SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 14, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — “Hairspray the Musical,” a 2002 stage production based on a 1988 film set in 1962, offers song, non-stop dance, and messages still relevant today.
Opportunities should be open to everyone, even plus-sized teens with dancing dreams and Black teens whose inclusion is limited not by their talent, but because of the color of their skin.
That’s how the system was set up on Baltimore’s “Corny Collins Show,” a local “American Bandstand” type dance show based on the memories and imagination of filmmaker and Baltimore native John Waters, who grew up the era of open and obvious racial segregation.
The story follows 16-year-old Tracy Turnblad, who races home after school each afternoon to catch the “Corny Collins Show,” which is cast with White teenage boys and girls, the later coiffed to the nines high hair, combed and teased to the max, then “shellacked” into place with the heavy-handed use of hairspray.
Tracy has the requisite hairstyle and the dance moves, but also a little more weight on her than all of the “hair hoppers” in the “Corny Collins” cast.
But once Tracy gets a foot in the door, she will find local fame, open that door for others previously barred, inspire her new boyfriend to be a better person, and motivate her housewife mother, Edna, (Andrew Levitt, aka drag queen Nina West from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 11), to chase a dream.
Nikki Metcalf is perfect as the irrepressible, big-hearted Tracy, passionate about her goals, and a cheerleader for every nice person she meets, regardless of limits society has assigned them. Nick Cortazzo, as new boyfriend Link Larkin, is also a strong singer and dancer, and able both to make his character strong and vulnerable enough to learn from Tracy as she notices injustices and begins taking small steps to change the world.
One of the strongest dancers in the dance-heavy show is Charlie Bryant III as Seaweed Stubbs, who helps lead the charge for dance equality on the “Corny Collins Show,” rather than just a segregated “Negro Day” once a month. Seaweed falls for Tracy’s best friend, the shy, sheltered and Penny Pingleton, played by Emery Henderson. Both actors create likeable and well rounded characters despite limited time on stage.
But the sweetest couple has to be visually jarring Edna (a role almost always played by a large man) and husband Wilbur Turnblad (actor Ralph Prentice Daniel). The characters are clearly smitten with each other, and are gentle and devoted, even though the amiable Edna (Levitt) is able to call up a hilarious growling baritone when pushed by outsiders past her limit.
The colorful sets and costumes, the lighting, choreography, wigs and hair all help set the mood. For more about the creative team behind the show, click here.
“Hairspray” is a night of fun, light comedy, with nearly non-stop song and dance, lots of early ’60s nostalgia, and inspiring transformations for multiple characters. Opening night left audience members singing and clapping along at the finale, many leaving with a sparkle in their eyes, and at least one person (me) wondering what chances I should probably start taking.
“Hairspray the Musical” runs through Sunday, with shows at 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Eccles Theater, at 131 S. Main St. Click here for more theater and ticket information.
