Lead actress's hair takes a fall for dual role in 'Victor Victoria'
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
Cathy Foy Mahi, who is playing the woman-turned-man lead in Diamond Head Theatre's production of "Victor Victoria" last week sacrificed her shoulder-length hair for her art.
Greg Howell plays Toddy, whose role in the play is to transform the beautiful Victoria into a cross-dressing count. In real life, Howell has been a hair and makeup professional for 25 years. So, naturally, it was he who wielded the shears when it came time for Foy to take on a new look in preparation for the role.
Singer/actress Cathy Foy Mahi as the long-haired Victoria Grant in the play, and transformed into Victor, below.
As her long, thick locks tumbled to the floor, Foy murmured quietly, "Change is good."
"Victor Victoria," which opens May 18, has a plot with plenty of twists and turns. Set in the 1930s, it's about a desperate, out-of-work soprano named Victoria Grant who is convinced to assume the identity of Count Victor Grazinsky, Europe's greatest female impersonator. Hilarious complications ensue.
Foy recalled that she last had short hair some years ago when she appeared in "Song of Singapore" in New York. But, she said, "It's never been this short."
Becoming Victor/Victoria, Foy said, "I'm learning a whole new way of doing things. . . like leading when dancing and putting on a tuxedo pants-first." She's training herself to use masculine gestures and to adopt a different gait.
Director and choreographer John Rampage said this musical role, popularized by Julie Andrews in the movie and on Broadway, is "extremely challenging, physically and mentally. There are changes Cathy must make in milliseconds, as she transforms herself back and from woman to man and back again."
