HAIRSPRAY

London Coliseum until September 29 Tickets: 020 7845 9300

Fourteen years since he first played the role, Michael Ball drags up once again as Edna Turnblad, plus-sized mother of similarly endowed Tracy (Lizzie Bea), in the musical of John Waters’ 1988 movie.

Set in Baltimore in the early 60s, it follows young Tracy’s attempts to become a dancer on The Corny Collins Show – the must-see weekly TV show for every teenager in town.

Waters’ great idea was to confront two prejudices simultaneously – racism and body shaming – and show how a young determined girl could overthrow them through sheer force of personality.

The musical is a lively extension of the movie and delivers a cavalcade of pastiche 60s’ songs that echo the sound of the originals but with more subversive lyrics.

Ball is fabulous as Edna, evolving from a dowdy housewife into a glittering grande dame and he is matched in exuberance by Bea as her high-energy daughter Tracy. Les Dennis as Edna’s joke-shop proprietor husband completes the Turnblad trio and turns what might have been a variety act into something that feels enough like a family to evoke genuine emotion.

Standing out among a vivacious and hardworking cast is Marisha Wallace as Motormouth Maybelle, who stops the show with her soul-scorching number I Know Where I’ve Been, while choreographer Jerry Mitchell’s stunning ensemble dance numbers keep the joint jumping. Outrageously entertaining, it has a heart as big as its hairstyles. And that’s saying something.