Arlington Heights singer, actress in Broadway production of 'Hairspray'

Spring began on a sour note for singer/actress Karen Mason after a fire damaged the New York home she shares with her producer husband Paul Rolnick.

The tune turned sweeter a week later when the Arlington Heights native began rehearsals for Broadway's "Hairspray." Then the tempo quickened. During that same period last month -- just after the fire and just before taking over the role of racist ex-beauty queen Velma in the hit musical based on John Waters' 1988 comedy -- Mason opened her latest cabaret show at Manhattan's Metropolitan Room.

"Being in show business, I asked for intensity and here it is," laughs Mason, who somehow juggled the cabaret shows celebrating the release of her seventh CD, "Right Here, Right Now," with eight Broadway performances.

"I tried to pace myself," she says, "but by the end of the week I was toast."

"Hairspray" marks Mason's fifth Broadway show. Her first, 1982's "Play Me a Country Song," closed the day after it opened. The thrill she gets playing Broadway never fades, she says.

Mason started out doing suburban community theater with the Des Plaines Theatre Guild, Best Off Broadway Players and Music on Theatre before teaming up with the late composer/pianist Brian Lasser to create a popular cabaret act. Together they played Chicago venues such as the Park West, Byfield's and Orphans among others.

"I was very lucky to have somebody who understood what I needed to do and wanted to be part of it," she says of her friend and professional partner who died of complications from AIDS in 1992.

"It was like a great marriage. I never thought of myself as Karen Mason separate from Brian Lasser," she says. "Brian and I had an incredible time. Whether we were rehearsing or on stage, it was always like the best vacation."

After conquering the cabaret scene in Chicago (where she occasionally returns home to perform at Davenports Piano Bar & Cabaret and the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre), she and Lasser headed for New York City.

There she played Carnegie Hall and headlined such renowned cabarets as Rainbow & Stars and the Algonquin Room. She also appeared in the hit shows "Mama Mia," "Sunset Boulevard" and "Jerome Robbins' Broadway."

"There's something very special about your first Broadway show," she says. "As you get older, it's a different kind of excitement.

"There's a whole new group of people to challenge you and for you to challenge. As you get older, you're more aware of what you can bring to the table."

For the next six months, Mason will play villainous Velma Von Tussle, mother to Amber, nemesis of "Hairspray" heroine Tracy Turnblad.

"Velma is tightly wound," laughs Mason, a graduate of the now-closed Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Rolling Meadows.

"What I like about her is that she's an ex-beauty queen and the part of me that was the nerd in high school likes playing the beauty queen."