‘ Hairspray Live!’ a timely balm for divisive times
The bold, beloved musical is going live, bigger and brighter than ever, and just in time: ‘ Boy do we need this show now’
BURBANK, CALIF. Beware the lemon and apple shooters. Harvey Fierstein eyes an aide making the rounds with a tray of Hollywood- approved immune- system boosters on the set of Hairspray Live! ( Dec. 7, 8 ET/ PT). “What does it do to you? Does it make me irresistible?” he demands, accepting a tiny paper cup. With a throaty “Cheers!” the Broadway legend tosses the stinging ginger- root concoction back, hops out of a golf cart and strides into a fake brick alleyway. Fierstein reprises the role he played in the Broadway production of Hairspray as hand- wringing mother Edna Turnblad for NBC’s latest live musical, which tells the story of a plump teenager named Tracy ( played by newcomer Maddie Baillio), who tries to land a coveted spot on a teen dance show. After becoming a local celebrity, Tracy campaigns to end segregation on the heavily white program. The throwback, color- saturated musical arrives as a timely balm after a divisive election that incited hate speech, misogyny and harassment across the country. “I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and said, ‘ Boy do we need this show now,’ ” says co- executive producer Neil Meron. Set in 1962, Hairspray marks NBC’s fourth live musical since 2013, after The Sound of Music, Peter Pan and The Wiz. ( Bye Bye Birdie is in the works for next year.)
“It’s become more like a well- oiled machine,” says Meron, who with collaborator Craig Zadan was behind the earlier musicals. “We’ve taken what we learned from the first one and kept refining it and refining it.”
That means this time they’re going bigger, adding 500 audience members and moving the production from New York to Universal’s Hollywood back lot. About 40% of the show will be outdoors, adding a cinematic feel.
Producers are bringing in a bevy of stars with them, including Jennifer Hudson ( as R& B record store owner Motormouth Maybelle), Martin Short ( Tracy’s magic- shop- owning dad, Wilbur Turnblad), Kristin Chenoweth ( competitive show- mom Velma Von Tussle) Derek Hough ( TV show host Corny Collins) and Ariana Grande ( as Tracy’s best friend, Penny Pingleton).
“I’ve never done ( a show) where it’s a one- time deal,” says Chenoweth, a Tony Award winner who predicts her highpressure Hairspray turn will end with a swan dive into bed. “I’m taking an Ambien and going to sleep,” she cracks. “I can’t even say something else because that’s the truth!”
The popular musical, steeped in soft lessons about segregation, body positivity and acceptance, began as a campy 1988 John Waters film, moved to Broadway in 2002 and was made into a glossy feature film in 2007.
But NBC’s version will hew closer to the Broadway show, says Fierstein, who wrote the teleplay and won a Tony for his portrayal of Edna in 2003. ( He also scripted NBC’s The Wiz, along with Broadway hits including Kinky Boots and La Cage aux Folles.) Fierstein was not asked to be part of
the Hollywood movie version, a snub that “hurt a little bit,” he concedes. ( The role went to John Travolta.) But Fierstein would later bring Hairspray to Las Vegas and L. A.’ s Hollywood Bowl, and when NBC’s version got the green light, he was asked to return to the iconic role.
“I thought, ‘ Do I really want to do it?’ ” he says. But he remembered the adage he teaches his troupe of young assistants ( who sit nearby and help out with social media): “Life is only as exciting as the number of times you say yes. ... When you say no, nothing changes. And so I said, ‘ Oh ( to hell with it), yes.’ So here I am.”
For the lead role of Tracy, producers found an unknown in Baillio, a college student who auditioned on a whim after seeing an ad on Facebook. “I woke up at 3 in the morning of the audition not knowing for sure if I was going to go or not, because I was so nervous,” she says.
On a rehearsal day in mid- November, the 20- year- old runs through a scene in which Tracy is busted out of jail by local dreamboat Link Larkin ( Garrett Clayton), a blond, blue- eyed Zac Efron lookalike ( Efron played Link in the film version).
“I’ve gotten that ( comparison) since I started on the Disney Channel,” says Clayton, who launched his career with the Mouse House’s Teen Beach movies.
As musical director Lon Hoyt sits behind a keyboard on the fake city street and plays them into Without Love, Clayton throws himself against Tracy’s cell. “It’s me!” he calls out. “Tracy, I want to kiss you!” Camera operators trace his path, mimicking the movement of NBC’s live cameras.
On a break, Grande, in a green sweater, high- rise denim shorts and white sneakers, sits cross- legged on the pavement checking her phone. Then she hops up, singing softly while fetching bottles of water for her co- stars.
It’s a gesture not lost on Baillio. “Five minutes ago, she just walked up to me and said, “Hey Maddie, I got you a water bottle just in case you’re thirsty,’ ” says the Hollywood newcomer. “Like, are you kidding me? You got me a water bottle right now?”
But no matter how much they practice their ’ 60s swing, they know that the fun of live, televised theater is in the inevitable show- day hiccups.
“I think that’s exactly why audiences tune in while it’s happening — because they are experiencing it as we’re experi-
encing it,” says Meron, whose iPhone holds test video of Hudson, dressed in a spangled yellow jumpsuit and bouffant, blowing the roof off You Can’t Stop the Beat.
Day of show is always nerve- wracking. Take the afternoon before Peter Pan’s broadcast, which starred Allison Williams, when the crew was still trying to nail down special effects.
“The first time the flying worked was the performance,” Meron says. “On The
Wiz, ( it was), ‘ Is Shanice ( Williams) going to hit that last note on Home?’ She knocked it out of the park, but we were still on the edge of our seats, because the whole summation of that show is when she sings that note.”
Hairspray has made for a rigorous lead- up, with most actors arriving on set with the music, choreography, camera blocking and script handed to them in one fell swoop.
“The speed has been the most challenging, just making sure to keep up and stay healthy,” Clayton says.
Dusk sets in on the lot, and bright stadium lights pop on.
Ephraim Sykes, who plays Penny’s love interest Seaweed J. Stubbs, practices lifting Grande out of a third- story window and scampering down the steep fire- escape stairs with her in hand as a troupe of dancers twirl below.
On show day, they’ll shuttle from sound stages to outdoor sets during commercial breaks while Darren Criss reveals behind- the- scenes action on Facebook Live.
“It’s not your regular theater ( setup) where you have a stage. We’re all over the place,” says Sykes, who last appeared on Broadway in Hamilton.
“On top of the fact that I walk in the first day and that’s going to be my girlfriend right there,” he says, pointing to Grande with a grin. “And Jennifer Hudson is going to be my mom. So that’s the other monster I’m having to look at and not be afraid of.”
The mood today is Footloose- style fun. Dancers stretch and double- dutch on breaks; Grande squeals during a lift that reveals too much under her microshorts ( she quickly ties a flannel shirt around her waist).
But stars stress that the arts provide solace in troubled times. “This election has shown us how diverse and separate we are. I’m looking for a way to bring us together,” Chenoweth says.
Fierstein is agitated: “This whole idea of this ‘ attack on political correctness’ really ( ticks) me off,” he says.
“Because to me, political correctness means before I shoot off my big mouth I’m going to think about how it might affect you. I’m going to think for one second before I just talk like I own the Earth. And maybe you have a different feeling than I do.”
But Hairspray, he says, is gentle fun; a show that delivers its message of unity wrapped inside a Technicolor songfest.
“I did a thousand performances on stage,” Fierstein says. “I know what happened to that audience; I know how that audience flew out of the theater on a high. That’s my goal: To try to get you at home to feel that way.”
“Life is only as exciting as the number of times you say yes. When you say no, nothing changes. ... So here I am.” Harvey Fierstein on returning as Edna Turnblad