Show Report

I was never really into theater, it just wasn’t my forte. I never went to any of the school plays, and I certainly never wanted to be a part of them. A few years ago, I saw the hit movie “Hairspray” and absolutely adored it. I loved it because I loved the people in it. There were many famous actors and actresses who took part in this movie. John Travolta played one of the main characters; the only twist is, he played a woman! His character was Edna Turnblad, the hefty, overweight wife of Christopher Walken’s character, Wilber, and the mother of teen age Tracy Turnblad. Tracy was played by debut start Nikki Blonsky. This was her very first performance. Before she became a hot new actress, she was working at a home town ice cream shop, where she was discovered by the producers. Tracy’s secret love obsession, Link Larkin, is played by the sexy and dreamy Zac Effron. Link’s girlfriend Amber Von Tussle, is played by teenage star Brittany Snow. Her mother, the sexy, yet racist Mrs. Velma Von Tussle, is played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Tracy’s best friend Penny is played by the corky Amanda Bynes, and her character’s boyfriend Seaweed is played by actor, Elijah Kelly.
Hairspray is based upon the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Waters, with a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, music by Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman. Hairspray is directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. This musical play has won a tremendous amount of awards. This includes awards from all around the world. Four Oliver Awards, two Critic’s Choice Awards, eight Tony Awards, seven Drama Desks Awards, and a Grammy. The press loves this musical. They have received a great amount of excessive reviews. Many of them have given the Broadway play four stars.
The show first debuted on Broadway in August of 2002, and is still playing. Tickets are very expensive because of the success of the show. The musical opened with $12 million in advance. After the show had won a Tony Award, the Broadway hit was expected to do five times better in business than it normally did. During that year and the year after, the seating capacity was 99%.
I chose this particular musical because it is the one that made me more interested in seeing more musicals. When I first saw the movie “Hairspray,” I didn’t think I would like it, let alone love it. As soon as the first song, “Good Morning Baltimore” came on, I instantly fell in love with the play and I knew I wanted to see it live. All the characters played their parts so well and they had such great chemistry with each other. I really loved how they kept the tradition of a man playing the female role as Edna Turnblad. The story has a really great message too. During the 60s there was so much segregation and racism. Tracy and her friends are pushing towards the future and trying to break the terrible cycle. She fights a lot of people on the way, but in the end, she gets the two things that she wants more than anything: to be a television star and to end the segregation on the television show. One single girl made a huge difference for a lot of people in her town, city, and country.