Tyler Hanes
Tyler Hanes is currently appearing in the Broadway production of Hairspray in the role of Fender. Tyler appeared in the national tours of Fosse (first national), The Will Rogers Follies.1
Cassidy Clarke (Tyler Hanes, a Broadway actor known for his stint in the revival of A Chorus Line) is a popular college jock who’s in the closet as both a homosexual and a psychic. Seems whenever Cassidy gets unexpectedly excited by another man, he has flashes of his sister (James Katharine Flynn, Orphans) covered in blood and screaming for help.2
More central, but hardly better defined, is the story of her brother, Johnny (Tyler Hanes). A member of the Irish Republican Army under suspicion for bringing about a comrade?s death, Johnny is musicalized mostly in abstract ways (he does not sing) until his responsibility-driven rage explodes into a ballet in the second act.3
If one were to take away the rich language with many one-liners, viewers who saw this performance on November 11, 2007, would not go home dissatisfied. The dancing and acting of Chryssie Whitehead and Tyler Hanes were viscerally and emotionally engaging enough to occasionally raise waves of goose bumps in this viewer.4