Hairspray 11/10/07 - First Preview
(I'm really not in the right mood to be writing reviews...)
Well, spectacular show! I'd been purposefully avoiding it before seeing this production, so it was all new and fresh to me. Nevertheless, I think anyone who has seen it on Broadway will find the production familiar. Lovely sets, quite traditional trucks and flats with forced perspective buildings. LOTS of glitter and shininess! not knowing the plot before seeing this first preview, I think I followed pretty well.
Baltimore, 1962. Tracy Turnblad, a talented but plump girl, desperately wants to dance on TV, and is hopelessly in love with Link Larkin. She auditions and is laughed off by the other girls, but she befriends Seaweed, a black boy (horror! Integration???) who teaches her his dance moves. She wows the TV presenter with her freshness and talent, and he takes her on to his show. And there she actually MEETS Link Larkin, who is fascinated by her, to the displeasure of his waspish girlfriend Amber von Tussle. She achieves her personal dream quite early on in the show, but then tries to achieve her wider dream, of integration between the black and white communities. She organises a protest, which backfires when everyone gets arrested. End of act 1.
Act 2 starts with all the girls in jail, including Tracy, Seaweed, and amber's mothers. Tracy's father posts bail for everyone, having re-mortgaged his joke shop. However, as the instigator of the protect, Tracy is not freed. Tracy is up against Amber in a competition, so she has to get to the TV studio despite being a fugitive. And she's still trying to get her black friends to dance with her. Of course, it all ends happily, with much singing and dancing and glitter and acceptance and self confidence building and happiness.
Hairspray is a happy, shiny, funny, upbeat, FUN show! That's not to say there isn't meaning to it, political and social prejudices exposed and criticised, but it's done in a way that is totally enjoyable. It's not *just* fun. It's quite possible to do both, and Hairspray does.
This was the first preview, and we had a couple of technical issues with set movement, trucks getting stuck in the wings and techies trying to stay offstage... but the audience was very forgiving and happy to work with the production. All the performances were already top notch... if there is indeed a lot more to be done, this show is going to end up absolutely fabulous!
It was absolutely lovely to see Adie onstage again, as Seaweed he gets a pretty decent amount of stage time and he's essential to the plot, lots of time to shine, and shine he does! We caught up with him afterwards too, horrified some other fans by bounding up going "Can I have your autograph???" and Mazz did her "OMGyouwereamazingiloveyouwhiconewere you?" But he laughed and gave us a hug..... Rest of the cast are stunning, as you'd expect. Michael Ball is utterly convinging in drag... the audience seemed to be about 50% Ballettes, so it was VERY noisy every time he did anything. he was completely unrecognisable tho, and just created a fantastic character. I've never really appreciated what a good actor he really is before! Leanne Jones as Tracy is a STAR! she's totally adorable! Great dancer too, and not a Mabel - she's a big girl, not a skinny dancer in dungarees and stripes. Rachael Wooding as Amber plays it as Galinda (with a *guh*), unredeemed... the bitchy popular girl whose mother gets her everything... she can't cope with losing her boyfriend to a FAT girl!!! The whole cast are top notch -one slight problem with Motormouth Maybelle getting lost vocally, but there were a few sound balance issues to be sorted out.
So yes. In conclusion. It's a really, really fun show. It's worth booking to see. GO SEE IT!!!
This might just be the show to break the Curse of the Shaftesbury!