‘Hairspray’ gives new lift to live musical
Great songs and strong cast give 1960s set plenty of luster
Stop this beat? Buttercup, you can’t even slow it down.
Set in the ’ 60s, written for the big screen by John Waters in the ’80s, turned into a Tony-winning Broadway musical in 2002 and a hit movie musical in 2007,
Hairspray returned as a live TV event Wednesday ( eeeg out of four) in all its toetapping, hand-clapping, crossdressing, beehived glory. Brimming with great songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, opened up and spread out by directors Alex Rudzinski and Kenny Leon, this latest live NBC musical from Craig Zadan and Neil Meron was their best, most entertaining work yet.
But Zadan and Meron’s latest effort was more than just exuberant fun. With a message about accepting ourselves and each other while celebrating and embracing our diversity, this Hairspray felt more relevant.
In an evening filled with things to celebrate, let’s start with two. For those who love star-is-born stories, there was the joy in watching newcomer Maddie Baillio, who won the role in an open audition, light up the night as Tracy Turnblad.
And for traditionalists, there was the intense pleasure of seeing Harvey Fierstein re-create his iconic Broadway performance as Tracy’s mother, Edna. This is not drag or female impersonation; it’s acting of the highest order — a moving, amusing, beautifully wrought transformation that submerges the man in the role.
Those were just two standouts in what may be the strongest cast a TV musical has gathered.
Veterans like Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Hudson, Derek Hough and Martin Short blended perfectly with Ariana Grande, Dove Cameron, Garrett Clayton and Ephraim Sykes — with each having a moment to shine. Taking a cue from Fox’s Grease
Live!, which Rudzinski directed, NBC spread this production around the Universal backlot, throwing an audience into the mix. Unfortunately, that mix also included Darren Criss’ overly enthusiastic, momentum-stopping interruptions, Hairspray’s one inexplicably bad decision.
The cleverly told story that goes dancing by centers on Tracy, whose first goal is to star on The
Corny Collins Show and win Link Larkin (Clayton) away from Amber (Cameron). But that goal morphs into something bigger when she and her friend Penny (Grande) meet Seaweed and his mother, Motormouth Maybelle (Sykes and Hudson). Now morally awake, Tracy becomes determined to integrate the show, though she’ll have to get around Amber’s mother Velma (Chenoweth) to do so.
What keeps the story moving is a series of great numbers, all energetically choreographed. It’s a Broadway hit parade, from Wel
come to the ’60s — brightened by cameos from the two original Tracys, Ricki Lake and Marissa Jaret Winokur — through an expanded Run and Tell That, which became a star-making turn for Sykes, and on to Hudson tearing her way through the civil rights anthem I Know Where I’ve Been. And it all climaxes with one of Broadway’s — and now TV’s — biggest and best finales, You Can’t Stop the Beat.
And when it comes to live musicals, this one may be hard to beat.