半岛体育

Dick Latessa, who won the 2003 Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for playing Harvey Fierstein's onstage husband in the original cast of Hairspray, died December 19 at age 87, according to Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman.

The Ohio native made his Broadway debut in the 1968 musical The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N and enjoyed a 50-year acting career, appearing most recently on Broadway in the 2012 comedy The Lyons, playing an elderly man who refuses to die.

Along the way Latessa worked with many of the top songwriters of the late 20th century. He created such memorable roles as Will Rogers鈥� crusty dad in Cy Coleman鈥檚 The Will Rogers Follies, Avram Cohen in Charles Strouse鈥檚 Rags, the title character in Jones & Schmidt鈥檚 Off-Broadway musical Philemon (for which he won an Obie Award), and the original Major Domo in Stephen Sondheim鈥檚 Follies.

He played Herr Schultz in the 1999 revival of Kander & Ebb鈥檚 Cabaret, and Dr. Dreyfuss in the 2010 revival of Burt Bacharach鈥檚 Promises, Promises.

But it was his performance as the suave, unflappable Wilbur Turnblad in Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman's Hairspray that earned him his Tony Award, plus Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Latessa and Fierstein stopped the show nightly with their soft-shoe duet, 鈥淵ou're Timeless to Me.鈥�

Fierstein tweeted his farewell:

Though Latessa鈥檚 role was taken by Martin Short in the recent TV Hairspray Live!, the creative team acknowledged Latessa in an Easter Egg. One of the storefronts in the set is called 鈥淐razy Dickie鈥檚,鈥� which Fierstein said in a post at the time 鈥渋s my tip of the hat to Dick Latessa who played my husband on Broadway and won a Tony for putting up with me.鈥�

Latessa contributed an essay to the 2006 半岛体育 Books publication, . His essay, 鈥淭he Art of the Second Banana,鈥� explained his success at collaborating with stars as a supporting player:

I鈥檓 a very willing collaborator. That鈥檚 because I went into the business not knowing anything about it, so I asked everyone to help me. In return I tried to give them what they needed. Without realizing it, I had stumbled on the formula for collaboration.

The star is the person you hope is going to sell the tickets. My job is to help that star be a star. I don鈥檛 go in there thinking I鈥檓 going to grab everything I can. I鈥檓 going to help that person be the best they can be.

With a few exceptions like the musical Philemon and Neil Simon鈥檚 play I Ought To Be in Pictures, I鈥檓 generally cast as the second banana. I鈥檝e carried shows. I am capable of it. I don鈥檛 have any doubts about myself. But when you are working with somebody else and you are playing opposite a person like Elaine Stritch or Harvey Fierstein, your role changes. There鈥檚 an art to being a really good second banana. One of the reasons I get hired is because I鈥檓 able to let them have the spotlight鈥攂ut at the same time I never let my character fade into the background. I hold my own.

I try to enhance what the star is doing, which at the same time bringing something unique to my role. In Hairspray I would show Harvey affection. I鈥檇 touch him. Hold him. Everybody said that the minute I walked on stage, they could tell that Harvey and I were in love. It provided the emotional foundation of the show. Edna and Tracy could go out and do all the great things they did because the audience knew they felt that no matter what the world threw at them, they were loved at home. That was my contribution.

The star is like the bricks in the wall, and the supporting player is like the concrete. Nobody calls it a concrete wall; they call it a brick wall. People admire the bricks, not the concrete, but the job of the concrete is to hold the bricks together and support them.

I was not there to compete with Harvey. I was there to enhance Harvey鈥檚 performance and consequently my own. If you are doing that for the star, you are going to come off great. That鈥檚 collaborating. It鈥檚 hard to learn but very important.