s a hard life because you’re away from everything and your whole social life becomes the show as well and I felt I was too old to do it. I’d been there and done that apprenticeship. I put the phone down, went away to have a good think and realised that I was being offered the lead in this fantastic musical and I looked at versions of Hairspray on YouTube. Then I remembered I’d actually seen the first version of the show back in 2002 on Broadway and thought, ‘This is going to do you so much good because you’ve done so much television in the past 20 years. Come out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself’. I’m so glad I changed my mind because I’m having such a fantastic time. I realised that a part of me had died off because I’d sold my soul to television,” he says.

“I’d actually have been mad to turn Edna down. There isn’t another role like it. The trouble is I don’t think I’ll be in another show which gets a reaction like it. You go home and your head is the size of a house.”

Maudsley feels that the TV comedy series Benidorm has been so successful because it reminds Brits of warm sunlit holidays in the coldness of January.

“We’re on our ninth series and familiarity helps with our audience. It’s like friends arriving each year. Tim Healy’s character Lesley is my favourite. I adore Tim on that wig looking like Pam Ayres and I think he’s fantastic. The company couldn’t have picked a better Lesley. I’d never been to Benidorm before and on the first day I arrived I thought it was a bit of a concrete jungle and lived outside the place. Now, I live right in the centre of the city and I love it.”

n Hairspray, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Tuesday, January 19 to Saturday, January 30. Box Office: 08448-112121 or theatreroyal.co.uk