Hairspray Book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. This funny and entertaining musical will leave all who attend the theater production feeling invigorated by the energy that exudes from the stage.
This 1960’s era musical is based on the 1988 John Water’s movie and it is not a usual journey to take a movie and springboard a full-blown Broadway musical from it. The expressionistic journey usually takes a stage production and tries to transform it to fit the lens of the movie camera. Yet, this creative translation works and works well in both venues. I should say, I am bias seeing both the movie (actually both movies the new 2007 version and the 1988 version) and the stage production-the stage show is better than what fits through the lens of the movie camera.
The original Broadway cast of Hairspray, including its Tony-winning stars Marissa Jaret Winokur (Tracy) and Harvey Fierstein (Edna), has long been replaced by other actors and traveling road productions change cast members continually, but the show never loses its vitality. This is a show with a big infectious heart that takes on one of America’s biggest problems, racism.
The story tackles issues that were pervasive in the 1960’s and are still with us today even though in more subtle ways: prejudice about weight, race, the clothes you wear, the part of town you are from and big hair are still with us daily. This warm melodious musical makes the viewer think, while enjoying the highly entertaining dance numbers and odd giddy innocence of Tracy and her mother Edna’s approach to life.
Everyone will enjoy this stage production be it a road show or Broadway theater extravaganza. I like what one reviewer in Ottawa said of the touring production that appeared there:
“..Hairspray earns our applause with a smart script, a ton of talent and a perverse desire to bring an audience to its knees before it brings them to their feet.” Denis Armstrong -Sun Times
The present Broadway production is a high energy delight, but not quite as exciting as the original cast. Who can really ever replace Harvey Fierstein in any role he signatures? No, one. So you take what you get and enjoy the overall spirit of the show that manifests through each player and each song in the show. After all this musical won 8 Tony Awards in 2003, has been running on Broadway for 5 years straight and is now playing around the world! They must be doing something right and entertaining or people would not continue to buy out the shows.
If you are going to New York anytime soon, get your tickets to this show playing at the Neil Simon Theater. It is well worth the $60 -$200 tickets.