Hairspray’s Nikki Blonsky Dishes About Her Guest Spot on Smash and Working for the 'Evil Side'

Tracy Turnblad’s going from Baltimore to Broadway! Hairspray movie star Nikki Blonsky begins a two-part guest spot on the March 5 episode of Smash, and Broadway.com caught up with the darling diva to chat about her upcoming appearance on that musical soap everyone’s talking about.

“Just as a regular person who tunes into the show, I love the fact that it shows what New Yorkers and people who go on auditions go through,” says Blonsky, who will play a character named Margo, the assistant to meanie mega-producer Jerry (Michael Cristofer). “She’s extremely driven and wants to please everybody, but I’d say her best quality is probably also her worst quality.”

Even though she’s working for what she calls “the evil side” (i.e. Jerry the saboteur), Blonsky insists that her character is decidedly different from Smash’s other producing assistant. “She’s definitely not like Ellis at all,” she says with a laugh. “Even though she is on Jerry’s side, she’s got a really big heart and just wants to do good.” (Sounds like you're in the wrong industry, Margo!)

Undoubtedly, the highlight of her Smash visit was reuniting with Hairspray producers Neil Zadan and Craig Meron (the duo behind the whole musical machine that is Smash) as well as composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and “the great Anjelica Huston.”

So has Smash given Blonsky the Broadway bug? “I’m dying to do Broadway. I have the itch to do it and I think now is the time,” she says, adding that her dream roles would be in the recently closed Mary Poppins or, eventually, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. “I think you can definitely have more than one dream role!”