Good morning, Baltimore! It’s 1962 in a segregated state where teens of all races gyrate to the songs on WJZ-TV’s “Buddy Deane Show.” Except for their big hair, chubby girls and matronly mothers like Tracy and Edna Turnblad are out of the mainstream. But when Tracy wins a spot on the show and sets the wheels rolling to integrate it, even Edna bounces to the beat. Ushered into the spotlight more than two decades later by the pen of John Waters, the musical “Hairspray” became the toast of two Hollywood films, a Broadway smash replete with major awards and nonstop tours worldwide. This week, “Hairspray” dances into Signature Theatre starring erudite national radio host Robert Aubry Davis as Edna.

The explanation Davis gives for channeling Edna Turnblad begins in Canada with Eric Schaeffer, Signature’s artistic director and erstwhile art director at WETA-TV where Davis hosts “Around Town.”